Editorial

• Author: Feidhlim Mac Róibín
• Pages: 1-4

Editorial

The past year has been dominated by events which have cast great

uncertainty over the fabric of the global economic, political, and legal

order which many of us had previously accepted as a given. In Ireland,

2016 also initiated a period of reflection on, and celebration of, the

genesis of Irish statehood. Meanwhile, apprehension over the

implications of a ‘hard Brexit’ for Ireland and the collapse of the

Northern Ireland Executive continues to test the durability of the peace

process institutions.

While the law can appear to many to be a slow, inching creature,

the pace and depth of these changes underline the importance for all

lawyers of being able to adeptly respond to a changing environment. The

student-run law journal encourages both authors and editors to be

reflective and responsive in their engagement with the law: eager to

conceptualise its origins and development, and ready to point to a path

for its future direction.

The Trinity College Law Review now marks its twentieth

anniversary; a testament to the enthusiasm and skill of successive

Editorial Boards, together with the unwavering support of its Patron,

Arthur Cox, its Friends, Advisory Board, and the Trinity College School

of Law. It was certainly an ambitious undertaking by that first group of

students to set up a student-edited law journal which would be the first

of its kind in Ireland. Since then, the Law Review has established itself as

a fixture of student life in the Law School, providing a forum for in-depth

and discursive engagement with legal concepts and developments.

We are delighted this year to continue our association with the

Trinity College Law Student Colloquium by publishing the annual Brian

Lenihan Memorial Address, this year given by the Honourable Ms Justice

Mary Finlay Geoghegan on 4 February 2017. This piece conducts an in-

depth and comprehensive analysis of the functioning of the Court of

Appeal and the Supreme Court following the passing of the 33rd

Amendment to the Constitution.

Edmund Burke proclaimed that the breadth within the study of law

renders one ‘acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in

defence, [and] full of resources’, and this is reflected by the variety of

topics addressed in Volume XX. Jack Farrell in ‘Vixens, Sirens and

Whores’ traces the history of stereotyping of victims in the 18th and 19th

century sexual offence law and proposes that these images continue to

bear significance in today’s criminal law.