Law Lecturer Participates in Roundtable at Rutgers Law School, New Jersey

Dr Kathryn O’Sullivan, School of Law, recently travelled to Rutgers Law School, New Jersey, USA to participate in the prestigious Fifth Nonmarriage and the Law Roundtable, a specialist conference exploring interdisciplinary issues surrounding relationships and statuses outside monogamous marriage. Dr O’Sullivan received a funded invitation, jointly supported by Rutgers University and UL’s Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science, to present alongside approximately 25 colleagues from various US law schools including Yale Law School, Columbia Law School and Boston University School of Law as well as international law schools such as the School of Law at Murdoch University, Australia. Reflecting on the Irish experience of having introduced a statutory cohabitation law regime in 2010, her paper drew on her recent research investigating the protection ultimately given to financially vulnerable cohabitants on relationship breakdown in Ireland and highlighted the need for reform.