Summer Schools

The Summer School on the International Criminal Court returned as an in-person event at the University of Galway in June 2023. Over eighty attendees participated across five days in interactive sessions delivered by leading academics, officials from the International Criminal Court, defence counsel and judges. Topics covered included crimes in the context of Ukraine, the situation of Palestine, the role of victims and future prospects for the International Criminal Court. Special lectures were given by Ambassador Beth Van Schaack, the United States Ambassador at large for Global Criminal Justice and Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967.

The Summer School also hosted the awardees of the inaugural Megan Fairlie Scholarships who travelled from Turkey, Morocco and Ukraine to take part. “We were delighted to be able to honour in this way Megan’s long-standing contribution to the Summer School and to international criminal justice more generally”, said Prof Shane Darcy, the Summer School’s Director. “It was also wonderful to have the Summer School back on the University of Galway campus and to have attendees from so many different countries and cultures participate”.

The Centre for Disability Law and Policy at the University of Galway hosted the 14th International Disability Law Summer School in June 2023. This year's theme was the rights of disabled children and young people and, as usual, hosted world-class faculty and participants from around the globe, including persons with disabilities, civil society groups, advocates for disability law reform, academics, lawyers, policy makers and policy analysts.

Mr Nicolas Joncour was the keynote speaker. Nicolas is an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) user and non-speaking French autistic student. He is 23 years old and uses full time assistance, communicating by typing on an iPad. In 2017 Nicolas became the first French nonspeaking autistic student to pass the Baccalauréat, an exam which is needed to go to university in France. A lot of disabled children in France - particularly nonspeaking disabled children - live in institutions and have no educational instruction.