The Eagle: Trinity Law Gazette Volume 2 Issue 2

Kindly sponsored by Matheson

John Carton assesses the problematic link between human rights and the nation state Inside this issue

Alternative Careers in Business for Law Students: David Brophy speaks to Peter Marshall and Alannah Irwin about the alternative careers in business for law students and the start-up industry in Ireland

A Year in Paris: Hazel Bergin reflects on her Erasmus year abroad

Antonin Scalia Diarmuid Ă“ hUallachĂĄin examines the legacy of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

Social Section: Eoin Hennessy brings us up to speed on a range of extra-curricular activities that took place this semester

Foreword

Alumni Catch-up: David Brophy

The second year of a student publication can be as difficult, if not more so, than the first. And this year has certainly not been without challenge. Welcome to Volume 2 Issue 2 of The Eagle: Trinity Law Gazette, a student-led publication aiming to provide a platform to promote the philosophy of Trinity Law School and the unique work undertaken by its students.

When we set out our aims at the beginning of the year, we had two overarching ambitions. The first was to firmly establish The Eagle as a permanent feature of life at Trinity. Judging from the record number of editorial board applications, article submissions and interest from other law-related societies, I believe we have succeeded in that endeavour. Our second ambition was to establish a sense of Law School community between graduates and current students via collaboration with the Law School. This year’s interviewees are leaders in their fields and provided invaluable insights into the dynamic nature of the legal profession, having graduated in the ‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s and as recently as 2012.

When selecting articles, we seek to publish theoretically informed critical legal scholarship that analyses the role of the law in our society. As the US presidential election heats up and

the question closer to home remains as to which party will form the next Irish government, the almost exclusively politicallyoriented articles contained in this issue mirror the stories that have been dominating news headlines in recent months. From electoral gender quotas in the Dáil to political policing and the recently dropped FBI Apple litigation, we hope you find it an interesting and enjoyable read.

As the academic year draws to a close, the reins must be passed on. I am delighted to announce that Maeve McDonough will be taking over as Editor-in-Chief for Volume 3 of The Eagle. She will be supported by Deputy Editor-in-Chief Maeve Lowry. I am confident that they will do a fantastic job and build on what The Eagle has achieved to date.

3. The provost wants to introduce mandatory business/ ship classes for all students. Do you think this should be welcomed?

Finally, this publication would never have been possible without the contributions of the editorial board; I thank them for their patience, hard-work and faith in The Eagle. The publication of The Eagle would not have been possible without sponsorship.

In that regard, I must extend sincere gratitude to our title sponsors Matheson for their generosity throughout the year.

Peter Marshall Editor-in-Chief

Editor-in-Chief Peter Marshall

Contents

More importantly however, we’ve got access to the best students, and they come to work on some projects. So basically we’ve got a pretty unlimited supply of really strong tech brains and support, and that, coupled with the senior experienced guys, means that we can go to a start-up and instead of just making the product they want, we actually help them to start the whole business and challenge whether that’s the product that they need. So it’s good fun and it’s going very well.

David Brophy graduated from the Law School in 1981 and is currently the chairman of Zoosh, a venture capital firm and the founder and CEO of DMJB Corporate Consulting. He speaks to Peter Marshall and Alannah Irwin about the alternative careers in business for law students and the startup industry in Ireland.

1. Why did you choose to do a law degree and what did you envision doing upon completing it?

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Editorial Board Liam Roe Daniel McCarron Maeve McDonough Maeve Lowry Eoin Hennessy Roise Ni Mhaonaigh Nina Milosavljevic Alannah Irwin Luke Gibbons

I can’t recall why exactly I chose law. At the time it seemed interesting. I definitely wanted to go to Trinity but I also definitely wanted to study law, so my first two choices were law in Trinity and law in UCD. At the time things were more traditional so I would have assumed that I was going to be either a solicitor or a barrister. At that stage there weren’t as many options for law students. There was no history of law in the family so I didn’t have any pre-set notions but I probably would have been thinking about becoming a barrister.

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Social Editor Eoin Hennessy

2. Tell us about Zoosh.

From College to Work: Clodagh Rochford Interview

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Photographer Kmla Sharma

The Problematic Link Between Human Rights and the Nation State

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All opinions and ideas expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of The Eagle: Trinity Law Gazette.

Antonin Scalia Obituary: Words Never Lie

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Students & Part-time Employment

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Policing Politics

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Erasmus Catch-up

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Social Section

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Alumni Catch-up: David Brophy

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Electoral Gender Quotas: An Irish Solution to an Irish Problem?

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Spotlight and the Catholic Church in Ireland

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Apple v United States [2016]

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Mental Health: Safeguarding Citizens or a Step too Far? Northern Ireland’s Abortion Laws: Lessons from Belfast?

Zoosh is a new venture; it’s very exciting. It’s probably best described as a factory for high-tech start-ups around Europe. The core team are a group of senior experienced executives. A number of them are ex-Nokia from all around Europe. There’s one in Finland, a few in Hungary and a few in Ireland.

We then have a link with the University of Budapest and the applied informatics department there, which is – I didn’t know this until a few years ago, but Hungary is one of the top countries in terms of mathematics and mathematical ability, hence they are very strong on the whole tech and applied informatics area. We have a link-up with the University there where we have the right of first refusal on any ideas coming out of the college.

Yeah I think that the world has changed fundamentally. There are so many opportunities now even without going to college. I mean going to college has a lot of benefits in terms of just growing up and learning, but we need more entrepreneurship as the traditional law profession is being heavily impacted by technology. One of the reasons for getting involved in Zoosh is that the pace of technological change is getting faster and faster, and people fail to appreciate how quick it is. Most new technological advances are then themselves the foundation for another one and another one, so it’s literally cumulative.

So entrepreneurship is absolutely the way to go and I think it helps itself in particular with regard to the law because, the reason why people who study law do well in business is that law teaches you to be analytical and to look at a problem logically.

That’s a generic quality that helps you right through business. So I think it’s good that people who are trained in law are increasingly going into non-traditional law areas and mandatory business/entrepreneurship classes will make that transition smoother.

4. The start-up business and entrepreneurial attitude seems to be a growing trend in Ireland. Having worked with young entrepreneurs, what advice would you give to the next young entrepreneur considering a start-up?

The best advice would be to get some people around you. There isn’t a single entrepreneur who has all the necessary qualities on their own whether it be commercial advice or just experience.

Very often, one of the classic mistakes entrepreneurs starting out make is they fall in love with their own idea. They then make the product, raise the initial money and spend that money making their beloved product with no regard to what the market wants.

There may be no demand for it or the demand is for a variation of it. So get people around you, take a breath and listen to advice. Try to work out what the market really wants because no business is going to be successful unless there’s a market for it.

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5. I noticed Zoosh specialises in new, emerging industries such as m-health (mobile health). The changing nature of healthcare has been featured in law firm’s annual reviews in recent years as the advent of m-health means people are starting to view health as a lifelong continuum rather than one off check-ups. What role do you think lawyers and the law can play in this changing landscape?

the UK, the Irish tax breaks for entrepreneurs and their start-ups are quite poor. The UK are well ahead and in some cases, some start-ups are moving to Northern Ireland to avail of what are much stronger tax subsidised funding opportunities for their business. So for the area of tax support, no the government is not doing enough with regard to tax but generally, Ireland is doing well.

With health, there are a lot of new areas and new issues arising for companies. For example, companies are starting to worry about the health of their employees a lot more. It is partly selfinterest because the healthier you keep them, the more work you get out of them but there is also concern about legal responsibility.

There are a lot of opportunities in Ireland. I was interested to find that while we tend to think of our own organisations as beauracratic, that is not how other countries feel about the Irish business infrastructure. We’re dealing with a venture fund in Hungary at the moment and I was interested to find that their view of enterprise Ireland (EI) is very positive – they think EI is doing a very good job and if EI was willing to invest in a product, that was almost like a form of validation.

7. What do you think is the biggest difference between a law student starting their career now compared to when you graduated? Not that it was that long ago.

Companies need to start thinking that if there is wearable technology, should they be encouraging their employees to use this? Should they facilitate it? But then it’s very soon you start veering into the area of privacy invasion and ownership of data.

For example, is it your employer’s business to know that you’ve been out on the lash the night before till 2am because your monitor is telling them?

The other thing happening in health is the health insurance companies themselves are increasingly getting involved with technology. Long established conservative business units are starting up venture units to help them see how technology can make their business more profitable. They’re increasingly seeking to use technology to stop people from getting sick which costs them money. So for any of your readers in college at the moment, technology is bringing about rapid changes in all industries and creating complex, new legal challenges that need to be addressed by lawyers.

6. Following the bitter argument between the government and the Web Summit over the Web Summit’s departure, do you think the government is doing enough to keep budding start-ups in Ireland?

I think the one area people have been highlighting is that tax breaks aren’t sufficient and certainly if you compare Ireland with

Well it was a good while ago! The biggest difference has to be how, relative to that time, how guaranteed the two traditional routes of becoming a barrister or solicitor were compared to now.

Back when I was doing law and you were going to be a solicitor and went the traditional route of going to one of the big firms, unless you totally messed up or just weren’t able for it, you were guaranteed to have a very successful career and make a lot of money by normal standards.

I know these aren’t cheerful things to be telling you but the traditional routes are simply a lot tougher and unguaranteed now than they were then, which is probably why it’s a good thing there are a lot more opportunities outside those traditional routes now.

Having worked with a lot of corporates, their attitude towards law students has changed drastically. They’d view law graduates, even if they’re not qualified like engineering and business graduates i.e. having generic qualities specific to their course and skills that are useful to them i.e. ability to analyse, think critically and come to a reasoned judgment. If you have those qualities, then you can be a successful businessperson whatever industry it is in. So go out and start businesses!

Electoral Gender Quotas: An Irish Solution to an Irish problem?

Maeve Lowry, JS Law & Political Science

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he Irish state has struggled to achieve proportional gender representation in its lower house since its foundation, a mere 90 female TDs being elected to the Dáil in the first 90 years following independence. Prior to the 1990s however Ireland’s rates of female representation in politics were not particularly unusual in a comparative context. During the 1990s Ireland could even have been outwardly viewed as being ahead of its time as its citizens elected two successive female Presidents, Mary Robinson in 1990 and Mary McAleese in 1997.

President Robinson declared in her acceptance speech that “[t]he Ireland I will be representing is a new Ireland, open, tolerant, inclusive”. Despite her hopes for a liberal and inclusive Ireland no equality in gender representation has materialised in Irish politics since her taking office. In fact while Robinson served as Commander in Chief gender quotas were increasingly becoming a part of the political landscape around the world, increasing the global average of women’s representation from 6.6 percent to 18.3 percent in the last twenty years. Ireland was not one of nearly half of all countries in the world to adopt a gender quota and so was left severely behind in the ranks of female representation, until now.

The 2016 General Election saw the first implementation of an electoral gender quota in Ireland, having been enacted by the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act 2012. The Act stipulated that all political parties must put forward females as 30% of their candidates in the next two general elections after 2011 or be required to forfeit half their Central Exchequer funding, one of the most punitive sanctions for non-compliance with an electoral gender quota in the world. The outcome of the 2016 General Election demonstrated a relative success for the new gender quota as just over 20 percent of all seats were won by female candidates. Why then do so many, myself included, remain sceptical about the future of proportional gender representation in Ireland?

Upon its announcement the 2012 Act immediately became a rather divisive issue in Irish society; polls revealing that 45 percent of the public were opposed to the concept, 41 percent were in favour, while the remainder were undecided. Among politicians the issue was similarly contentious, most notably amongst female politicians who held some of the most vocal voices of opposition and support in their ranks. Labour TD, Joanna Tuffy and Maureen O’Sullivan, an independent, were just two of those opposing, their main concern focusing on the disregard for the meritocracy putting future female politicians under suspicion of inadequacy for the role. These sentiments are commonly cited by critics of gender quotas across the globe.

Criticisms aside there is very little else of the Irish situation that is common to the rest of the world regarding female representation.

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Ireland is presented with none of the common or traditional barriers to gender representation, including socio-economic restrictions such as lack of finance or lack of access to education.

Instead contemporary Ireland is subject to many factors which are deemed to be advantageous to women entering politics; a proportionally representative electoral system which would normally be viewed as improving a female’s chances of being elected, wealth, and high levels of female attainment in professional and educational pursuits. Yet the Dáil has existed for its lifetime as a predominantly patriarchal institution.

Ireland’s problem with gender politics must be seen as unique; the reluctance towards female politicians likely being a product of engrained cultural and societal values derived from the reign of the Catholic Church and a strong conservative tradition, these producing a subconscious view of women as being generally less capable and having a primary duty to their family and home.

Regardless of the unique circumstances of the Irish situation the legislators pushed forward in proposing the use of gender quotas as Ireland’s hard fought modern and egalitarian image came increasingly into question. The legislator’s proposal and subsequent legislation used an electoral gender quota almost identical to the system employed in Argentina, a country highly dissimilar to Ireland in the issues affecting its female representation and requiring its own unique remedy to these issues. The key reasoning proffered by the Irish legislators for the application of this electoral gender quota is the reluctance of political parties to select female candidates. Irish political parties undeniably follow populist policies however and so would their candidate selection not be a direct reflection of the population’s preferences also?

Gender quotas can achieve great things and in some countries are very necessary. Rwanda, for example, has the highest rate of female representation in the world and for good reason, as following the genocide of the Tutsi people in 1994 Rwandans wanted to ensure a similar atrocity would not reoccur by electing a majority female parliament who they believed would be less prone to violence than their male counterparts. The advantages of increased female representation, if there are any to be found in western democracies, can only be reaped where they are well grounded with strong foundations and appropriate consideration of the specific issues and requisite solutions however; these have not occurred in Ireland. Rather Ireland’s motivation for implementing a gender quota came from shallow origins, for the purposes of image, and the consideration undertaken by the legislators is severely lacking, if not lazy. The Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding Act) 2012 provided, at best, a short term solution to Ireland’s deeply engrained cultural perspective with little likelihood of having a noteworthy or significant impact on gender representation in Ireland beyond the most recent General Election.

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Spotlight and the Catholic Church in Ireland

Apple v United States [2016] Pavel Rozman, JS Law

Darragh Casey, SS Law

I 2015 has been described as the best year that the Irish film industry has ever seen. We had several nominations across the board, not to mention a Best Short Film (Live Action) win for Stutterer and a Best Actress win for Brie Larson’s compelling turn in Lenny Abrahamson’s Room. However, despite the unprecedented and deserved Irish success in Hollywood this year, no film is perhaps as relevant to our national interests as Best Picture winner Spotlight.

largely run by religious orders. While the report didn’t focus solely on the abuse suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church, the majority of the damage was at the hands of the Church and its many institutions, which permeated throughout Irish society for so long. The report placed Ireland at the centre of a major international news story that made a number of countries around the world stand up and examine similar situations within their own jurisdictions. The Guardian described the details of the Report as “the stuff of nightmares”, while Time commented on the “culture of secrecy” which allowed such abhorrent behaviour to continue unpunished for far too long.

Spotlight tells the story of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prizewinning coverage of the widespread, unreported child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in the Boston diocese and the If there’s one thing that Spotlight teaches us, it’s that these abusers systemic cover-up by the Church. Amongst all the successful knew that their victims were vulnerable and they could get away films in contention for this year’s coveted awards, no film has with it. There’s one particularly striking scene in the film in which received as much praise for its message a survivor describes feeling ashamed and as Spotlight. The Vatican itself, through admits that the priest was like God to its official radio station, has praised the him and his family, asking how do you film for its “honest” and “compelling” ‘accuse God’ of such heinous crimes? account of the abuse that has allowed The main lesson that can be taken from the Church in the United States to accept Spotlight and, by extension, the Ryan what happened. A Vatican commission a certain cross-section of Irish Report is that children are inherently on sexual abuse even arranged a private vulnerable beings to whom we owe a priests committed similar screening of the film, incidentally led by level of safety and protection crimes knowing that the upper greater Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston. than we expect for ourselves. While it echelons of their organisation shouldn’t take an atrocity of this Inevitably, the tragic message of this film magnitude to make sure that our would shield them from strikes a familiar chord with the Irish children are protected, hopefully we can public. As the film fades to black, a title collectively strive to make sure that this prosecution and justice card displays a list of locations around is never allowed to happen again. the world where similar child abuse scandals have been unearthed – Ireland provides no less than In the aftermath of the report there has been a growing support 9 locations, and one expects that there are many more which to increase the level of protection afforded to children, which were not named. While Irish cinema has dealt with the issue became the catalyst for the Thirty-First Amendment in 2012 before – in particular, 2003’s harrowing Song for a Raggy Boy or (otherwise known as “the Children’s Rights Referendum”). While the recent Brendan Gleeson vehicle Calvary, which dealt with the Amendment primarily focuses on the rights of the child in the aftermath of the Ryan Report – Spotlight is the first major family law proceedings, it contains the first express constitutional recognition of the rights of the child as an independent being. film to draw global attention to this issue. Where Song for a

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Raggy Boy shows the horrors of this abuse in unflinching detail, Spotlight deals with the ‘untouchable’ attitude with which the Church and its representatives approached the issue. This, perhaps, is why the film is so eerily memorable for Irish audiences – a certain cross-section of Irish priests committed similar crimes knowing that the upper echelons of their organisation would shield them from prosecution and justice.

In May 2009, the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, chaired by Mr Justice Seán Ryan, released its long-awaited report detailing the extent of the abuse suffered by Irish children over the previous 70 years at the hands of state institutions which were

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Even though the Amendment may be the starting point for a shift in how we view children from a legal point of view, it may not be enough. Films such as Spotlight seek to generate the cultural momentum needed to radically change the way in which we treat children, and the exploitative behaviour of those who got away with the horrible abuse documented in the film. As Michael Sugar, the co-producer of the film, said in his acceptance speech: “this film [gives] a voice to survivors. And this Oscar amplifies that voice, which we hope will become a choir that will resonate all the way to the Vatican…it’s time to protect the children and to restore the faith.”

n a prank many teenagers have pulled, we take our friend’s phone and purposely enter the wrong passcode. After ten attempts you are locked out for a minute. Guess incorrectly another ten times and you are penalised as the OS realises that you are trying to break into a phone you do not know the code to, and it erases itself as a form of protection. In previous weeks a much more serious version of this has occurred, and it is not a prank. The FBI is trying to access the iPhone 5C of dead terrorist Syed Farook, who along with his wife murdered fourteen people including themselves in San Bernardino, California. Instead of locking themselves out of the phone they have insisted Apple write a version of iOS, the phone’s software that excludes this protection, thus allowing them an infinite number of guesses. This hacking technique is known as brute force and, as the name implies, it uses the persistence of guessing every combination of (in this case six digit) password to enter a device.

The core of the FBI’s case is in the All Writs Act of 1789. The All Writs Act is written in broad language and allows the invoker, here the FBI, to ask the courts to make orders in any lacunas of the law.

Where Congress has yet to legislate or has intentionally omitted legislating on, the court has the power to fill this order. The FBI relying on a vague Act from 1789 to justify their case is troubling.

Presuming this Act is Constitutional, it allows one single unelected person to create laws with next to no scope on any area Congress has not legislated on, even if Congress specifically chose not to legislate on that area. There is somewhat of a qualification in the text which for the meanwhile has been largely unexplored in the media reports of this case. The final clause of the All Writs Act purports that any use must be “agreeable to the usages and principles of law.” I hardly find that one unelected person, forcing a multinational corporation to assist the FBI in breaching a citizens’ privacy is an acceptable use of the Act and within the scope of the principles of law. The heavy reliance on such an anachronistic piece of legislation reminds me of a quote from the late Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. who said “apart from the problematic nature of the sources, our distance of two centuries cannot but work as a prism refracting all we perceive”.

One cannot help but speculate that the chorus of lamentations calling for interpretation faithful to “original intention” and proposing nullification of interpretations that fail this quick litmus test must inevitably come from persons who have no familiarity with the historical record. I believe that Brennan J is absolutely correct in saying distance forces speculation and that such nuanced acts which may have been appropriate for the time, have to be considered in context. Our interpretation must be held to account as we might not be seeing the truth of the Act but just its appearance as refracted in a so called prism.

What concerned me was that using this broad law, the FBI is ordering a company – a private business started by a free citizen, to purposefully breach its own security which is used on nearly a billion devices globally, so that the FBI, can surveil the

private physical and intellectual property of an individual. I wonder how anyone who supports the ideals of privacy and free enterprise in the United States also supports the FBI as they pressure a court to compel Apple to affirmatively assist in accessing information in a private citizens’ phone.

Purchasers of products should be able to rely on the inherent safety of these products from government intrusion. A noteworthy factor which may complicate this case is that the phone is owned by the local government and was issued to Farook. Tsarnaev was given a trial in Boston, because despite any prejudicial judgments, he as an American has a right to a fair trial despite being a mass murderer. Does Farook not have the right to privacy despite being a terrorist? I have to wonder how the “Live Free or Die” Republicans who loath government intrusion are comfortable with this.

When President Obama and the EPA force GM to make their cars comply with emission regulations, right wing America gets upset because the government is too big and exercising too much power and independent companies should not be controlled by big government. Where are those right wingers to save Apple while big government is mandating they break into their own phone? Or perhaps when you use the word terrorism the right simply cannot be expected to uphold their own views in favour of hunting any and all trace of jihad. The circumstances are clear: companies ought not to be made to break into their customers’ property. In a similar situation, would an architectural firm, or a security contractor be asked to break into a bank if it the FBI is ordering was found that the bank was a company – a laundering money? Certainly private business not. Further, as a multinational company Apple has foreign started by a free jurisdictions to consider. If this citizen, to were China, Russia, or Iran trying to force Apple to hack an purposefully breach Iranian citizen’s phone for their its own security own reasons, would anyone in which is used on the United States still support it? nearly a billion Surely many self-professed patriots would take issue with a devices globally foreign adversary doing this, but see no issue when it is the United States Government. This case is going to set the most important legal precedent for the next decade. I support and would hope others support Apple’s stance, in contrast to what I consider an incredibly dangerous support of what is surely an illegal and overreaching government that would establish a very invasive precedent going forward affecting the devices and privacy we all have.

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Mental Health: Safeguarding Citizens or a Step Too Far? Michelle Brennan, SS Law

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or many years psychiatric disorders remained a taboo subject in Ireland, much like the future social pariahs that would follow i.e divorce, or same sex marriage. The very mention of mental health issues created an immediate sense of controversy and contempt.

Empirical evidence such as the 1958 report on St Luke’s hospital Clonmel wherein patients were kept on tranquillisers suggests that as a nation, we lacked the innovation, tact and eloquence to discuss or deal with mental health issues. It was a penumbra, an area where there was no legitimate want or need to better understand and investigate persons with mental health disorders. Rather, in place were brutal solutions of the 1920s and 30s which involved lobotomies or Insulin therapy comas.

Even in the 1940s acts such as the Dangerous Lunatics and Dangerous Idiots Acts – were relied upon in Ireland and were frequently used to address people with mental health issues.

Yet notwithstanding the barbaric and draconian past practices and attitudes of our State, it is fortunate that, in recent years Irish societal views have changed and progressed considerably.

Eating disorders are a facet of mental health and are particularly prevalent among young women at University level. However they can affect both genders at all stages of life. They are a group of disorders with the highest mortality rate of all psychiatric disorders and currently over 70 million people worldwide struggle with eating disorders.

Last year following the example of countries such as Spain and Israel, France introduced a Bill which placed a ban on “ultrathin” (under-weight) models. This ban prevented underweight models from being employed or entering runway fashions shows. The Bill which was eventually brought into law also detailed large fines and prison-sentences on those fashion houses that employed underweight models. The cogency of the Bill was supported by a strict system wherein medical professionals assess both BMI and overall health of the model.

Furthermore, this new law states that any commercial photographs that have been altered by digital programmes i.e. photoshop will need to include a disclosure stating such alterations have been made.

In 2006 the government proposed a substantive mission via the Mental Health Reform committee. They established a project entitled “A vision for Change”. The project aimed to create greater awareness and resources for those suffering with mental health issues. It became a beacon of hope, an advocate on behalf of those suffering and provided insight into the area of health that had been for so long neglected and swept under the carpet.

For example, “eating disorders” is an umbrella term that contributes largely to the overall mental health spectrum.

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The law is clear, succinct and takes the necessary steps to tackle an issue which affects millions of people in France. In comparison there is no legislation in Irish modelling standards but can we afford to so complacent on the matter?

high percentage of those suffering spend their lives receiving care from the health sector. Creating a preventative solution could potentially see a reduction in the number of People suffering mental health issues thereby reducing pressure on the health system.

According to the survey carried out by the A Vision for Change group it is estimated that over 200,000 people in Ireland suffer from eating disorders. Furthermore, a most recent study carried out by the Health Research Board (Activities of Irish Hospitals and Psychiatric Units 2014) published November 2015 stated that 93% of those suffering are females which is an increase of 1% on 2013 statistics. Anorexia is a mental health issue which is growing in prevalence in Ireland, with 400 new cases emerging each year and 80 deaths perhaps it is time the government reassess its stance on the issue.

A myriad of research and surveys have been carried out over recent years that have been instrumental to highlighting exactly how common the issue is and more importantly the salient factors influencing it. The Health Research Board found that approximately 71.5% of young females in Ireland are adversely affected by the media’s portrayal of body image while selfimage is the number one factor that “hurts” the mental health of Irish teens according to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (2009).

The growing rise of social media in Ireland and other media outlets and immediate impact they can have belie the need for such laws. The introduction of a similar Bill into Irish law will not act as a proverbial sticking plaster, in reality there are many people suffering from eating disorders and the Government need to reassess their approach to help those affected. At present there are just three designated specialist beds for the treatment of an eating disorder in the public sector.

Despite this change, adequate state assistance on issues of mental health is at best, a work-in-progress and this is evidenced by the scant literature afforded by all political party manifestos in the recent general election. Was this mere oversight or prioritised spending elsewhere?

It cannot be denied that, as the proverbial “ratchet wheel” turns there is a newfound acceptance, transparency and confidence but the question must be asked, can the State do more?

In short, Ireland is not a renowned metropolis of fashion, yet irrespective of our ranking or participation in the International fashion/modelling industry or indeed the modelling standards applied in Ireland, it is the home to many people suffering from eating disorders.

The introduction of such a law may prove beneficial to both government and citizens. Although not an effective means to helping those already dealing with the disorder such a bill would act as a strong deterrent for future generation by readjusting the status quo and removing the potential trigger points that cause such disorders to develop. Eating disorders are also a mental health condition with a high incidence of comorbidities such as depression, anxiety et al. This means a

This Bill could not be considered a legitimate solution to prevent eating disorders in their totality yet its implementation would be a useful tool in preventing and safeguarding younger generations from encountering/developing the issue. The figures speak for themselves. Eating disorders are a serious issue in Ireland and are in need of resolution. At present there is a complacency on this growing issue. Perhaps it is time the government adapted a paternalistic and progressive approach to protect its citizens by introducing measures similar to those taken by France, Israel and Spain.

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Northern Ireland’s Abortion Law Breaches European Convention on Human Rights: Lessons from Belfast?

Daniel McCarron, SS Law & Political Science

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n the 30th of November 2015 the Belfast High Court made what could yet become a landmark ruling on Northern Ireland’s Abortion Law. In The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission’s Application, the Court found that Northern Ireland’s legal regime was in breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by failing to provide exceptions to the blanket ban on abortion.

While the decision will undoubtedly be appealed it underlines the urgent need for reform both North and South of the border.

The decision is important not only for its attempt to force change on an issue that Stormont has vehemently refused to move on but also for its critique of the reasoning and logic of the current legal regime in the Republic of Ireland.

The law makes no attempt to balance the rights of the women that are involved. Instead… it prevents any consideration of the interests of the women whose personal autonomy has been so vilely and heinously invaded.

The Court differed on cases where the foetus suffered from a serious malformation as that foetus has the potential to develop into a child, and on cases of “Child Destruction” where the foetus is capable of a “separate existence.”

less than an attitude of “not in our back yard”. In his critique of both the reasoning and decision reached by the Strasbourg Court in A, B, and C v Ireland, Horner J is incisive. In tackling the moral hypocrisy that has characterised arguments in both jurisdictions, he notes: If it is morally wrong to abort a foetus in Northern Ireland, it is just as wrong morally to abort the same foetus in England. It does not protect morals to export the problem to another jurisdiction;

For both Stormont and Leinster House, exporting the problem to another jurisdiction does little to protect the life of the unborn if that is its purpose. Rather, it sends a clear message to the 3,735 women in 2014 that travelled from the Republic to the UK for an abortion that they are second-class citizens. While we know that the current situation does not result in a reduction in the number of abortions being obtained, we do know that the current situation places these women under significant emotional stress at a time when they are in most need of support. The financial cost this entails, means for the most marginalised in society, travelling to England may simply not

be an option. Horner J highlighted the economic inequality of the situation: The protection of morals should not contemplate a restriction that bites on the impoverished but not the wealthy. That smacks of one law for the rich and one law for the poor.

Yet, one law for the rich and one law for the poor is precisely the reality that women in Ireland are currently faced with. Therefore, it is essential that any post-amendment abortion regime be, both in name and in spirit, free, safe and legal.

The current situation reflects a deeply rooted mistrust of a woman’s ability as an adult decision maker. This engrained misogyny is reflected in fears that legislating for legal abortion in Ireland would result in “abortion on demand”. The recent decision of the Belfast High Court is further confirmation, if any were necessary, that the 8th Amendment must be repealed.

While repealing the 8th Amendment will not end the fight for women’s control over their own reproductive rights, it will bring Ireland back to reality and that is no small thing.

Stopping short of a declaration of incompatibility, Horner J asked the parties for further submissions as to whether the relevant legislation could be read in a Convention compliant manner. However, he made it clear that if this were not possible, the Court intended to make a declaration of one could be forgiven for incompatibility as between Northern Ireland’s abortion regime and the beginning to think that the United Kingdom’s human rights problems with the 8th obligations.

Horner J, sitting in the Belfast High Court, made it clear that no right to abortion existed whether under common law or statute in Northern Ireland.

However, the court did rule that the legal regime on abortion was in breach of Article 8 of the ECHR for failing to provide exceptions to the general prohibition on abortion in cases of Fatal Foetal Abnormality (FFA) and where pregnancy is a consequence of rape or incest.

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Amendment exist only in our imagination

On consideration of Article 2, Horner J noted that Strasbourg has shied away from determining when human life begins and has instead given States a wide margin of appreciation to determine that question for themselves. In this regard he stated clearly that, unlike the Republic of Ireland where the right to life exists from the moment of conception as guaranteed by the 8th Amendment, no such right exists in the United Kingdom. A foetus does not have a full right to life under Article 2 in the jurisdiction of Northern Ireland and accordingly cannot be weighed against the right to life of the mother as if it were an individual.

Horner J determined that in cases of FFA and Sexual Crime the interference by the state was illegitimate and disproportionate.Horner J commented:

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Reading the judgement, I could not help but feel relieved as Horner J critically assessed the abortion regime as it currently functions (or malfunctions) in the Republic of Ireland. Given the near outright refusal of many of Ireland’s mainstream political parties to substantively address the abortion issue one could be forgiven for beginning to think that the problems with the 8th Amendment exist only in our imagination. The fact that legislative attempts persist with “termination of pregnancy” rather than a more accurate and altogether more honest use of the word “abortion” leads me to think that those responsible occupy an alternate reality.

Let’s be clear. The hypocrisy of the current constitutional arrangement in the Republic of Ireland is reaching a point of disbelief. To guarantee the right to life of the unborn under the 8th Amendment by prohibiting the provision of legal abortion in Ireland (under pain of imprisonment for up to 14 years), while at the same time, guaranteeing a women’s right to travel to an adjacent jurisdiction to have an abortion, amounts to nothing

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Clodagh Rochford: From College to Work Moreover, with study you tend to work alone a lot of the time, whereas as a trainee, you’re working with at least one other person if not a number of other people for the most part and things are much more likely to change as the client’s demands change as you go along, as opposed to having a set exam-date to work towards.

So it’s different. I won’t say it’s more or less because it can totally depend on what’s going on in your department at any given time and what responsibility you have been given.

In what way is Blackhall different to college both academically & socially?

Blackhall is less academic. The focus is on the practical application of law and how you are going to use what you have learned in the office. Not all of the subjects are necessarily suited to working in a big firm i.e. things like probate, conveyances and residential lettings aren’t necessarily the kinds of things we do in a corporate firm like Matheson.

Clodagh Rochford is a trainee solicitor on her 2nd seat in Matheson’s Corporate department. She speaks to Nina Milosavljevic about life as a trainee and the transition from college to working life.

Do you think College prepared you well for your present day working life and how different is the study of law compared to practicing it?

I think it did prepare me well to an extent. Study is quite particular. I think the study that we did in Trinity and all the subjects were quite academic so they weren’t all necessarily connected to the kind of things I am doing now. Basic legal principles are important though. I think you learn a lot and are prepared for working life through the things you do in college beyond academics – things like moving out of home, making new friends, being on teams and that sort of thing prepare you in a way for working life.

Is the workload of a trainee more or less than that of a final year law student?

As a trainee, in my experience, you are given work and given time limits, whereas as a student, I kind of knew what I needed to do, but didn’t necessarily do it until time was running out. At that stage, I found that quite stressful but that’s kind of how I study. I am a bit of a crammer so it’s different.

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I think their aim in Blackhall is to prepare you for the working world but I find that the usefulness of the material can vary because all the firms are very different and operate differently.

It is less academic in the way that you wouldn’t be writing dissertations or really giving your opinion on things or engaging with the subjects to the same extent that I feel I would have done in college.

What subject choices would you say are the most useful to you in your life today and do you use much of what you learned in college?

In here I’d say, company law is probably the most useful especially as I am currently doing a corporate seat. It’s the most practical subject that I use on an almost daily basis. We have just come into the 2014 Act and when I was in final year, the company law bill was still a work in progress. We started studying it at that stage and that has been helpful. I did a lot of funny subjects. I also did an Erasmus year in Paris where I did a lot of strange subjects that were political science & international relations oriented so my subjects weren’t really typical.

Do you believe a trainee's voice gets heard as much as it should in a law firm?

I’m not sure exactly how to answer that. From an overall firm management perspective I would say that trainees do not have much input, but then again considering how little we know it would be hard to justify giving trainees a very big input. In terms of the work we do, you do feel that the trainee input is valued in overall projects, even though at times it can feel like it is a very minor part. One thing that I do really support is that trainees actually get input into where we are placed, which rotations we do, which I don’t think they have in any other firm.

In my case anyway I have gotten my two first preferences for my two seats so far and most of my intake has, so they really do listen to you in that sense.

What’s your favourite thing about been a trainee at Matheson?

I think the best thing about training here is that I came in with a big intake. There were 29 of us that started together and so you always have kind of a support system and a go to group of people/friends that are all in or around the same age. We all went to Blackhall together so it was nice that we got to know each other in a more social context. Also, the fact that it’s a full service law firm means we have such a broad range of departments that you can get experience in almost any area.

They are probably two of the biggest factors for me and two of the reasons that I chose to train at Matheson.

If you could give one piece of advice to current students that you wish you knew, what would it be?

One thing I would say is that it’s a long road to qualify as a solicitor, particularly when I was in school and doing my leaving cert and putting down law and thinking oh yes, study law and become a solicitor, I didn’t realise how long it was. I’m not saying that’s a good thing or a bad thing but just to be aware of how long it is and I suppose enjoy the journey. Don’t be rushing too much or impatient about qualification, there is plenty of time for traveling and doing internships and other interesting things along the road to qualification and I’d encourage people to take advantage of that. Also, it can take 6/7/8 years from the time you finish school to qualification, so it is a long path and with that in mind, be sure that it is what you want to do.

I think socially, you are quite a bit older but we still go out and do all the things that we did during college. It’s actually really nice because Blackhall is kind of like going back to college again as you get to meet a whole new range of people. They have extra-curricular things too like tag Rugby if you’re interested in that. Some of the firms also pay you while you’re there so it is nice to be living financially independent.

What was the biggest challenge in transitioning between Colleges & working life?

Between College and Working life I had to do my FE1's which was a big challenge. I found them pretty difficult and I moved home to do them and I was working part-time as well. So that was one of the big challenges but I suppose time management is probably a bit of an issue because you go from having a lot of free time to fill as you please whereas when you are in work, you are much more confined to a schedule. Having studied for 4 years in Trinity where I had about 8 hours per week, it’s kind of hard to get used to that kind of packed schedule, but no major challenges I think.

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The Problematic Link between Human Rights and the Nation-State John Carton, LLM Candidate

Human rights are freedoms and entitlements which are regarded as inherent to all human beings by virtue of our humanity.

However, there is a question as to how people can claim to have rights by virtue of their humanity if they are reliant on a nation or state to safeguard their rights. The problem with states is that they imply membership. People use their citizenship to claim rights but citizenship is a status which excludes certain people. If people are afforded rights on the basis of their citizenship, then what happens to the people who do not share this status? Migration has increased dramatically in recent decades and the plight of refugees has also grown. It is clear that the importance attached to the status of nationality places stateless individuals in an extremely vulnerable position.

and a right to change their nationality. However, the document is silent on the state’s obligations to provide entry and asylum and to grant citizenship. Thus human rights may be guaranteed in theory, but they still face practical difficulties. There appears to be a contradiction between the cross-border application of universal human rights and the sovereignty of individual states. It is obvious that the State itself retains an important role in respect of human rights. While public discussion, increasing awareness and advocacy can have a positive impact towards achieving universal human rights; it must be accepted that individual states are still relied upon to a large extent to protect these rights and consequently states still have the capacity to violate these rights.

Developments in the last century are evidence that communication can achieve positive results in respect of human rights but this has only gone so far. Human rights violations persist in the modern world and it can be difficult to imagine that a truly universal acceptance of the concept will ever be realised. The notion of human rights therefore represents an

It has been proposed, however, that there is a distinction between citizens’ rights claimed against a state and human rights which are deemed to be universal in their application. Human rights may be regarded as ethical demands which are not principally legal in nature. The implementation of human rights can go well beyond legislation and may be promoted through other means such as advocacy and public discussion which is open to participation between persons across national boundaries and borders. Thus, the notion of human rights appears to contradict the perceived link between rights and the nation-state. However, there remains some scepticism regarding the value of human rights.

Certainly it is easy to say that people have the right to work, the right to an education or the right to enough food but these rights may not necessarily be guaranteed in practise. Declaring that a starving person has the right to eat achieves nothing unless there are mechanisms in place to ensure that the person can avail of this right and be provided with food. Thus there is an argument that rights can only be given effect through law and that natural rights conferred on us as human beings should be considered nothing more than imaginary rights. While the principle of human rights may provide an accurate description of how things ought to be, they don’t necessarily represent the way society actually works in all communities. It is clear that an authority is needed to safeguard and protect rights so that they may be of practical value. As such the absence of a government can leave people with no such authority to protect their human rights.

Despite recent progress, there are problems with the acceptance of human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes only a limited right to freedom of movement across boundaries as it recognises the right to emigrate, yet it does not recognise a right to immigrate. Article 14 contains a right to asylum and Article 15 declares that everyone has the right to a nationality

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rights, another community may condone it in the name of culture or tradition. Thus the conflicting views of different communities may pose a threat to a universal concept of human rights. If the State which promotes such traditions will not intervene, then there is a question over how its citizens can expect to have these rights safeguarded. A difficulty also arises over the question of whether outside forces should intervene where a state is violating human rights as states are based on sovereignty and are autonomous.

Interference may therefore be regarded as an attack on sovereignty and may do more harm than good as has been demonstrated in recent years by the situation in Iraq.

ideal rather than fact, as it is not true that every person is guaranteed to have these rights protected. While great progress has been made in respect of human rights and people are no longer solely reliant on states to vindicate their human rights, there are many who still suffer due to a state’s unwillingness to do so.

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Human rights could exist in their intended form but this may require the establishment of some form of human community as an alternative to the primacy of national identity

Human rights could exist in their intended form but this may require the establishment of some form of human community as an alternative to the primacy of national identity. Emmanuel Kant was a prominent cosmopolitan who claimed that all human beings share a common sense which allows us to make universally valid judgements which can be applied to the notion of human rights.

This is happening to some extent today, and is demonstrated by the growth of human rights in international law. However, it may be difficult such see how Kant’s transcendent world of all human beings with a shared mentality can work in today’s society which is diverse and fragmented with cultural and political boundaries.

It should be noted that while states may now discuss the same issues, they do so from different perspectives which are influenced by national filters. While one community may regard acts such as female genital mutilation or child marriage as breaches of human

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Words Never Lie

Students & Part-time Employment Rosaleen Dillon, SS Law

Diarmuid Ó hUallacháin, SF Law

O

n the 13th of February this year Justice Antonin Scalia, the longest serving member of The Supreme Court of the United States, (SCOTUS), died doing what the American Right-wing loved; hunting and making merry in Texas.

His passing should be lamented in the legal community as Justice Scalia provided clear, thoughtful and steadfast arguments for conservative shibboleths of legal thought.

Indeed, his tough judgments set the bar high for opposing liberal views. He forced excellence out of SCOTUS; as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted “when I wrote for the Court and received a Scalia dissent, the opinion ultimately released was notably better than my initial circulation.”

Justice Scalia was the most outspoken advocate for “Constitutional Textualism”, (taking the words of the US Constitution as the only understanding that can govern judicial decisions), and indeed the oftentimes controversial subset of it; “Originalism”, (as Scalia himself said “…when you consult the text you give it the meaning it had when it was adopted…” as opposed to a temporal, changing meaning). Scalia’s promotion of this form of constitutional interpretation and indeed his legal brilliance is best seen in the seminal gun control case of District of Columbia v Heller. This case concerned whether a District of Columbia prohibition on the possession of usable handguns in the home violated the Second Amendment to the Constitution which reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Justice Scalia delivered the majority opinion of the Court. However, what is of interest is the argument Justice Scalia advanced supporting “Textual Originalism” with regard to the Second Amendment.

He used the text of other amendments of the Constitution to show how the “right to bear arms” was indeed an individual right: “the right to assemble cannot be exercised alone, but it is still an individual right, and not one conditioned upon membership in some defined ‘assembly’”. Justice Scalia observed that nowhere “…else in the Constitution does a ‘right’ attributed to ‘the people’ refer to anything other than an individual right.” His combination of “Textualism” and effective legal comparison changed the “gun debate” in the United States drastically and set the scene for the growth of the Second Amendment to an almost insurmountable individual right.

Furthermore his rigid adherence to “Textual Originalism” greatly influenced his definition of “Arms” within Heller. He insisted on the use of 18th century descriptions such as “anything that a man wears for his defence, or takes into his hands, or useth in wrath to cast at or strike another”. This understanding provided the necessary scope for the incorporation of a plethora of firearms under the protection of the Second Amendment.

As The Economist noted, he was “in love with [the Constitution]; he was in awe of the men who wrote it; the late 18th century was a time when genius burst forth on the eastern seaboard, as it had in Periclean Athens.” However, due to his fervent interpretive views discussed above, he could not accept the Constitution as alive and open to change and reinterpretation. He could not stand judicial purposivism – it said what it said and it never lied.

It never meant anything more than the normal meaning of the words unless “…of course [it] include[s] an His death leaves idiomatic meaning, but it excludes a vacuum in secret or technical meanings that SCOTUS that would not have been known to ordinary citizens in the founding once again generation.”

Justice Scalia’s reveals its Constitution was whatever the Founders meant it to be. He would unfortunate never concede that view. For political example, when asked whether Justice Breyer’s purposive approach underbelly was wrong Justice Scalia merely said “yes”.

Most students have at one point or another worked part-time.

With mounting university fees, rent and commuting costs, working on the side is not a choice. The majority of part-time employees tend to be students and mothers, so when part-time workers are discriminated against, the employer is indirectly discriminating based on age and/or gender. There is a vast amount of age discrimination case law. In its 2007 annual report, the Equality Authority highlighted age as the most common grounds of complaint under the Employment Equality legislation, representing 24% of all claims. However, the majority of these claims involve plaintiffs who were discriminated against for being too old. So why is there little to no case law on discrimination based on young age?

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His death leaves a vacuum in SCOTUS that once again reveals its unfortunate political underbelly. He followed the Constitution, even if that meant going against his own views, and for that he should be admired. As President Obama said of him “[Justice Scalia] did what he had to do” for the Constitution. Love him or hate him, at least he made sure words had meaning.

First, students are less likely to sue than their older part-time counterparts. They have limited resources to bring a claim and most of the time they are not aware that they have been discriminated against mainly due to lack of information available to them. Students are a vulnerable demographic for potential employers, and with this said, is the law doing enough to protect students as part-time workers?

As of 2016, if you are under 18 years of age the national minimum wage is €6.41, as legislators suggest this is an acceptable wage due to the employees’ lack of experience and maturity. However, the national minimum wage for someone’s first year of employment since turning 18 is €7.32, and for someone’s second year of employment since turning 18 it’s €8.24. This means that by the age of 20, 21, or even 22 depending on when the student started working, they are still not entitled to a minimum wage.

Most employers will give the adult minimum wage anyway, so why do these rules exist then? It puts the student worker at an immediate disadvantage from the moment he/she becomes a legal adult. It tells the student that they are not a valuable asset to society and that the work they are putting in is objectively worse than an older employee. It disincentives students to work – an important aspect of developing as an adult, but it also puts further pressure on those students who really need the money they make from their part-time jobs.

resounding indication that young people are by every measure a marginalised group in Irish society. No matter how exceptional, competent or popular the individual, the idea of a person younger than 35 even presenting themselves to the electorate as a candidate for the highest office of State is apparently so preposterous as to require constitutional prohibition. To paraphrase three-quarters of the electorate according to Shane Lynn: “It’s not just that we won’t vote for you. We won’t even let you run”.

Furthermore, students are laid off unfairly all the time, yet nothing is ever done about it. A common tactic used by employers is to reduce or stop giving hours to the employee. When questioned about this, the employer insists the employee is not being fired, but that it is just very quiet and that more hours will be available soon. Eventually the employee has no choice but to leave. A lot of the time the student employee is told that because they are part-time, they are not a priority to the business and this can also be used as a tactic to pressure the employee to become full-time.

Clause 5(2) of the Framework Agreement adopted by the Protection of Employees (Part-time Work) Act, 2001 states that an employee’s refusal to transfer from full time to part-time status does not constitute a valid reason for termination of employment.

Nevertheless, despite the ongoing discrimination inflicted upon students, it is very difficult to prove that the discrimination in question was based on age, or the part-time status of the employee. To establish a prima facie case of age discrimination, it is necessary that the complainant not only show a difference in age between the two persons, but also that the complainant was treated differently because of the difference in age as was alluded to in McCormack v Dublin Port Company (2002).

Although 2016 has begun with some positive changes in this regard with the minimum wage going up from €8.65 to €9.15, amongst other changes, there’s still not a suitable platform for awareness for students to ensure they are not taken advantage of by employers. There is a dire need for student’s rights to be very clearly laid out and for them to have a direct support group where they can ask a professional questions or have access to an information database which contains various scenarios the parttime student worker is often faced with so they are sure where they stand with the law, and so they are aware of what routes to a remedy are available once they have established they’ve been discriminated against. This kind of support should be available in college. Once students start standing up for themselves in the workplace, society may start to regard young people with more respect when it comes to ageism.

Ageism is a prejudice so ingrained in Irish society that few recognise it, and it goes both ways, young and old. It is an insidious and pervasive negative belief system. It stereotypes everyone over 60 as dependent, sick, frail, decrepit, and a drain on the economy. It stereotypes young people as irrational, incompetent, untrustworthy and careless. A recent example is the result in the presidential age referendum last year; a clear

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Policing Politics

Erasmus Catch-up

Sarah Taffee-Maguire, LLM candidate

An Anti-Water Charge Protest in Jobstown meant that Tánaiste, Joan Burton was stuck in her car for a number of hours. Charges have been brought against people involved in the protest. This was announced through RTÉ news. The accused found out they were going to be charged with false imprisonment, violent disorder and criminal damage on television. In the end, 27 people were charged.

Information was accessed by the media before individuals involved had been served with summons. There has been no public statement about how this information was leaked; by who and to whom exactly. That is something that members of society should care about; people should listen to, and expect a response from the bodies involved. Formal complaints have been lodged to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Garda Commissioner and the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC). Some of the accused were arrested, as they were considered a flight risk.

Rather than having to turn themselves in at a Garda Station or two Gardaí calling to the door, nine Gardaí came at approximately seven in the morning to bring the accused to a Garda Station. One 16-year-old (being charged in the children’s court) had ten Gardaí arrive at his door early in the morning. None of the accused had attempted to flee the jurisdiction despite advance notice of their arrest being broadcast on the RTÉ nine o’clock news.

Hazel Bergin, JS Law

expectation that public order offences will be committed? They have pitted themselves against protest; their presence becomes inflammatory. Allegations of political policing should not come as a shock. Alan Shatter as Minister for Justice used Gardaí to obtain information about a political opponent. Clare Daly’s 2013 arrest was also leaked to the media. Despite the evidential backing, ongoing investigations and previous examples, the allegations have been dismissed by Taoiseach Enda Kenny. But even if there was an absence of compelling evidence, political policing allegations should not be instantly dismissed.

There will always be a problem with the source of the allegation, which means a problem with the issue being dealt with. The source will often be a minority political group, likely to be radical and so easily dismissed as silly; you fundamentally disagree with what they stand for. If this is to continue it means political policing claims will not be seriously dealt with and such policing will continue. The Garda Representative Association contest the accusations. This makes sense. As the Gardaí are the embodiment of the state, Gardaí are likely overwhelmingly prostate, pro-establishment. When that is your outlook and your livelihood, protesters are a threat. Political policing is inevitable at a subconscious level.

Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald admitted that there is a police operation (Operation Mizen) to collect information from social media accounts of the Anti-Austerity Alliance (a rival political party of The Minister). Operation Mizen collects “open source” information. Collection of merely “open source information” ought not quell suspicion. Just because an accused is standing trial does not mean they will be surveyed or that there is a need for surveillance. This is not ordinary practice: An Garda Síochána do not collect “open source” information on all accused. The accused in this instance are being treated differently. It was reported that profiles of protestors were drawn up as were their whereabouts.

Husband of Garda Ombudsman, Noirín O’Sullivan was reported by the Irish Daily Mail to be overseeing the Operation. The accused view this as an attempt to suppress protest.

Serious concerns were put to the Minister for Justice in a letter from Ruth Coppinger, Joe Higgins and Paul Murphy, TDs (at the time) of the Socialist Party. They asked was there ministerial involvement and the individuals involved in their surveillance and what form the surveillance has taken. The Minister will “respond in due course”. The Department of Justice says “the operational arrangements for the Gardaí in fulfilling its functions… are a matter for An Garda Síochána”. The AntiAusterity Alliance was denied a fundraising permit because of the alleged actions of a few. The collection permit was refused because a Garda believes “that the proceeds of the collection, or a portion thereof, would be used to facilitate protests sponsored by the Anti-Austerity Alliance. I believe any further protests within my division would see further Public Order offences being committed.” The refusal plainly tries to stop protests. The Garda views them as being inherently linked to public order offences. At the time of the refusal no one had been charged, not least convicted, of any crime.

How can An Garda Síochána keep a protest peaceful when they have made public their suspicion for its organisers and their

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Whatever your feelings about the accusation of false imprisonment of Joan Burton, one must find it discomforting that a political party is stopped in its fundraising, that protests are (in the minds of the Gardaí) going to involve commission of public order offences, that juveniles with no criminal record are being arrested by ten Gardaí, that prosecution details are being leaked to the media and political party members are under surveillance. There is a need for public oversight of An Garda Síochána to address allegations. The Garda Commissioner is accountable to government and not directly to the public. They appoint and remove the Commissioner, decide budgets and create policing policy. The Minister for Justice has the power to compel a report on any matter of policing and they are the person who addresses questions about policing in the Dáil.

Ireland needs a mechanism where Garda management can answer questions, in an apolitical environment, about human rights, policies and tactics. There’s cognisance of this need, evidenced by the proposed creation of a “Police Authority” in the General Scheme of Garda Síochána (Amendment) Bill. Despite government dismissal, the proposed Authority is acknowledgment of problems and the need to have them addressed.

Paris, Audrey Hepburn famously said, is always a good idea.

Having so far spent six months living and studying in this most elegant and timeless of cities, I can confirm that Paris is not merely a good idea; it is an exceptional one. Eager to experience life beyond south Dublin, I opted to spend my Junior Sophister year studying at Sciences Po in Paris. I arrived at the end of August, when the temperate hovered at around 30ºC each day and most of the shopowners were still on their ‘congés d’été’. I knew no one. Since then, though, I have made some of the best friends and memories of my life. The opportunity to study in one of France’s most respected thirdlevel institutions is not one that should be easily refused.

Sciences Po has a stellar reputation and a wide range of module choices taught by some of the best thinkers and practitioners in their fields. Classes are far more interactive than in Trinity, with marks being given for participation and attendance, and one of the main forms of evaluation being the oral presentation in front of the entire class. This may sound daunting at first, particularly when the artificial French methodology (presentations must consist of two parts, each with two subsections) is factored in, but it really is surprising how quickly you adapt. Continuous assessment may initially seem like constant stress, but the knowledge that I won’t have to desperately cram at the end of term more than makes up for that.

of France is currently experiencing a state of emergency, which raises interesting legal questions in itself. France has filed official notice of derogation from the ECHR, and alleged abuses of human rights in the name of national security have drawn criticism. Since those first few strange, tense days after the attacks, daily life here has continued much as before, but with more armed police and soldiers patrolling the streets. There are infrequent reminders of the tragedy and the ever-present danger: while leaving the Stade de France after the Six Nations Ireland-France match on 13 February, we saw that the roofs surrounding the stadium were dotted with army snipers, and every few days a metro is evacuated because of a suspicious package.

Paris, though, is a strong city, and its people even stronger. I will miss this city. I will miss the friends I have made here. I will miss strolling around to Rue Mouffetard to get a crêpe and a bottle of Orangina. I will miss hangover-healing chips from De Clercq. I will miss walking past the Panthéon every day and seeing the Eiffel Tower at the top of the road. I will miss failing to get into Nuba and going to The Cave instead. I will miss the always-punctual, always-reliable métro. I will miss cocktails from Crocodile. If you get the chance, go: Paris is, and always will be, a wonderful idea.

Horror stories I heard of Sciences Po being nothing but hard work are utterly false. Time-management and organisation are, however, key. I live in the Centre Culturel Irlandais with around thirty other Irish students, most of whom are also on Erasmus.

We have become extraordinarily close, but it must be said that our experience, in comparison to the typical Parisian student exchange, is fairly unique. We live in the famous Latin Quarter, with the Jardin de Luxembourg, built for Marie Antoinette, at the top of our road. We can see the Panthéon from our kitchen.

We have our own chapel where concerts from up-and-coming musicians are regularly held, and our own chaplain, Father Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Gavin. Every day, even the quiet ones, are packed with fun.

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We live in the famous Latin Quarter, with the Jardin de Luxembourg, built for Marie Antoinette, at the top of our road

There have, of course, been bleak moments. On 13th November 2015, I was at the Stade de France with friends.

The experience of hearing explosions mere metres from us and attempting to travel home through a city under attack is one that I can never forget.

Trinity was extremely good to all of us, going so far as to fly counsellors out to Paris to provide us with coping mechanisms and to help us with reorganising our coursework deadlines. All

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Social

FLAC’s 25th Anniversary Celebration

The latest term has been filled with memorable social occasions.

FLAC have maintained their hectic events’ schedule. Kate Heffernan will shine a light on their 25th anniversary celebrations. We will hear from Dáire McCormack-George and Paul Carey about their property rights talk with Professor Gregory Alexander and their intervarsity public interest moot court competition respectively. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the outgoing committee on winning Best Overall Society at the CSC Awards.

The TCLR has continued its Distinguished Speaker Series and launched Volume XIX of the Law Review. Veronika Widmann brings us up to speed with these exciting events.

ELSA Talk with Paul Williams

With gangland crime becoming an increasingly topical issue in Dublin, Lucy Mulvaney of ELSA reports on their recent talk with Paul Williams.

Law Soc have attracted engaging speakers to the college throughout the term but their unquestionable social highlight was of course Law Ball. Turn to page X for pictures of this memorable night and more.

Finally, the Eagle would like to acknowledge the vast contribution made by the Class of 2016 to the Trinity Law community. We wish them well in their future endeavours.

Eoin Hennessy, Social Editor

FLAC Intervarsity Public Interest Moot Competition

On Monday 14th of March ELSA welcomed renowned journalist, investigator and Special Correspondent with the Irish Independent, Paul Williams to Trinity College. Having published a variety of books exposing the gangland criminal underworld and starring in numerous television documentaries including 'Dirty Money', Paul was the ideal speaker to divulge the truth around Ireland’s current immersion in gangland activity.

Paul began by providing a recap on the past year in Irish crime, focusing on the shootings at the Regency Hotel. He went on to give a criminological analysis of the gangland feud between the Hutch and Kinahan gangs and the slew of recent murders in Dublin. Similar to Paul’s latest documentary on TV3, the discussion dissected the roots and business methods of the cartels, providing an in depth account of the history of gangs in Ireland.

The second half of the talk concerned the infamous Graham Dwyer murder case which shocked the nation in 2014. Having written the book 'Almost the Perfect Murder' on the topic, Paul expertly discussed the case and the events which transpired in both the lead up to and the aftermath of the murder. The audience were given a clear picture of the evidence presented at trial and the arguments given by prosecuting council which ultimately led to the conviction of Graham Dwyer for murder.

A lengthy question and answers session followed, in which Paul discussed the Graham Dwyer appeal, the necessity of the special criminal court and the effectiveness of the Gardaí in combatting gangland crime.

FLAC Intervarsity Public Interest Moot: L-R Barry Lysaght, Fergal McConnon, Ms. Justice Laffoy, Paul Carey, nina Milosavljevic and Daire McCormack-George

This year, the Inaugural FLAC Intervarsity Public Interest Law Moot Court Competition was held between Trinity, UCC, DCU and Maynooth University. The competition was created with the aim of fostering relations between the different FLAC societies across the country and generating much needed research on various areas within public interest law. Competitors had to prepare submissions on problem questions dealing with the defence of duress in relation to victims of human trafficking, and the right of parents to refuse to vaccinate their children. The competition was kindly sponsored by KOD Lyons, who provided an internship prize for the members of the winning team. Two Trinity teams, Blánaid Ní Bhraonáin & Mary Hastings and Nina Milosavljevic & Barry Lysaght, progressed to the semi-final, and the latter team made it through to the Grand Final.

Lucy Mulvaney The Grand Final was held on the 26th of February in Blackhall Place, and was adjudicated by Miss Justice Mary Laffoy. Conor Forde & Ailbhe Lawless from Maynooth University were the overall winners of the competition. The research completed by the teams in their memorials has been compiled and sent to KOD Lyons to aid in their research on important areas of social justice.

The competition was very successful and it is hoped that it will continue in future years. FLAC also ran an internal Public Interest Law Moot Competition, which generated vital research on the conditions for children in emergency accommodation for Mercy Law Resource Centre.

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view, the ownership of property is central to human flourishing. He suggested that his thesis was the beginning of a push for a more progressive property system in the USA, particularly given the historic and cultural significance of private property in North America. Even after a hectic and successful night for Trinity FLAC at the annual CSC Awards - winning both the Best Medium Society Award and Best Overall Society - the event was well attended. The Committee would like to thank Professor Alexander for accepting our invitation to deliver his excellent talk and Dr. Walsh for chairing the event.

Paul Carey

Ms. Justice Iseult O’Malley at FLAC’s 25th Anniversary Celebration In 2015/16, Trinity FLAC celebrated 25 years of working to promote social justice and equal access to the law for all. To mark this fantastic achievement, a 25th anniversary event was held in the Mansion House in February. We were delighted to be joined by alumni who had helped establish Trinity FLAC and who had volunteered passionately with the society during their time in Trinity. We were also very honoured to welcome the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ms Críona Ní Dhalaigh and The Hon. Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley as guest speakers on the night. The Lord Mayor reminded guests of the humble beginnings of national FLAC, which was established by a group of law students in 1969 after attending a conference on legal aid in Trinity. National FLAC went onto to successfully campaign for Ireland’s first legal aid scheme and continues to campaign tirelessly on many social issues. The TCD branch of FLAC was officially recognised as a student society in 1991 and since then has gone from strength to strength, organising legal advice clinics, research projects and many events on human rights issues each year. Ms Justice O’Malley also gave an inspiring address to guests on the night, in which she called on law students to always be alive to the values of FLAC in their careers, no matter what path they may follow after their degree.

The celebrations finished with a wine reception during which alumni shared fascinating stories of their involvement with FLAC over the past 25 years.

Kate Heffernan

Trinity FLAC Law & Property Talk On Thursday 11th March, the Committee of Trinity FLAC were delighted to host Gregory Alexander, A. Robert Noll Professor of Law at Cornell University to speak on the significance of the relationship between law and property. Professor Alexander is an internationally renowned expert in property law and theory and has been teaching at Cornell since 1985. Dr. Rachael Walsh of the Law School very kindly chaired the talk. Professor Alexander outlined his theory of property based on what he calls the ‘social obligation norm’, a norm of conduct inherent in ownership which requires a certain kind of communal justice. The social obligation norm imposes significant positive and negative obligations on property owners. Professor Alexander’s theory is both interpretive and normative, reflecting on the law of property in the United States. Crucial to Professor Alexander’s theory is ownership; in his

Professor Gregory Alexander and Dr. Rachael Walsh

Daire McCormack-George

Trinity College Law Review Distinguished Speaker Series: Promises, Profits and Potential Dangers of Emerging Biotechnologies At first glance, Biotechnologies are of concern for biologists, doctors and scientists. Their impact and consequences, however, are far from confined to science. They need to be addressed by a society as a whole, not merely inside a lab. Hence it was a multidisciplinary panel presenting on the medical, legal and ethical implications of modern biotechnologies for TCLR’s second talk in its Distinguished Speaker Series, hosted in cooperation with Trinity Biosoc: Dr Orla Hardiman, Clinical Professor of Neurology at Trinity, Asim Sheikh, a barrister specialising in medical law and Dr Dónal Ó Mathúna, Senior Lecturer in Ethics at the DCU School of Nursing.

As the first speaker of the night, Dr. Hardiman gave a brilliant overview over what biotechnologies can and cannot do at the moment. The CRISPR method, a cheap and easy way of modifying DNA “changed the face of biology”, she said. While she emphasized CRISPR’s potential to develop treatments for genetic diseases, Dr. Hardiman also pointed out that the method makes it possible to “edit embryos”. The latter is what Asim Sheikh focused on. He drew a parallel between the genetic reprogramming and selection of certain embryos and the eugenics movement of the early 20th century which resulted in such abhorrences as the Nazi’s euthanasia programme. “I am not against science”, he pointed out “but we cannot afford not to have an honest discussion about the new developments.” In a similar vein Dónal Ó Mathúna argued for treating human embryos

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as possessing human dignity. “Nothing good has ever come from one class attributing dignity to themselves but not to others”, he said and pointed to the examples of slavery and apartheid. “We need to remember the limits of science.” These fascinating and thought-provoking speeches were followed by a discussion with the audience.

Denham announced the winner of this year’s Reddy Charlton Prize for the Best Article, Ivan Ovchinnikov. “Mr. Ovchinnikov has written an outstanding article on the lacuna created by the Brussels regulations”, she said. Professor Hilary Biehler then presented the award for the winner of the Gernot Biehler Case Note Competition, Jack Spain, for his article on Bederev v Ireland.

Other award winners of Volume XIX are Brandon Pasternak (Matheson Prize for the Best Commercial Law Article), Alicia Pastor Cameras (Trinity FLAC Prize for Social Justice), 1 Marc Stuhldreier (A&L Goodbody Prize for Intellectual Property Law) and Miriam Pinkesz (Best French Language Article). The Editorial Board would like to thank everyone who attended the launch and made the evening such a great success. We would also like to express our gratitude towards our generous sponsors and towards the Advisory Board for their professional and helpful advice.

Kevin Flood and Colum Holland Law Soc Moot Court Winners

Veronika Widmann

Professor Orla Hardiman speaking at the TCLR distinguished speaker series

Launch of Volume XIX TCLR Several months of work came to an end on 15 March 2016 with the launch of Volume XIX of the Trinity College Law Review. Held in the Old Library, it is hard to imagine a more fitting and atmospheric scenery for the launch of an academic journal. It was our pleasure and privilege to welcome Chief Justice Susan Denham as our guest speaker. After reflections on her own time in Trinity and the importance of student involvement, Mrs Justice

L-R Alice Kearns, Louise Mulrennan, Jacob Woolf, Eamonn Sweeney, Emily Costello, Eunice Collins, Doireann O’Brien, Sorcha Ryder and Kevin Smith at the Law Soc Maiden’s final

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Dr. Mo Ibrahim addresses Law Soc

Conor Burke and Neil Murphy Law Soc Commercial Negotiation Winners

Law Soc’s ‘Celebrating Irish Women’ panel chaired by Aine Lawlor

Kean Kavanagh interviews Baroness Hale during her recent visit

Chief Justice Susan Denham speaking at the TCLR launch night

Colum Holland and Kevin Flood Law Soc Mock Trial Winners Law Soc AGM

FLAC – Winner of Best Overall Society L-R Chloe O’Reilly, Kate Heffernan, Kevin Flood, Fergal McConnon, Aisling Murray and Darren O’Reilly

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Law Ball

L-R Julia Launders, Kate Fahy, Aislinn McCann, Ella Chapman and Ellen McLean

Darragh Casey and Rachael Murphy

Katie-May O’Donnell, Laura Lambe and Niall Mulligan

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Megan O'Connor, Aislinn Ní Fhionnagáin and Rachel O'Callaghan

Romy Redmond, Eoghan O’Morain and Maeve McDonough

Jack Sargent and Luke Gibbons

L-R Mary O’Toole, Caoilfhionn Sheil, Fergal McConnon, Blanaid Ni Bhraoinain and Lorna O’Donoghue

Hugh Cronin, Hugh O’Reilly and John Lynch

Rosaleen Dillon and Louise O’Callaghan

Patrick Kirk, Sean Finan, Sean Pat-Dunne and Daire McCormack-George

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Jamie Spring and Jack FitzPatrick

The King and Queen of Law: Amira Graham and Liam Roe

L-R Nils Fischer-Kerrane, Lorcan Clark, Danny Trench-Bowles, Adam Greene

Raymond Sherry

David Brazil and Kean Kavanagh

Abby Dempsey and Romy Ronan

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