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The Law Society, University College Cork[1] is an academic student society at University College Cork (UCC). Its functions include "House Meetings", debating, education, moot court and social. The society hosts the annual Law Conference in University College Cork (UCC) which is attended by students and local practitioners alike. The society is responsible for editing and publishing the annual Cork Online Law Review (COLR). The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ireland, The Hon. Mr. Justice John L. Murray said of the society in 2005,
"With alumni that have included such noted figures in public life as Jack Lynch and Gerald Goldberg, it is beyond question that the role the Law Society has played in the education of the students of U.C.C.'s Law Faculty has always been a significant one."[2]
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The Law Society attracts consistent attention from student and local media in Cork, as well as attention from the national media on occasion. From 27 December 2008 to 4 January 2010 the Law Society jointly hosted the largest academic competition in the world, the World Universities Debating Championship with the UCC Philosophical Society.[3][4] On 4 November 2009, the Law Society was addressed by noted journalist Robert Fisk, attracting a capacity crowd in UCC's largest lecture theatre. Other notable figures to have spoken at House Meetings of the society include Taoiseach John A. Costello in 1956, then Senator Mary Robinson in 1976, Fianna Fáil Party Whip and future Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, author and advocate for the legalisation of cannabis Howard Marks in 1997 and talk-show host Ryan Tubridy. In the area of education, the Law Society spearheaded a campaign by Irish law students - which culminated in a successful legal action - against unfair changes to entry requirements by the Law Society of Ireland.
Each academic year of the society's existence is referred to as a "session". The society is currently in its 80th session, suggesting that the society as it exists today originated in 1929. Notably however, the constitution submitted by the Law Society to the college authorities in 1950 was remarkably similar to a document entitled 'House Rules of the Law Students' Debating Society', which was submitted in 1928. Whatever the actual moment of genesis for the society as it exists today, it is likely that the Law Students' Debating Society and the Law Society ultimately coalesced.
The Law Society is governed by a constitution. The constitution has existed in various guises throughout the history of the society, having frequently been redrafted or amended. The constitution provides for a society consisting of a president, a patron, fellows, an auditor, an executive committee, sub-committees, "Honorary Life Members" and "Ordinary Members". The current ex-officio patron of the Law Society is U.C.C. Dean of Law, Professor Steve Hedley[5] while the current President of the Society is Professor David Gwynn Morgan, formerly of the U.C.C. Law Faculty.
The Society is run by an Executive Committee consisting of 15 students, who are elected at either the end of the academic year or the beginning of the new academic year, depending on position.
The Executive Committee for each session consists of; an auditor, a vice-auditor, a finance officer, an education officer, a social secretary, a public relations officer, a recording secretary, an internal convenor, a moot convenor, a conference director and an editor-in-chief of the Cork Online Law Review, in addition to representatives for each of the Law Faculty class groupings.