Enhancing Leadership and Organization for Farmers' Market Success

Agribusiness, Marketing,

Judging justice - how solicitors\u27 expertise can improve the courts system

This article details the initial findings of a nationwide interview study undertaken by the author of litigation solicitors in Ireland on their views of the Irish courts system and the Irish judiciary

Supreme Court case has implications for abortion referendum

This article details the possible consequences of an important Supreme Court case on the 8th Amendment of the Irish Constitution, centring on the interpretation of the right to life of the unborn

What makes a good judge?

This article overviews research demonstrating the factors beyond the law that can affect judicial decision-making

Judging Better Together: Understanding the Psychology of Group Decision-Making on Panel Courts and Tribunals

While the psychological phenomena that affect group decisionmaking have been thoroughly investigated for decades, how these phenomena apply to decision-making by judges on panel courts is under-examined. This article examines the main psychological phenomena of group decision-making, both positive and negative, and considers their implications for panel courts and other groups of professional legal decision-makers such as adjudicators serving on tribunals. This article argues that experimental studies on judges and adjudicators testing the effects of these phenomena would improve understanding of legal decision-making by these groups and could help to devise ways to improve their decision-making processes to reach higher quality decisions. Some ideas and outlines for experimental studies are presented

Workplace Dispute Resolution in Ireland at a Crossroads: Challenges and Opportunities

The Workplace Relations Act 2015 fundamentally reformed the workplace dispute resolution system in Ireland–the centrepiece being the Workplace Relations Commission, the new body for first-instance dispute resolution. While the overall system is an improvement on its overly-complex and confusing predecessor, the Supreme Court’s decision in Zalewski v An Adjudication Officer declaring aspects of adjudication at the WRC unconstitutional, coupled with user representatives’ persistent concerns about how adjudication is conducted, present ongoing challenges. This article describes the results of a survey undertaken in 2019 by the author of over one hundred representatives’ views on the system, and contextualises them in light of Zalewski. Based on findings from the survey—the third in a series of such surveys since 2011–and the requirement to amend WRC adjudication processes following Zalewski, the author suggests that the WRC could reframe how it presents and delivers its dispute resolution services at first instance to help better serve workers and employers in dispute. Specifically, the WRC could enhance its Mediation Service both in terms of how mediation is presented and how it is delivered, so that it is perceived by users and representatives as a mainstay dispute resolution mechanism rather than as a secondary offering to the Adjudication Service. Such a recalibration could help achieve a better balance of informal, flexible dispute resolution through mediation in tandem with constitutionally-compliant adjudication with more robust procedures

A strategy model for workplace mediation success

The article proposes a three-step model to help workplace mediators decide on the optimum strategy for mediating workplace disputes. The model uses a grid – the Workplace Mediation Strategy Grid – which is based on a modified version of a grid Professor Leonard Riskin developed for categorising mediation orientations (Riskin 1994; Riskin 1996). The model asks the mediator to first consider the nature of the workplace dispute based on three facets of the dispute. This guides the mediator to plot a position on the Grid which represents two fundamental aspects of strategy for mediating that dispute: (1) how broadly the problem should be defined by the mediator and (2) the style of mediation that the mediator should use. The mediator implements this strategy improving the likelihood of a fair and positive outcome for the disputing parties

Judicial Impartiality in the Judicial Council Act 2019: Challenges and Opportunities

The Judicial Council is tasked with promoting and maintaining high standards of judicial conduct. The Judicial Council Act 2019 identifies judicial impartiality as a principle of judicial conduct that Irish judges are required to uphold and exemplify. Despite its ubiquity, judicial impartiality is perhaps under-explained and under-examined. This article considers the nature and scope of judicial impartiality in contemporary Irish judging. It argues that the Judicial Council ought to take a proactive, multi-faceted approach to promote and maintain judicial impartiality, to address contemporary challenges that the Irish judiciary face including increasingly sophisticated empirical research into judicial performance, the proliferation of judicial analytics tools, and more probative and critical media and social media coverage of the Irish judiciary

Fast wavelength switching lasers using two-section slotted Fabry-Pérot structures

Fast wavelength switching of a two-section slotted Fabry–PÉrot laser structure is presented. The slot design enables operation at five discrete wavelength channels spaced by 10 nm by tuning one section of the device. These wavelengths operate with sidemode suppression ratio in excess of 35 dB, and switching times between these channels of approximately 1 ns are demonstrated