E69 The Fifth Court with Mark Tottenham BL and Peter Leonard BL

Liam Herrick, Executive Director of the Irish Council of Civil Liberties talks about the so-called 'Hate Speech' legislation and how difficult it can be to prosecute and enforce such laws. It's a very timely interview about some of the many complexities that could arise from such legislation, but also about the reasons that the legislation may be needed in the first place.

Liam also discusses his three years working as general adviser to Uachtarán na hÉireann, Michael D Higgins. Fascinatingly he asserts that the media and others are incorrect when they query whether the President's 'words' have been cleared by the Government. He says that such permission is simply not necessary and may be 'imagined by the commentariat'. He calls it an 'incredible misconception'. He also talks about when the President visited the UK.

And, as usual, our interlocutors discuss three recent cases drawn from the Decisis casebook including;

+ A challenge to a planning permission given to a windfarm. Judge Egan decided that the windfarm was too noisy.

+ A 'delay' case where little or nothing had proceeded in this case since 2009 but was in front of the courts again in 2023.

+ A case where a family in a 'Witness Protection Programme' were seeking new marriage certificates and birth certificates to confirm the family's new identity. However, it seems it's not that straightforward to get a new identity, and legislation may be needed.

As always, essential listening for practitioners, students and the curious public.

With thanks to Clio Legal Software

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