On 15th and 16th November, the School of Law and Criminology hosted the annual Irish Association of Law Teachers Conference, coordinated by its President for 2023/2024, Dr. Mary Dobbs. She was supported in this by the IALT Council, as well as a team of MU students and a research assistant: Aaron Harte-Hughes, Aleksandra Czarnik, Chloe Cass, Cydney Sheridan, Kashmala and Petra Grimes.
The IALT conference is a key highlight in legal academic circles on the island of Ireland. It provides an invaluable forum for legal academics to discuss any aspect of their research or pedagogy in a supportive, inspiring context. This year’s IALT conference saw approximately 80 papers from researchers across Ireland, the UK and beyond. The speakers represented over 20 institutions, providing an essential networking opportunity, including for ECRs. More than 10 MU staff and PhD students presented at the conference.
The conference theme was linked to AI, inspired by Isaac Asimov’s laws of robotics, with excellent keynotes by Prof. Deirdre Ahern from TCD, and Drs. Lucia Otoyo and Andy Unger from LSBU. The honorary life membership was awarded to Prof. Deirdre McGowan of TUD, recognising her major and long-standing contributions to the IALT, legal education and research, as well as the community more broadly.
The conference was kindly sponsored by Matheson Solicitors, which, amongst other things, enabled the association to award three PhD scholarships to attend the conference and encouraged wide engagement by PhD students. This year, over 20 PhD students applied for the scholarships. The three worthy PhD scholarship winners were Aleksandra Czarnik (Maynooth University), Meabh Browne (TUD) and Obele Akinniranye (Maynooth University).
The IALT would like to note that the School of Law and Criminology sponsored the Friday evening meal in Pugin Hall, while Clarus Press sponsored the reception before the gala dinner in the Glenroyal Hotel. Both of their sponsorship was greatly appreciated. All photographs are courtesy of Ann Lane, with our sincere thanks.
Next year the conference will be hosted in Derry by Ulster University.