Upcoming Events

National | Environment

no events match your query!

New Events

National

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link Ukraine Buys Huge Amounts of Russian Fue... Fri Jan 20, 2023 08:34 | Antonia Kotseva

offsite link Turkey Has Sent Ukraine Cluster Munition... Thu Jan 12, 2023 00:26 | Jack Detsch

offsite link New Israeli Government Promises to Talk ... Tue Jan 10, 2023 21:13 | Al Majadeen

offsite link Russia Training Iranian Pilots Ahead of ... Tue Jan 10, 2023 15:19 | The Times of Israel

offsite link Lukashenko Abolishes Copyright Protectio... Tue Jan 10, 2023 15:05 | Nikki Main

Anti-Empire >>

Human Rights in Ireland
A Blog About Human Rights

offsite link UN human rights chief calls for priority action ahead of climate summit Sat Oct 30, 2021 17:18 | Human Rights

offsite link 5 Year Anniversary Of Kem Ley?s Death Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:34 | Human Rights

offsite link Poor Living Conditions for Migrants in Southern Italy Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:14 | Human Rights

offsite link Right to Water Mon Aug 03, 2020 19:13 | Human Rights

offsite link Human Rights Fri Mar 20, 2020 16:33 | Human Rights

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Fri Mar 29, 2024 00:04 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the virus and the vaccines, the ?climate emergency? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Women?s Team with Five Male Players Wins Football Competition After One Male Player ?Broke Opponent?... Thu Mar 28, 2024 19:30 | Will Jones
A women?s football competition has been branded misogynist after it was won by a team featuring five transgender players, amid accusations one had broken an opponent?s leg in two places.
The post Women’s Team with Five Male Players Wins Football Competition After One Male Player “Broke Opponent’s Leg” ? But Teams Who Refuse to Play Against Them Are Branded “Discriminatory” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Further Evidence Gaza Casualty Numbers Are Fake Thu Mar 28, 2024 17:36 | Will Jones
The evidence that the Gaza casualty numbers from the Hamas-run Health Ministry (now over 32,000) are wildly inflated continues to mount. Mark Zlochin looks at what the proportions of male and female UNRWA workers tell us.
The post Further Evidence Gaza Casualty Numbers Are Fake appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Don?t Be Fooled by the ?Britain is Growing? Fairytales Thu Mar 28, 2024 15:22 | David Craig
Don't be fooled by the 'Britain is growing' fairytales, says David Craig. Any 'growth' is accounted for by the hike in the benefits bill and in civil servants' pay and a heap of other unproductive deficit spending.
The post Don’t Be Fooled by the ‘Britain is Growing’ Fairytales appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Climate: The Movie is a Perfect Cure for Climate Anxiety Thu Mar 28, 2024 13:00 | Toby Young
Climate Change: The Movie, the new film by Martin Durkin, should be shown at every school in the country to disabuse anxious young people of the idea that we're in the midst of a 'climate emergency'.
The post Climate: The Movie is a Perfect Cure for Climate Anxiety appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Moscow attack reminds us of the links between Islamists and Kiev's fundamentalis... Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:57 | en

offsite link Failure to assist a people in danger of genocide, by Hassan Hamadé Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:32 | en

offsite link Yugoslavia March 24, 1999 The Founding War of the New Nato, by Manlio Dinucci Sun Mar 24, 2024 05:15 | en

offsite link France opposes Russian Korean-style peace project in Ukraine Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:11 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N°79 Fri Mar 22, 2024 11:40 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Judge highlight Aarhus Convention’s requirements for access to justice

category national | environment | press release author Monday July 20, 2020 21:19author by foie - Friends of the Irish Environment Report this post to the editors

Press Release - Friends of the Irish Environment 17th July 2020

High Court calls Ireland and the Attorney General into challenge to Legal Aid Board’s refusal to consider aid for environmental charity.

Judge highlight Aarhus Convention’s requirements for access to justice

High Court Justice Niamh Hyland has directed that Ireland and the Attorney General be joined in the proceedings brought by an environmental charity against the Legal Aid Board for its refusal to consider an application for legal aid because the charity was a company and not an individual.

FRIENDS OF THE IRISH ENVIRONMENT
PRESS RELEASE
17 July 2020
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

High Court calls Ireland and the Attorney General into challenge to Legal Aid Board’s refusal to consider aid for environmental charity.
Judge highlight Aarhus Convention’s requirements for access to justice

High Court Justice Niamh Hyland has directed that Ireland and the Attorney General be joined in the proceedings brought by an environmental charity against the Legal Aid Board for its refusal to consider an application for legal aid because the charity was a company and not an individual.

Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE] was established in 1997 and is a company and registered charity that undertakes environmental litigation. FIE sought legal aid for its challenge to the Government’s National Development Plan/ National Planning Framework in 2018 for its failure to meet the State’s climate change obligations.

In a two-day hearing on 30 June and 1 July, FIE argued that under Irish and European law legal aid should be available to both natural and legal persons. The State argued that an interpretation of the relevant Act disclosed a contrary intention, in that the Act was only intended to apply to natural persons. A company is a legal person.

FIE argued that access to civil legal aid is consistent with the objective of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Aarhus Convention in ensuring effective judicial protection and judicial procedures that are not prohibitively expensive.

The Board argued that the Aarhus Convention is not directly effective and is satisfied by the existing Special Costs rules whereby a losing party in environmental proceedings cannot be forced to pay the costs of the other parties. However, other than the possibility of legal aid, litigants have no other support to assist with their own legal costs which are unaffordable for the majority.

At the same time as the Legal Aid Board was arguing that legal aid should not be given to FIE, the Government last year published proposed new cost regime legislation that NGOs claim will further hinder access to the courts and restrict legal representation.

The Legal Aid Board also made the point that the adequacy of the Special Cost rules ‘or any other measures to ensure judicial procedures are not prohibitively expensive was ‘not a matter within the knowledge of the Legal aid Board.’

To determine if the existing measures fulfil the requirements of the Aarhus Convention, Justice Hyland wrote that it, ‘is a matter upon which it appears appropriate to obtain the views of Ireland and the Attorney General’.

The State has been asked to deliver written submission by 23 July 2020 on the following question:

‘Is there an obligation under EU law upon the High Court to interpret the 1995 Act so that the references to “person” therein include legal persons, in order to achieve the objective laid down in Article 9(4) of the Aarhus Convention, namely that the judicial procedures referred to in Article 9 should not be prohibitively expensive?’

After an exchange of papers, a hearing is to be held on 30 July, 2020, subject to Court availability.

FIE is represented by Fred Logue, Solicitor, John Kenny, BL, & Patrick Leonard, SC

Contacts:

COMMENT:
Fred Logue 087 1316023 (solicitor)
Tony Lowes 087 2176316

Judgment:
https://beta.courts.ie/viewer/pdf/3e8422e1-676a-4e3f-bc56-37029af0e416/2020_IEHC_347.pdf/pdf#view=fitH

Back story:
https://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org/press-releases/17826-legal-aid-board-refusal-to-fund-environmental-ngo-faces-high-court-challenge

This Press Release:
https://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org/press-releases/17835-high-court-calls-ireland-and-the-attorney-general-into-challenge-to-legal-aid-board-s-refusal-to-consider-aid-for...arity

Copyright © 2020 Friends of the Irish Environment, All rights reserved.
Press Release

Our mailing address is:
Friends of the Irish Environment
Kilcatherine
Eyeries, Cork P75 CX53
Ireland

Related Link: https://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org/press-releases/17835-high-court-calls-ireland-and-the-attorney-general-into-challenge-to-legal-aid-board-s-refusal-to-consider-aid-for...arity
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy