Dates for your diary...
US lawyer to speak on human rights
Prof Harold Koh, tipped for the US Supreme Court in a Democratic administration, will give a talk entitled Human Rights and the Next US Administrationin the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) at 6pm this evening.
It forms part of a day-long conference on human rights organised by the RIA to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Prof Koh started the Human Rights Clinic at Yale University.
In 1992, with the help of Yale law students, he successfully sued the US government for the right to visit Haitian clients who had fled Haiti after the coup and had their boats stopped by the US coast guard.
He is editor of the Harvard Law Review, author of 10 books and numerous articles.
Prof Koh was assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour under the Clinton administration.
Amnesty conference
Amnesty International is also having a conference on human rights this week.
The theme of the international conference is Human rights, human dignity: health and housing in Ireland.
The conference takes place in the O'Callaghan Davenport hotel in Merrion Square, Dublin this morning and continues tomorrow.
Minister for Health Mary Harney, Minister of State for Housing Michael Finneran, Eamonn MacAodha, of the Irish Human Rights Commission, and Muiris MacCarthaigh, of the Institute of Public Administration, will be among the Irish speakers at the event.
International speakers will include Miloon Kothari, former UN special rapporteur on the right to housing; Freek Spinnewijn, of the European Federation of Organisations working with the homeless; Alicia Ely Yamin, of Harvard Law School; and Mark Joannides, of the UK Department of Health.
Amnesty speakers will include Colm O'Gorman and Noeleen Hartigan, and panel discussions will take place this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon.
New book on labour law
Essentials of Irish Labour Law, by labour law lecturer Mary Faulkner, has just been published by Gill and Macmillan, costing €21.24.
The publication covers this area of law from its beginnings in the Constitution to the impact of the EU and international conventions.
Among the issues covered are employment contracts, health and safety regulations, employers' liability, harassment, corporate killing and the various aspects of equality legislation.
The book is intended, not only for law students and legal practitioners, but also for those involved in education, industrial relations, management and unions.