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Galway event to look at terrorism-trial laws

Legal experts from around the world are to take part in a conference later this month that aims to explore the options for conducting trials for terrorism and organised crime in Ireland.

The two-day event – entitled ‘Replacing the Offences Against the State Acts: The challenge of jury trials for terrorism and organised crime’ – will hear from legal academics and leading barristers from Ireland, the US, Australia, and Britain.

It is being hosted by University of Galway’s School of Law, in association with Birmingham Law School, on 16 and 17 February.

Review group

Last year, an independent review group on the Offences Against the State Acts headed by retired Court of Appeal judge Michael Peart recommended repeal and replacement of the legislation.

Professor Donncha O’Connell, who was member of the group, said: “This conference aims to explore the options open to Ireland when conducting trials for terrorism and organised crime, bearing in mind the priority attached to the right to trial by jury under the Irish Constitution.

“We hope to draw on the comparative expertise of academics and practitioners, and relevant international standards, in considering the likely shape of legislation to replace the Offences Against the State Acts at some stage in the future.”

Keynote speaker

The conference will include a keynote address from Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin KC, who is Regents Professor and Robina Chair in Law, Public Policy & Society at the University of Minnesota, and Professor of Law at Queen’s University Belfast.

She has just completed her mandate as UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, is a member of the International Commission of Jurists, and was made an honorary King’s Counsel in recognition of her outstanding work.

The conference will also hear from leading criminal barristers in Ireland and Scotland – Brendan Grehan SC, Alice Harrison BL, and Ronnie Renucci KC – in a session focused on practitioner perspectives that will be chaired by Supreme Court judge Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley.