The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, representing more than 700,000 lawyers from the EU and European Economic Area, has granted its 2009 Human Rights Award to Stanislav Markelov, a Russian lawyer assassinated on January 19th in Moscow.
Markelov, who was also a journalist and president of the Rule of Law Institute, defended Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist shot dead in Moscow in 2006 while she was investigating atrocities of the Chechen war by the Russian military.
He also represented Mikhail Beketov, editor of a pro-opposition newspaper assaulted in 2008, and several Chechen nationals tortured during the Chechen wars.
He was assassinated days after the early release of an army colonel who was convicted of the rape and murder of an 18-year-old Chechen woman, as he left a press conference at which he denounced the early release.
A journalist at the press conference was also killed.
The council wrote to the Russian government urging it to carry out an immediate investigation into the two murders.
Rights lecture by Seamus Heaney
The Irish Human Rights Commission’s fourth annual Human Rights Lecture will be given by Nobel laureate and poet Seamus Heaney in the Shaw Room of the National Gallery, Merrion Square, Dublin, on Wednesday at 6pm.
The lecture will mark International Human Rights Day, which falls on December 10th, and the audience will hear Heaney offer his perspective on human rights.
New LRC paper on law of evidence
The Law Reform Commission’s consultation paper on documentary evidence will be launched by Attorney General Paul Gallagher at the commission’s offices at 6pm on Thursday.
The paper forms part of the commission’s third programme of law reform 2008-2014 and is one of three projects concerning aspects of the law of evidence.
Book on separation of powers
Oxford University Press has just published a book on The New Separation of Powers: A Theory for the Modern State by Eoin Carolan, who lectures on constitutional and administrative law at UCD.
The book argues for the replacement of the traditional theory of the separation of powers with a new model. It is available in hardback at £50.
New partners at McCann Fitzgerald
McCann FitzGerald has announced four new partners. They are Aidan Lawlor, corporate finance group; Darragh Murphy, banking and financial services group; Annette Orange, IT and e-commerce group; and Brian Quigley, dispute resolution and litigation group.