The Fifth Court - DSBA Legal Podcast of the Year - E62 The Fifth Court - Northern Ireland Troubles Legacy Act. Solicitor Darragh Mackin, "You wouldn't see the likes of it in Russia"

E62 The Fifth Court - Northern Ireland Troubles Legacy Act. Solicitor Darragh Mackin, "You wouldn't see the likes of it in Russia"

02/20/24 • 36 min

The Fifth Court - DSBA Legal Podcast of the Year

Episode 62, hosts Peter Leonard BL and Mark Tottenham BL, discuss the Northern Ireland Troubles Legacy Act 2023 - an extremely controversial piece of legislation with well-known solicitor Darragh Mackin. "You wouldn't see the like of it in Russia."

Darragh Mackin of Belfast based Phoenix Law, has been described as ‘a rising star on the international legal scene. In 2016, Darragh was the first ever Ireland based Lawyer to win, an award at the prestigious London Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards. He has developed a specialist practice in Human Rights, Public Law, Actions against Public Authorities and International law. He continues to appear in some of the most complex Inquests and Inquiries in Ireland, acting for 47 of the families in the Stardust Inquest and appearing in the Ballymurphy Inquest.

Darragh's cultural recommendations are 'Are You With Me?: Kevin Boyle and The Rise of the Human Rights Movement by Mike Chinoy and Spider Woman: A Life

Book by Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond

As always Peter and Mark take a look at three recent cases from the Decisis Law Reports casebook

A case involving 37 aircraft, valued at $2 billion, allegedly owned by a Russian company (in liquidation) that in turn said had given a 'pledge agreement' against their value to a 'connected company', but hadn't been registered as a charge, therefore were null and void. Those pledge agreements 'fell away'.
A case involving a medical practitioner accused of rape. The Medical Council sought to suspend the accused from practice. The dilemna here is the 'presumption of innocence' versus the 'protection of the public'. He was allowed to continue to practice as long as he was chaperoned. Investigations continue.
A case about the valuation of land, however brought 'out of time'.

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Darragh's cultural recommendations are 'Are You With Me?: Kevin Boyle and The Rise of the Human Rights Movement by Mike Chinoy and Spider Woman: A Life

Book by Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond

As always Peter and Mark take a look at three recent cases from the Decisis Law Reports casebook

A case involving 37 aircraft, valued at $2 billion, allegedly owned by a Russian company (in liquidation) that in turn said had given a 'pledge agreement' against their value to a 'connected company', but hadn't been registered as a charge, therefore were null and void. Those pledge agreements 'fell away'.
A case involving a medical practitioner accused of rape. The Medical Council sought to suspend the accused from practice. The dilemna here is the 'presumption of innocence' versus the 'protection of the public'. He was allowed to continue to practice as long as he was chaperoned. Investigations continue.
A case about the valuation of land, however brought 'out of time'.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

E61 The Fifth Court, Helen Dixon, 'Billions of Euro of fines not yet collected', outgoing Data Protection Commissioner

E61 The Fifth Court

Hosts Peter Leonard BL and Mark Tottenham BL have a wide ranging discussion with outgoing Data Protection Commissioner, Helen Dixon, about all things data protection, including the newest redress arising out of the 2018 GDPR Act, that allows for 'non material damage'.

Amongst many insights she gives she says that there is excessive citing of GDPR by companies and organisations regarding access to data. Her office regulates most of the Big Name tech companies due to having their 'control around decision making' in Ireland (regardless of where the bulk of their business is done). She says her office has imposed billions of Euro in fines, though due to legal appeals only some tens of millions of Euro has been collected so far (that money goes to Ireland's central exchequer). Helen ends her ten years tenure as Commissioner soon and will shortly join Comreg as one of of three commissioners.

Her book recommendation is The Kidnapping (about the kidnapping of Don Tidey)

Her movie choice is 'Patrick a young Traveller lost'. (RTE Player)

The hosts also look at three cases from the Decisis.ie casebook including:

A case involving 'an expression of doubt' in a tax case that was referred to as a 'questionable tax avoidance mechanism'.
A 'delay case' in a claim against an architect that went right back to 2012.
A case involving an expert witness on 'monkey bars' in a children's playground, and an expert report that was not produced in court.

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Next Episode

E63 The Fifth Court - two top academics discuss two upcoming referendums - Deirdre McGowan, TUD and Maebh Harding, UCD

E63 The Fifth Court

With two referendums (*see note below) looming, hosts Mark Tottenham BL and Peter Leonard BL invited two top law academics to studio to discuss the issues involved. Deirdre McGowan of TU Dublin and Maebh Harding of UCD are two of the authors of a book, 'Family Law in Context', a textbook for those wishing to study the latest developments in family law. Before the two women discuss the referendums they give an update on developments in family law in Ireland (e.g. very few people seek nullity any more). They say that a 2 year wait for divorce is still too long. And they discuss surrogacy, recently highlighted by the 'Rosanna Davidson case'.

The hosts also discuss three cases from the Decisis.ie casebook

A case about the wording of a will involving alternate executors
A very long running case involving the spraying of commercially grown apples by a potato farmer adjoining the apple farm.
A planning case about the claimed overshadowing of a passive solar house and the role of an expert in his own case.

*P.S. Scholars often use referenda as the plural for referendum. This choice is a hypercorrection—it may sound like proper Latin, but it is not. Referendums is always the correct choice. However, we maintain that there is value in using referendums for multiple events and referenda for multiple propositions.

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