Calendar and important dates:

Daily Course Schedule:
8:30 a.m. - 9:40 a.m. -- Introduction to the Irish Legal System
10 a.m. - 11:10 a.m. -- International Human Rights
11:30 a.m. - 12:40 p.m. -- Comparative Criminal Procedure

Courses of Study:
Introduction to the Irish Legal System
(Professor  Ailbhe O'Neill)
This course is designed as an introduction to the Irish legal system and Irish law, particularly Irish constitutional law. The first part of the course will trace the evolution of the Irish legal system including a brief look at Brehon law, the arrival of the common law in Ireland and will enumerate the various sources of Irish law. Next, we will look at the various branches of government, particularly the judicial branch and examine the roles of the various actors in the Irish legal system. The second part of the course will focus on Irish constitutional law. It will trace the history of Irish constitutionalism, concentrating on the background to the present Constitution. The general approach of the Irish courts to this instrument will be examined, particularly the various doctrines of constitutional interpretation used by the courts. In addition, the jurisprudence of a number of the substantive rights conferred by the Constitution including the right to property, freedom of expression and equality will be analyzed and placed in a comparative context.

Comparative Criminal Procedure (Professors Linda and Jeffrey Meyer)
This course will broadly examine the rights of individuals under investigation and prosecution in continental and common law jurisdictions, with emphasis on the United States and Ireland and on the historical roots of some present day rules. We will examine individual rights involving police investigation (search and seizure of evidence, interrogation, and arrest) and criminal trial (the right to counsel, the right to a jury, evidentiary constraints, and sentencing). We will also discuss the special challenges posed by the threat of terrorism. Our main text will be Stephen C. Thaman, "Comparative Criminal Procedure: A Casebook Approach" (Carolina Academic Press 2d ed. 2008), with substantial supplemental and online materials.

International Human Rights
(Professor Neville Cox)
This course considers human rights under various international agreements and documents, including the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the European Human Rights Convention. Students will also study investigations of violations of these human rights.

Student Performance and Grading:
Students are expected to prepare for class, to attend class regularly, and to participate in class discussions. Ordinarily, grades are based on a written examination. The grading scale is from A to F.

Directors:
Professor Linda Meyer will serve as the on-site Director of the program. Professor Robert Farrell is the permanent Director of the Summer Program at Trinity College.

Faculty:
Dr. Neville Cox is a Senior Lecturer in the Law School of Trinity College where he is Director of Postgraduate Teaching and Learning and where he has been a recipient of the Provost's award for outstanding teaching. He is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and a practising barrister. He is the author of Blasphemy and the Law (2000), Sport and the Law (2004) and Defamation Law (2007) as well as numerous chapters in books and articles in law journals. In 2006 he was the International Scholar in Residence in Washington and Lee Law School in Virginia.

Linda Ross Meyer, Carmen Tortora Professor of Law at Quinnipiac University Law School, is a graduate of Kansas University (B.A.) and the University of California at Berkeley (J.D., Ph.D, Jurisprudence and Social Policy). After law school, she served as a law clerk for Judge Charles Legge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, for Judge William A. Norris of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and for Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court. She was an Assistant Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University Law School before joining the faculty of Quinnipiac. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles on habeas corpus, qualified immunity, jurisprudence, and mercy in sentencing. She is author of a forthcoming book, The Justice of Mercy, the Mercy of Justice (Michigan Univ. Press forthcoming 2009).

Jeffrey A. Meyer, associate professor at Quinnipiac University School of Law, is a graduate of Yale College (B.A.) and Yale Law School (J.D.). Between college and law school, he was a Fulbright Scholar in Ecuador. After law school, he served as a clerk for Chief Judge James L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then for Associate Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court. From 1995 to 2004, he was a federal criminal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice. He specialized in the investigation and trial of financial, environmental, and civil-rights crimes. From 2004 to 2005, he served as Senior Counsel to the Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme (led by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker). He teaches criminal procedure, international law, environmental law, and legal ethics. He has authored scholarly articles on criminal and international law, and is co-author of Good Intentions Corrupted: The Oil-for-Food Scandal and the Threat to the U.N. (Public Affairs Books 2006).

Ailbhe O'Neill will teach Introduction to the Irish Legal System. She is a Lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin and Assistant Director of its LL.M. Programme. She graduated from Trinity College with First Class Honours and placed first in both Junior and Senior Sophister years. She received an LL.M. from Cambridge University with First Class Honours and holds a Ph.D. degree from Trinity where her doctoral thesis was titled "Companies and Constitutional Rights." She is a graduate of the Honorable Society of Kings Inns, Dublin and is a Barrister-at-law. Her publications include works in the Trinity College Law Review, the Dublin University Law Journal and the Irish Jurist.