We are pleased to post Dr. Ruth Fletcher’s submission to the Health Committee on the General Scheme of the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill, 2013. Ruth is Senior Lecturer in Law and Director of Centre for Law, Ethics and Society at Keele University. She spoke at the final day of the Committee’s hearings on(…)
The Joint Committee on Health and Children has been holding public hearings on “the Implementation of the Government Decision following the publication of the Expert Group Report into matters relating to A, B, C, vs Ireland”. You can find the Expert Group Report, published in November, here. The transcripts of the public hearings are available(…)
Dr Fergus Ryan is a lecturer in law at the Dublin Institute of Technology. When I first encountered Family Law as a discipline, the burning issue of the day was divorce. Prior to 1995, divorce was constitutionally prohibited. A prominent theme in the family law classes of the time was whether estranged married couples should(…)
The Department of An Taoiseach has published the overly ambitious legislative agenda for the current Dáil and Seanad session. The Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill 2010 will (hopefully!) be heading to Committee Stage this term. The 2010 Immigration Bill has been around in essence since 2006, and will unlikely be coming into force for some(…)
In February of this year a most significant decision was handed down by the Supreme Court in the area of criminal procedure. This decision, Damache v DPP [2012] IESC 11 (discussed here), found that s.29(1) of the Offences Against the State Act 1939, which had been in operation for the past 36 years having been inserted(…)
The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin published today the Thirtieth Amendment of the Constitution (Houses of the Oireachtas Inquiries) Bill 2011. This proposed amendment of the Constitution seeks to broaden the inquiry powers of the Oireachtas. Indeed, it is being reported in the media already as the “constitutional amendment to help investigate(…)
The Centre for Disability Law and Policy recently prepared a submission to the Oireachtas Justice Committee on the Scheme of proposed legislation that will radically overhaul Irish law on legal capacity. The full submission is available here. The core message of the submission was that the fields of mental health law, non-discrimination, and legal capacity(…)
The School of Law at NUI Galway in association with the Mason Hayes + Curran are to hold a conference on executive accountability and parliamentary democracy in Aras Moyola at NUI Galway on 26 March 2011. See here for online registration. This half-day conference marks the 5th Anniversary of the commencement of the LL.M in(…)
The issue of reforming the political system is a live one at present and, as we look forward to a general election and the opportunities that it might bring, it is indeed important to consider the changes that might be made to our political system so as to increase its efficiency, its transparency, and its(…)
