A Year in Review 2024: Event Highlights

13 Jan 2025

As we bid farewell to another year, we reflect on some of 2024’s highlights at the UCC School of Law.  

Now is the turn of key Event Highlights.  To keep up with the School’s events for 2025, please sign up to our mailing list here.   

March 2024 –  The Future of US Politics Ambassadors Kevin O’Malley and Dan Mulhall took part in a discussion on ‘The Future of US Politics’, as part of Alumni & Development’s ‘Global Speaker Series’ on Wednesday, 20th March. Chaired by Professor Thia Hennessy, the conversation touched on a range of topics including the significance of US politics internationally, the close connections between the US and Ireland and the current political climate in the US. 

As an Adjunct Professor of the School of Law, Ambassador O’Malley was hosted by the School, meeting staff and students throughout the week. 

On Thursday 21st March, Ambassador O’Malley met with students taking the Criminal Law module, later taking part in the UCC Law Society’s House Meeting, ‘In Conversation with Ambassador O’Malley’, chaired by Professor Mark Poustie.  

April 2024 – 20th Annual UCC Law and the Environment Conference  

The Centre for Law & the Environment at UCC School of Law hosted the 20th annual Law and the Environment Conference on 25th April.  The conference explored the theme 'Rights, Remedies and Restoration in Environmental and Natural Resources Law'.  The event covered a broad range of rights and remedies and included a very extensive programme of Irish and international speakers who presented on relevant developments in such fields as Climate Litigation and Remedies, Renewable Energy Development, Children and Environmental Rights, Nature Conservation, Heritage Protection, and the new Planning and Development Bill. It aimed to cover issues of concern to an ever-wider community of environmental actors, stakeholders and interested parties and, to that end, also included additional specialist sessions on Marine Environment Law, Disaster Risk Governance, Transnational Environmental Law and Governance, Strategic Environmental Litigation, and Environmental Compliance, amongst others.   Thanks to all the speakers and attendees and to the sponsors, FuturEnergy Ireland, RDJ LLP and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Ireland for their support. 

September 2024 – Conference on the Planning and Development Bill 2023  

The Centre for Law & the Environment at UCC School of Law was delighted to collaborate with the Southern Law Association to host a CPD event on the changes to planning law envisaged by the Planning and Development Bill 2023  for practitioners on 26 September 2024.     The event was chaired expertly by Ms Justice Marie Baker, a former Judge of the Supreme Court and an Adjunct Professor at UCC School of Law. 

The keynote address was delivered by Tom Flynn SC who provided an excellent overview of the key aspects of the Planning and Development Bill 2023 and offered rich insights on the likely practical implications of the changes proposed.    

Tom’s keynote was followed by a lively panel discussion offering a range of perspectives on planning law and practice.  The panel members were: Joe Noonan, Noonan Linehan Carroll Coffey; Patricia O’Brien, BHK Solicitors; and Stephen McDevitt and Julia Dineen, Cork County Council Law Department. 

Over 120 practitioners were in attendance for the event.   The School of Law is very grateful to the Southern Law Association and particularly Juli Rea for their invaluable support and for taking the initiative in organising this event.   

October 2024 – The European Network of Prosecutors for the Environment (ENPE)  Annual Conference   

The European Network of Prosecutors for the Environment (ENPE) held its annual conference in Cork on 10-11 October 2024. 

ENPE’s purpose is to promote the enforcement of environmental criminal law by supporting the operational work of environmental prosecutors.  The Centre for Law & the Environment at the School of Law / Environmental Research Institute was honoured  to host this prestigious event at UCC. 

The overarching conference theme was Environmental Crime: Co-operation to ensure effective prosecution.  The conference provided a forum to present, share and discuss different approaches to fighting environmental crime with judiciary, government, academic and international network contributors from across Europe and the United States.  Twenty-four countries were represented at this year’s conference.   

Following the formal opening of proceedings in UCC’s Aula Maxima by ENPE President, Anne Brosnan, Professor John O’Halloran, President, UCC delivered the welcome address.  The opening keynote was delivered by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Catherine Pierse (UCC Law Alumna, BCL 1994).  

The plenary conference sessions addressed important contemporary developments including: the new directive on Environmental Crime (Directive (EU) 2024/1203); the role of Eurojust in supporting cross-border judicial cooperation – with a special focus on environmental crime; Project BIOVAL – the new indicative tool for compensating nature damage; international environmental crime fighting initiatives; Enforcing Environmental Law in Ireland – the EPA’s Perspective; and the new Planning and Environment Division of the High Court of Ireland.  

The School is very grateful to Dr Shaun Robinson, Project Manager and Secretariat, ENPE and Professor Áine Ryall, UCC, who worked together to organise and deliver a very successful conference. 

December 2024:  The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 - Reflections, Challenges and Opportunities Conference   

This multi-agency two-day conference, which was organised collaboratively by Professor Mary Donnelly of the School of Law, UCC, the HSE National Office for Human Rights and Equality Policy, and the Decision Support Service (DSS) was attended by over 200 health and social care professionals together with advocacy groups, disability service providers and legal practitioners and was live streamed to a further 700 participants.  Speakers at the conference included members of the judiciary; health and social care professionals; lawyers; and advocates all of whom have amassed considerable experience in operating the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015, as well as experts by experience who are directly impacted by the law.  The conference provided an opportunity to reflect on the important changes that have happened since the Act came into force on 26 April 2023, and to identify ways in which delivery on the new legal framework can be improved.