Two new Public Law LL.M. modules at NUI Galway

The NUI Galway School of Law has just announced two new modules for full- and part-time students on its LL.M. in Public Law. The programme was founded in 2005 and directed by Marie McGonagle, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law.  The LL.M. aims to provide a solid grounding in the theory, substance and application of Public Law for future practitioners, academics and policy-makers.  The LL.M. is designed around two main themes: “the dynamics of law and social change” and “contemporary challenges in public law.”  It provides students a keen understanding of the most fertile areas and pressing issues for public interest litigation, in both the state and private sectors.

The first new module, Immigration Law, explores the contemporary regulation of immigration in industrialised countries, with particular emphasis on Ireland and the EU.  It examines issues like citizenship, which demarks those who are subject to immigration regulation from those who are not, free movement of EU citizens and EU and national regulation of third country nationals.  It also explores the phenomenon of forced migration owing to persecution and human rights abuses, generalised violence and conflict, environmental degradation and human trafficking.  Finally, it looks at the law and practice of criminalising irregular migration.  Students are encouraged to take a critical and inquiring approach to the subject and to engage with fundamental questions such as: whether citizenship is “the right to have rights” or whether human rights law has something to offer non-citizens; whether there is a valid distinction between free and forced migration; whether current methods of countering irregular migration, such as interception and abandonment at sea, deflection to third countries and forced return are legal and ethical.  Immigration Law will be taught by Ciara Smyth who has been active in capacity-building, teaching and researching in the field for more than ten years.  In addition to being a Law Lecturer at NUI Galway, Ciara Smyth is a researcher with the Institute of Immigration Law at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands and a Board Member of the Irish Refugee Council.

The second new module, Advocacy, Activism & Public Interest Law, was first taught in the 2011-2012 academic year. It deals with substantive and strategic issues in public interest law and litigation, as well as related questions on the regulation of charitable non-governmental organisations. While this offering is concerned with the development of public interest law in Ireland, it draws on comparative research and experience.  Advocacy, Activism & Public Interest Law is taught by Donncha O’Connell, a Law Lecturer at NUI Galway, Part-Time Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission, Editor of the Irish Human Rights Law Review and former Member of the PILA Advisory Board.

Further information on the LL.M. in Public Law is available here. 

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