Criminal Justice

Transforming Legal Aid in the UK

We are delighted to welcome this guest post from Lucy Welsh. Lucy is a criminal defence solicitor in Canterbury, England. She is also currently completing her PhD on the issue of legal aid in the criminal justice system and teaches criminal law at the University of Kent.  The system of legal aid in criminal proceedings(…)

All Liars: Thatcher and the Troubles

    ‘I’ve got one thing to say to you, my boy … you can’t trust the Irish, they are all liars … and that’s what you have to remember, so just don’t forget it’. Death cannot constrain the effervescent charm of Margaret Thatcher. Or maybe Peter Mandelson, who revealed this gobbet of bile to(…)

The PSNI and the Loyalist Flag Protests

The PSNI and the Loyalist Flag Protests

The auguries for “Marching Season” in Northern Ireland look bleak. Months of loyalist protests against Belfast City Council’s decision to restrict the flying of the Union Flag are fuelling tensions. Naomi Long, the Alliance MP for East Belfast (who has been at the centre of the storm since her Party backed the current arrangements regarding(…)

Jury questions: A Comment on the Pryce case

We are delighted to welcome this guest post from Dr Jacqueline Horan, a Senior Lecturer at Melbourne Law School and member of the Victorian Bar (academic) whose research focuses on juries.  Dr Horan has recently published a book entitled ‘Juries in the 21st Century’ (Federation Press, 2012). Her blog post here relates to the trial of Vicky(…)

Options on the way forward for human rights in Northern Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland welcomes this guest post from Prof. Brice Dickson and Prof. Colin Harvey , Human Rights Centre, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast. Advice on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, submitted to the Secretary of State by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in 2008, was roundly rejected by the(…)

Critiquing the McAleese Report.

It took a long time to get to the McAleese Report ; the report of an independent inquiry set up in response to UNCAT Recommendations in 2011, investigating the extent of State involvement in the Magdalene Laundries regime. The Report finds that: Sean Aylward and others were entirely wrong to claim that the Magdalene Laundries were(…)

Campbell on Organised Crime

Hart Publishing has just published Organised Crime and the Law and the Law: A Comparative Analysis by Human Rights in Ireland regular contributor Dr Liz Campbell . Further details on the book are below. Readers will be delighted to learn that Hart has offered a 20% discount off the retail price to readers of HR(…)

Sentencing Aged Offenders

On Monday of this week, Patrick O’Brien, Old Court Avenue, Bray, Co. Wicklow, was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment for raping and sexually assaulting his daughter over the course of ten years of her childhood. He can be named here, and in the media, because the victim of his abominable crimes, his own daughter, Fiona(…)

Licence to Thrill? RIPA and Covert Human Intelligence Sources

Last week, in AKJ and others v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis, the English High Court gave judgment in a case considering the behaviour of undercover state agents and the ability of the courts to monitor their acts. The case concerned claims against the police arising from the actions of various Covert Human Intelligence Sources(…)

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