Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is set to ban the sale and supply of single-use vapes by April 2025 alongside other parts of the UK. Officials from Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales have been collaborating on a proposed UK-wide ban, which will be enacted through separate legislation being brought in ea

The BBC has instructed lawyers to write to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) amid allegations of unlawful surveillance by the PSNI. Former BBC journalist Vincent Kearney believes that the PSNI "may have attempted to identify sources of information" related to an episode of Spotlight focusing o

Northern Ireland solicitor Michael Glover has been handed an 18-month sentence suspended for two years after admitting he defrauded clients to tune of £120,000. Mr Glover, formerly of Carrickfergus firm Glover & King, pleaded guilty to 29 counts of fraud by abuse of his position and one of

Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal has determined that while Northern Ireland's religious education curriculum was conveyed in breach of the “objectivity test” enunciated by the European Court of Human Rights, no breach of Article 2, Protocol 1 ECHR had occurred. Delivering judgmen

Global law firm Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has launched a global 'digital legal delivery' practice, a new multidisciplinary group bringing together its most inventive legal and tech minds. The move builds on the firm's 2011 launch of its alternative legal services (ALT) team, headquartered in Bel

Belfast lawyer Matthew Higgins is to walk the 500-mile Camino de Santiago in aid of WAVE Trauma Centre this weekend. Mr Higgins, a criminal defence lawyer and partner at HHD Solicitors, will set off on Saturday to walk the ancient pilgrimage route in north-west Spain.

The UK's controversial new legacy law has come into force, bringing a premature end to dozens of inquests and investigations related to killings during the Troubles. The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, which the Irish government is challenging in a rare interstate app

Legislation giving homeowners 30 years to bring compensation claims in relation to defective buildings will be brought to the Northern Ireland Assembly shortly. Communities minister Gordon Lyons yesterday confirmed that the Executive had approved the proposed Defective Premises Bill, which will "bri

Personal injury lawyers have expressed disappointment with the outcome of a consultation carried out ahead of a review of Northern Ireland's personal injury discount rate. The Department of Justice recently published its response to a consultation on the parameters for the 2024 review of the rate, w

Northern Ireland's High Court has listed three test cases in relation to the PSNI data breach scandal for hearing on liability only for 26 June 2024. An unprecedented PSNI data breach last year saw the names, roles and other personal details of all serving police officers and civilian staff ina

The UK government operated a "widespread, systematic, and systemic" practice of impunity that protected security forces from sanction during the Troubles, according to a new report. The International Expert Panel on Impunity was convened by the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (NCHR), based at the

The Attorney General for Northern Ireland has ordered new inquests for victims of the McGurk’s Bar massacre, which will likely be prevented from going ahead due to the UK government’s controversial new legacy law. Loyalist paramilitaries bombed the pub on 4 December 1971, killing 15 civi

Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal has quashed a man’s convictions for the murder of four British Army officers and membership of a proscribed organisation following its conclusion that the verdict reached in his 1976 trial was unsafe. Delivering judgment for the Court of Appeal, Lady Ch

The UK government has announced plans to develop an official history of the Troubles, with up to five historians to be granted privileged access to UK state archives. Lord Bew, from a northern unionist background, and Dr Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid, from Cork, have been picked by ministers t

A new report on "state impunity" for human rights violations during the Troubles is to be launched in Dublin next week. The Norwegian Centre for Human Rights at the University of Oslo convened an international expert panel on impunity in response to the announcement of the UK government's controvers