Episodes

  • Digital Investigations Lab (Part 2)

    Digital Investigations Lab (Part 2)
    Apr 23 2026
    Learning, Trauma, and Truth: A Student Perspective on Digital Investigations What does it mean to learn law by documenting real harm in real time? In Part 2 of this two‑episode LawPod series, host Eva Richards is joined by Kenzie Brodie and Briana Mallon, postgraduate students at Queen's University Belfast, to explore the Digital Investigations Lab from the inside. This episode centres the student experience: how it feels to learn open source investigation techniques while working with traumatic material, contested narratives, and the very real lives behind the data. Rather than theory or institutional design, this conversation focuses on practice, the tools students actually use, the cases that stayed with them, the skills they didn't expect to develop, and how doing this work has reshaped the way they think about law, evidence, and responsibility. It is a frank, reflective discussion about learning by doing, and about the emotional and ethical dimensions of researching war crimes from a distance.
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    26 mins
  • Digital Investigations Lab (Part 1)

    Digital Investigations Lab (Part 1)
    Apr 16 2026
    Open Source Investigations, AI, and Accountability in Conflict What happens when war crimes are filmed in real time — but truth itself becomes contested? In this episode of LawPod, host Eva Richards is joined by Professor Luke Moffett and PhD researcher Lydia Millar, manager of QUB Law’s Digital Investigation Lab, for a deep dive into the fast‑evolving world of open source investigations and their growing importance for law, justice, and accountability. Together, they unpack how publicly available information; from social media videos and satellite imagery to online records, is transforming how lawyers, academics, journalists, and civil society document conflict‑related harms. But they also confront the darker side of this digital revolution: disinformation, AI‑generated fakes, evidentiary scepticism in courtrooms, and widening global inequalities in who gets to investigate who's suffering. This conversation moves from theory to practice, revealing how Queen’s Digital Investigation Lab has supported real‑world litigation and accountability efforts related to Gaza, Syria, Ukraine, and Sudan, and asks what comes next for this powerful and precarious field.
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    37 mins
  • Adoptee Rights and Access to Records in Northern Ireland (Part II)

    Adoptee Rights and Access to Records in Northern Ireland (Part II)
    Mar 26 2026
    Dr Alice Diver hosts a follow‑up LawPod conversation with Sharon, Maeve, and Brigid from Adopt NI, continuing the discussion on adoptee rights, truth recovery, and Northern Ireland’s forthcoming redress legislation. Building on Episode 1, the guests analyse how the draft bill fails to reflect the human rights framework promised in earlier reports and how lived experience has been overlooked in policymaking. They describe the gap between the Truth Recovery Report's human‑rights‑based recommendations and the bill now emerging: the exclusion of workhouse survivors; the omission of practices such as coercion, systemic separation of mothers and babies, and cross‑border adoption pathways; and the absence of a statutory right to personal records. Participants recount their frustration at being positioned as consultees only in appearance, with little genuine influence, and their exhaustion at repeatedly providing testimony that appears unread or unacted upon. The conversation highlights the lifelong impacts of forced separation, trauma, loss of identity, intergenerational effects, and the emotional labour required to obtain fragmented or redacted records. They stress the need for a victims’ commissioner, mandatory access to archives, accountability for institutions (including state, church, and medical actors), and investment in research, education, and non‑repetition measures. Despite the barriers, the group emphasises the strength of peer support through Adopt NI and the ongoing commitment to advocacy and truth-telling. There is one more episode forthcoming in this series. Further Information https://www.assemblyresearchmatters.org/2025/11/24/inquiry-mother-and-baby-institutions-magdalene-laundries-and-workhouses-and-redress-scheme-bill-a-brief-overview/ https://truthrecoverystrategy.com/reports/ Alliance for the Study of Adoption & Culture 2026 Conference — Alliance for the Study of Adoption & Culture AdoptNI Adoption UK Charity Genetic Stigma in Law and Literature: Orphanhood, Adoption, and the Right to Reunion (Palgrave, 2024) https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-46246-7
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    36 mins
  • Inside QUB Law’s Student Skills Assistants Programme

    Inside QUB Law’s Student Skills Assistants Programme
    Mar 19 2026
    Dr Nora Burns speaks with PhD students and long-serving Student Skills Assistants (SSAs) Seanin Little and Aislinn Fanning about the Student Skills Assistants Programme at Queen's University Belfast Law School, launched in November 2021 as a COVID-19 response to support undergraduates' transition to university. The programme expanded from supporting first years to include second and third-year students. Over 20 postgraduates have worked as SSAs, delivering student-led educational workshops (e.g., problem questions, critical reading, referencing, using feedback) and community-building events and trips (e.g., cinema, Crumlin Road Jail, courts), as well as one-to-one support. They discuss moving from online to in-person delivery, scheduling around timetables and cost-of-living concerns, exam-prep blog/podcast for take-home exams, teamwork and time management alongside PhDs, collaboration with student societies (Women in Law and Walkie Talkie Girlies/Project Pink), supporting diverse students, and tips emphasising listening to students, wellbeing, and strong mentorship. This episode was recorded summer 2025. The Skills Assistant Programme was managed by Dr Norah Burns until summer 2025.
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    33 mins
  • Don’t Look Down: Dr Evelyn Collins CBE on Equality, Leadership and Careers in Law

    Don’t Look Down: Dr Evelyn Collins CBE on Equality, Leadership and Careers in Law
    Mar 9 2026
    In this International Women's Day special, LLM student Sofia Debernardi speaks with Dr Evelyn Collins CBE, former Chief Executive of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland and Honorary Professor at Queen's University Belfast. Across a remarkable career spanning more than 30 years, Dr Collins has been a central figure in shaping equality law, mainstreaming duties, and policy across Northern Ireland, the UK, and Europe. In conversation with Sofia, she reflects on:
    • her early ambition to become Northern Ireland’s first female judge;
    • studying criminology in Toronto and discovering feminism;
    • her unexpected path into equality law;
    • leading the newly merged Equality Commission for NI;
    • influencing European policy, including work on sexual harassment, positive action, and equality bodies;
    • her role in shaping Section 75, the Good Friday Agreement, and Article 2 of the Windsor Framework;
    • and her guidance for young people pursuing socially impactful careers in law today.

    This episode offers an inspiring insight into how one woman’s commitment to justice and opportunity helped transform equality legislation at home and abroad.
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    50 mins
  • Womens Aid – Frontline Support to Legislative Change with Sonya McMullen

    Womens Aid – Frontline Support to Legislative Change with Sonya McMullen
    Mar 8 2026

    In this powerful and wide-ranging conversation, LawPod host Justine Van Essen speaks with Sonya McMullan, who has worked with Women’s Aid for almost 30 years, combining frontline expertise with sustained policy advocacy to influence major legislative change in Northern Ireland.

    The episode explores how lived experience, frontline services, and strategic lobbying intersect to shape laws that protect victims and survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. Sonya charts the evolution of Women’s Aid’s work: from the development of the first 24/7 domestic abuse helpline in the mid‑1990s, to the introduction of landmark legislation such as the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (NI), the Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking) Act, and the non-fatal strangulation offence.

    She also sheds light on persistent challenges: under-resourcing, gaps in police training, complex legislative delays, barriers to legal aid, and the urgent need for better protection orders. But the conversation also showcases promising developments including the Domestic Abuse Court pilot, new prevention programmes in schools, and initiatives supporting medical, nursing, social work, and law students to recognise and respond to domestic abuse.


    https://www.womensaidni.org/
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    53 mins
  • Adoptee Rights and Access to Records in Northern Ireland

    Adoptee Rights and Access to Records in Northern Ireland
    Feb 26 2026
    Dr Alice Diver hosts LawPod with fellow adult adoptees Anita, Richard/Michael, and Michelle to discuss adoptee rights amid Northern Ireland law reform and truth recovery processes. They describe meeting through an Adopt NI peer support group and how reports on institutional abuse prompted them to seek their own histories. The conversation focuses on barriers to accessing adoption, institutional, court, trust, and medical records despite Northern Ireland being an open records jurisdiction, including redactions, missing or destroyed files, inconsistent disclosure, and records held by churches and other gatekeepers. They emphasise the emotional harm, distrust, and "gaps" adoptees face; the need for accountable systems and legislation that ensure complete, reliable access; and the reality that receiving records is only the start, with reunions and identity integration continuing afterwards. They highlight peer support and mentoring through Adopt NI and invite adoptees to seek help. Further Information Alliance for the Study of Adoption & Culture 2026 Conference — Alliance for the Study of Adoption & Culture AdoptNI Adoption UK Charity Genetic Stigma in Law and Literature: Orphanhood, Adoption, and the Right to Reunion (Palgrave, 2024) https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-46246-7
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    34 mins
  • AI, Accountability, and Civilian Harm

    AI, Accountability, and Civilian Harm
    Feb 19 2026
    In this episode, Mae Thompson speaks with Prof Luke Moffett, Dr Jessica Dorsey, and Chris Rogers about how artificial intelligence is already reshaping military decision making and what that means for civilian harm, accountability, and redress. The guests distinguish AI‑enabled decision support from lethal autonomy, unpack the cognitive risks of automation bias, anchoring, and de‑skilling, and consider how AI might responsibly support civilian‑harm tracking and investigations through data fusion and triage. They discuss the “triple black box” of accountability (model opacity, military secrecy, and diffused responsibility), the importance of lawful‑by‑design guardrails across the AI lifecycle, and why NGOs must pair new tools with people‑centred documentation. Looking ahead, they reflect on opportunities for a UK statutory redress scheme to deliver prompt acknowledgement, amends, and mitigation—keeping accountability pace with capability while centring affected communities. Prof Luke Moffett — Chair of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, Queen’s University Belfast; author of Algorithms of War: The Human Cost of AI and Conflict (forthcoming, Bristol University Press). Dr Jessica Dorsey — Assistant Professor of International Law, Utrecht University; Director of the Realities of Algorithmic Warfare; expert member of the Global Commission on Responsible AI in the Military Domain; Ambassador for the Lawful by Design initiative; Executive Board Member at Airwars. Chris Rogers — Senior Fellow at the Reiss (Reese) Center on Law and Security, New York University School of Law; former Branch Chief and Law & Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence. This podcast is the sixth in a series of episodes on Civilian Harm in Conflict – hosted by Mae Thompson, advocacy officer at Ceasefire. The podcast is an output of the AHRC‑funded ‘Reparations during Armed Conflict’ project with Queen's University Belfast, University College London and Ceasefire, led by Professor Luke Moffett.
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    43 mins