Foreword to the Fifteenth Edition

• Author: William Binchy
• Position: Emeritus Professor of Law, Trinity College Dublin
• Pages: 6-6

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FOREWORD TO THE FIFTEENTH EDITION

It is a considerable honour to be invited to provide the Foreword to the 15th Edition of the

Cork Online Law Review. There is a tangible vitality to the contributions. The authors clearly

care deeply about law and its place in society. They are not hesitant to criticise, but their

criticism is invariably positive and informed. They have an international perspective and their

discourse moves seamlessly from Irish constitutional law to EU law and global and regional

human rights jurisprudence.

Substantive legal theory is analysed, on the themes of the constitutional approach to abortion,

the values underlying property and housing law in Ireland, and the rights of minority

languages in domestic courts. There is throughout a concern for law-in-action, most notably

in relation to such matters as the fallibilities of eyewitness evidence in criminal prosecutions,

the need for the child’s voice to be heard more clearly in family law proceedings, the

possibility of converting conveyancing into an entirely electronic process and a study of

employment law relating to professional football. No one can accuse the authors of having

retreated to an ivory tower: these all are themes of great contemporary relevance, where calm

and informed analysis contributes an important social good.

The Editor-in-Chief, Conor Quane, has every reason to be proud of his achievement; it is a

pride that ought also to be felt by all the contributors and, indeed, by the Law Society and

Faculty of University College Cork. The Cork Online Law Review has a richly deserved

international reputation for scholarship and the 15th Edition further enhances that reputation.

William Binchy, Emeritus Professor of Law, Trinity College Dublin.

March 2016.