News archive School of Law, NUI Galway Hosts International Conference on Comparative Public Law

The LL.M in Public Law programme at the School of Law, NUI Galway, hosted the 5th Annual Conference of the Irish Society of Comparative Law on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th of May 2013.  Over 50 legal academics and practitioners from Ireland, other European countries, the U.S., Uganda, Japan and China presented papers at the Conference on the overarching theme of comparative public law.  Topics presented at the conference ranged from ‘children in rainbow families’ to ‘equality in healthcare’, ‘cyberbullying’, ‘money laundering’ and the question of ‘constitutional rights for human-animal hybrids and chimeras’.
 
Professor Brice Dickson from Queens University Belfast presented a keynote paper entitled ‘The Irish Supreme Court in Comparative Perspective’ to which former Supreme Court Judge, the Hon Mrs Catherine McGuinness, who is an Adjunct Professor of Law at NUI Galway, gave an energetic response on the jurisprudence and workings of the Supreme Court and the need for reform.  The other keynote speaker was Professor Susan Farran of the University of Northumbria who presented a paper entitled ‘The age of Empire. Again: critical thoughts on legal imperialism’.