Resources
Centre for Justice and Law Reform
We aim to help shape law reform and bring about improvements in the justice system.
We will publish evidence-based research, foster debate, and advocate for positive change aimed at improving the public’s experience of the Irish justice system. Our work is being guided by an Advisory Board, consisting of leading experts in their respective fields.
Our research focus is currently grouped into four main areas: Access to Justice; Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; Democratic Norms; and Evolving Legal Services. A number of research papers are in-train and will be published in the coming months.
Advisory Board
Our Advisory Board is tasked with reviewing, challenging, and approving our programmes of research.
The Advisory Board also provides guidance on topics suitable for consideration and research by the Centre.
Noeline Blackwell is a human rights lawyer and independent consultant. Noeline is involved in a variety of activities including as the children’s online safety co-ordinator with the Children’s Rights Alliance and is an Adjunct Full Professor at the School of Law, University College Dublin. She also currently chairs the Independent Patient Safety Council, the Child Law Project and is a director of the Open Doors Initiative.
Between 2016 and 2023, she was the CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, a voluntary organisation which works to prevent the harm and heal the trauma of sexual violence. Prior to this, she was the Director General of access to justice organisation FLAC, the Free Legal Advice Centres, for eleven years. She previously ran a solicitor’s practice where she had a particular interest in refugee and immigration issues and in family law.
Raymond Byrne is a legal specialist and an Adjunct Full Professor at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin. Raymond is a former full-time Commissioner at the Law Reform Commission where he served from April 2016 to July 2021. He also served as the Commission’s Director for Research for 13 years. A qualified barrister, he was a lecturer in law in the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University between 1982 and 2007.
Raymond’s work included the chairing of a Working Group whose work led to a Council of Europe 2009 Recommendation on Missing Persons and Presumption of Death, and which influenced the enactment of the Civil Law (Presumption of Death) Act 2019.
Deirdre Curtin is Professor of Law and Dean of Graduate Studies at the European University Institute in Florence. She is the Director of the Centre for Judicial Cooperation at the Robert Schuman Centre and is a member of the Harassment Decision-Making panel.
Deirdre studied Law at University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, and the National University of Ireland. She is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a laureate of the Spinoza prize by the Dutch Scientific Organization (NWO, 2007) for research in the field of European law and governance. She holds Honorary Doctorates in law awarded by the University College in Dublin (2008) and University of Copenhagen (2018). She is an honorary Bencher of the King's Inn, Dublin (2013). Since 2021 Deirdre is a member of the Royal Irish Academy.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher is a Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London, specialising in human rights and civil liberties. Caoilfhionn has particular expertise in freedom of expression and open justice. She has acted in many landmark human rights cases before the European Court of Human Rights, United Nations bodies and other international tribunals, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and courts in the UK and a number of other jurisdictions.
Caoilfhionn is a graduate of UCD, the King’s Inns and the University of Cambridge (Gonville and Caius). In 2017 she received UCD’s alumni award for outstanding achievements by a UCD law graduate, and in the same year she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts for her contribution to the protection of human rights. In 2023, she was appointed Ireland’s Special Rapporteur on Child Protection. In 2024, she has been presented with a Presidential Distinguished Service Award in recognition of her contribution to charitable works and advocacy.
Sinéad McSweeney is currently studying Psychology at Trinity College, Dublin. She is the former Global Vice President of Public Policy of Twitter, a role she held until December 2022. Prior to that role she acted as Twitter’s Head of Public Policy EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), and was subsequently appointed Managing Director of Twitter’s EMEA Headquarters in Dublin.
Prior to her career at Twitter, Sinéad held a range of political advisory positions in the Irish government including roles as Special Adviser to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and, prior to that, at the Attorney General’s Office. She was Director of Communications for An Garda Síochána from 2007 to 2012, having done a similar role as Director of Media and Public Relations for the Police Service of Northern Ireland between 2004 and 2007.
Niamh Moloney is a Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and specialises in EU Financial Markets Regulation. Her main research interest is the exploration of the EU's regulation of financial markets from institutional, substantive, and contextual perspectives.
Niamh was recently appointed to the board of Taighde Éireann, Research Ireland. She also serves as an independent, non-executive director of the board of the Central Bank of Ireland and as a member of the board of appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities. Niamh is also a member of the Advisory Scientific Council of Better Finance (the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users) and a member of the Advisory Academic Committee of the European Capital Markets Institute.
Colin Scott is the Registrar, Deputy President and Vice President for Academic Affairs at University College Dublin. He previously worked as Professor of EU Regulation and Governance and held positions as Vice President for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Principal of UCD College of Social Sciences and Law, and Dean of Social Sciences and Dean of Law. Previous positions have included a senior research fellowship in public law at the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, and professorship at the College of Europe, Bruges. Colin moved to UCD from the London School of Economics where he was the Director of the interdisciplinary master’s programme in Regulation.
He is an internationally recognised expert on regulatory governance, with particular interests in accountability, private regulation and reflexive governance. His research has focused centrally on the trends of and implications from the fragmentation of regulatory governance.
