It’s hard to know where to begin with this one: an entire committee obliged to resign within just 3 bitter-sweet days of being elected, a PhD on the line, and a possible end to the TCD Law Student Colloquium as we know it (or if you didn’t know it before, at least now you can spell it). Here’s what we do know: At 5 pm on Thursday, 4th June, a captain decided to go down with his ship, despite there being, apparently, plenty of lifeboats and zero passengers on board.
On the 24th of May, all law students received an email from the Law School notifying them that the Law Colloquium, a student-led academic platform, was under review of governance and that electing a new committee at this time would be ill-advised. Just one day later, the Colloquium recirculated an election post on their Instagram, purporting that the election of a new committee would carry on as usual. Accompanying this were what seemed to be three posts of the Colloquium’s chairperson, Lukian Pudliak, and his trips “on behalf of the Colloquium” to Rome, Bologna, and even the Bloom Gardening Festival. It is unclear what connection a legal academic platform for students has to do with a gardening festival featuring cooking sweetheart Nevin Maguire, or how these visits were funded in the first place. These were also seemingly solo engagements, considering that the group’s committee had only been elected after these trips, except for Lukian, who had retained his position as chair from the previous year.
In the last week, several statements have also been released on the Colloquium Instagram, including a notice stating that “no general review of governance of the Colloquium is currently taking place and [that] the organisation continues to operate normally”. In the last three days, a full list of the new committee members has been published on the page, as well as a manifesto of the new chair, promising, among other things, an active social media presence, which he seems to have already achieved. Most recently, a notice went out seeking “maximum attention from the entire community”, claiming that “the existence of the Colloquium is under threat.” Attached to this post was a screenshot of an email sent from a professor of the Law School to all new members. In the full version of this email, members were asked that the Colloquium “cease and desist from all use of the name Trinity College Dublin” and that “all references to Trinity College Dublin in websites and social media presence… be removed by 5 pm on Thursday 4 June.” Members were further warned that if they did not also resign by this date, they would be at risk of facing disciplinary proceedings.
According to a former committee member, on the day of the deadline, Lukian held a meeting over Zoom with five remaining members present, in which he was adamant that what the college was doing was “unconstitutional” and claimed that the Law School had an unknown vendetta against him, for reasons known only to Lukian. When asked for transparency by a member on the call about the circulating rumours that he used committee money to fund his trip to Italy, he denied them completely and further reiterated: “I can assure you that there are no official reviews currently taking place regarding governance.” The school-wide email stating exactly that must not have reached Lukian’s inbox. “Following our meeting, you will all be able to make your own assessment and decide how you wish to proceed.” It is unknown how many of the five members on the call still remain on the committee. Aperol Spritz, anyone?
Lukian has reached out to other student bodies, including the Muslim Students’ Association, asking for student support. In the message, Lukian details the “serious pressure” he is under from the Law School and how their efforts may result in the closure of this “long-standing student-led initiative” (est. 2007). He goes on to say that he suspects that the confrontation became “notably more visible,” following the organisation’s “increased collaboration with the campaign to pass the Occupied Territories Bill.” However, it should be noted here that Lukian has never publicly made this claim anywhere else, nor has the Law School ever objected to other Law societies’ initiatives and events supporting Palestine.
Lukian believes his next move is to rely on promissory estoppel, which is a legal principle that allows a person to enforce a promise, even without a formal, legally binding contract. What’s crucial to evoking promissory estoppel is a detrimental reliance by the party at loss on the promise at hand, accompanied by a fundamental unfairness or injustice if this promise is not enforced. I’m not qualified to give a legal opinion, but I do struggle to see how one could rely on the existence of a student society to their own detriment. Nevertheless, let this be a cautionary tale to society leaders everywhere to stick to their constitutions, respect the values of their community, and keep in mind that the trains don’t always have to run on time for a society to function normally. At the end of the day, student organisations only function with trust, and trust only survives when transparency, oversight and shared values are non-negotiable.
The Law School has expressly agreed that Colloquium can continue under temporary oversight of the Law Society and the Law School, under the condition that the committee be re-elected entirely through a fair process and agree to regular governance checks conducted by the Law School. Only upon the satisfaction of these conditions, the Colloquium would be allowed to continue under the name ‘Trinity College Dublin Law Students’ Colloquium” once more. Lukian has rejected any such proposals as of yet.
For now, we wish the Colloquium (what’s left of it at least) the best of luck with their endeavours, wherever they lead them.
