On 29th and 30th May 2025, Professor Aisling McMahon and Dr Karen Lynch Shally, School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University, hosted a workshop on “Private Law Beyond the Market: Leveraging Private Law to Engage with Social Justice and Public Interest Concerns” at Maynooth University.
Over the course of two days, the workshop brought together over14 speakers to consider the role of private law mechanisms across a range of legal areas, including in the context of financial services, health, employment, environmental and clinical negligence areas. In doing so, the workshop focused, specifically on how private law, broadly defined to include contract law, intellectual property law and tort law, could be interpreted and leveraged to better engage with and embed social justice and broader public interest concerns, and challenges or limitations in this context. The workshop papers and discussions considered two interconnected themes, namely:
1) Whether and to what extent broader public interests, including social justice issues, are currently embedded within private law structures, including for example, within private law remedies, and systems; and
2) To what extent various private law mechanisms, such as contractual clauses, equitable remedies, tort etc, be used to address social justice and broader public interest concerns arising from how market-based systems operate, and what are the limitations or challenges to such approaches.
A range of themes emerged over the course of the two days in this context, including around the role of courts in the interpretation of private law and underlying principles which apply in such contexts; the role of legislation within the private law field; the potential burdens placed on individuals who may seek to use private law challenges to address public interests or social justice issues they experience, such as in the context of access to health services; institutional challenges around the resources and time needed which may be needed for various actors to leverage private law towards public interests aims; and more generally, challenges which can arise due to the increasingly siloed nature of law, in academic and practice areas, including silos within private law and also across public and private law fields.
The event was attended by approx. 25 people over two days and featured insightful and timely discussions with leading experts in the field. A report from the workshop will follow in due course.
Acknowledgements: The organisers would like to thank the School of Law and Criminology for their support in the organisation and funding for this event.
The organisers would also like to thank the event speakers (listed in alphabetical order by surname) for their participation in this workshop, namely: Mark Anderson, Anderson Law LLP and UCL, Professor TT Arvind, University of York, Professor Lucy Ann Buckley, University of Limerick; Dr Talya Deibel, University College Cork; Professor James Devenney, University of Reading; Dr Timothy J. Dodsworth, University of Reading; Professor Mary Donnelly, University College Cork; Dr Zoe Gounari, Newcastle University; Professor Naomi Hawkins, University of Sheffield; Professor Steve Hedley, University College Cork; Dr Karen Lynch Shally, Maynooth University; Dr Emma McEvoy, Dublin City University; Professor Aisling McMahon, Maynooth University; Professor Charlotte Pavillon, University of Groningen; Prof Fergus Ryan, Maynooth University; Dr Alison Slade, University of Leicester.