Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin

The two-day event — entitled ‘Replacing the Offences Against the State Acts: The challenge of jury trials for terrorism and organised crime’ — will hear from legal academics and leading barristers from Ireland, the US, Australia and the UK.

It is being hosted by University of Galway’s School of Law in association with Birmingham Law School on 16–17 February 2024.

Organisers include Professor Donncha O’Connell, who was a member of the Independent Review Group on the Offences Against the State Acts chaired by retired Court of Appeal judge Mr Justice Michael Peart, which reported in June 2023.

Professor O’Connell said: “Following on from the work of the review group — which published a majority and minority report but was unanimous in recommending repeal and replacement of the Offences Against the State Acts — this conference aims to explore the options open to Ireland when conducting trials for terrorism and organised crime, bearing in mind the priority attached to the right to trial by jury under the Irish Constitution.

“We hope to draw on the comparative expertise of academics and practitioners and relevant international standards in considering the likely shape of legislation to replace the Offences Against the State Acts at some stage in the future.”

The conference will have a keynote address from Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin MRIA KC, regents professor and Robina chair in law, public policy and society at the University of Minnesota and professor of law at Queen’s University Belfast.

Professor Ní Aoláin, who has just completed her mandate as UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, is a member of the International Commission of Jurists and was made an honorary king’s counsel in recognition of her outstanding work.

The conference will also hear from leading criminal barristers in Ireland and advocates in Scotland — Brendan Grehan SC, Alice Harrison BL and Ronnie Renucci KC — in a session focused on practitioner perspectives chaired by Supreme Court judge, Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley.

Mr Grehan — a graduate of University of Galway — has defended and prosecuted in the Special Criminal Court, most recently acting as defence counsel for Gerard Hutch who was acquitted of murder following the notorious Regency Hotel gun attack in 2016.