Judge Siofra O'Leary has been appointed one of five Section Presidents at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

She began her two-year term as head of the court's Fifth Section at the start of this month.

The Dublin-born judge was appointed to the human rights court's bench in 2015.

A UCD BCL graduate, with a PhD from the European University Institute, Dr O’Leary is a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, elected in respect of Ireland.

Research

Previously, she was a head of unit at the research and documentation directorate of the Court of Justice of the EU.

She is also a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, and a member of the editorial board of the Common Market Law Review.

She has served as a référendaire at the Court of Justice for many years in the chambers of Judges Aindrias Ó Caoimh, Fidelma Macken, and Federico Mancini.

Before working at the court, Dr O’Leary was the Assistant Director for the Centre of European Legal Studies at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of Emmanuel College.

Visiting fellow

She was previously a visiting fellow at the faculty of law, University College Dublin, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Cádiz, Spain, and a research associate at the Institute for Public Policy Research in London.

She is the author of two books entitled, The Evolving Concept of Community Citizenship (Kluwer, 1996) and Employment Law at the European Court of Justice (Hart Publishing, 2001) and has published extensively in academic journals and EU law monographs on the protection of fundamental rights in the EU, EU employment law, the free movement of persons and services, and EU citizenship