Project Code

Project Title

Primary Supervisor

LAW-QIEL-01

Subsidies, Climate Change and International Trade Law

This project will address climate change–related subsidies under international trade law.  It will examine the extent to which international trade law permits the subsidisation of economic activities and industries linked to combatting climate change, and it will assess whether and to what extent gaps exist in the legal framework. Where shortcomings are identified, the project will explore potential solutions for reconciling international trade law with the urgent need to facilitate low-carbon industrial transformation.

Professor Billy Melo Araujo

LAW-QIEL-02

An International Legal Framework for a Global Circular Economy

The project will examine the case for embedding domestic circular economy policy frameworks within a wider global circular economy. The research will investigate how national, regional, and local legal frameworks can be designed to contribute to a global circular economy, ensuring coherence between domestic strategies and international sustainability. By identifying legal mechanisms that facilitate sustainable cross-border resource flows, the project will assess the feasibility of a truly circular global economy that reduces carbon emissions and resource depletion. 

Professor Billy Melo Araujo

LAW-QIEL-04

Examining the Legal Infrastructure of the Windsor Framework to maximise North-South, East-West, EU and global trade.

The project will examine the Windsor Framework to understand the extent to which enhances or inhibits trade domestically and internationally. It will examine other examples of hybrid trade regimes to assess whether such regimes can provide answers to some of the challenges faced in the implementation of the Windsor Framework.

Professor Aoife O’Donoghue

LAW-QIEL-05

Social rights and Labour Standards in Northern Ireland Post Brexit: The impact of Article 2 of the Windsor Framework

The project will examine the extent to which Article 2 of the Windsor Framework shapes the ability of NI to regulate social and labour matters. This project would align with the NI Executive Government Plan in relation to the Equality Impact Assessment.

Dr Marisa McVey

LAW-QIEL-07

Entertainment Services in International Economic Law

The project will examine a largely ignored topic in international economic law and policy: the treatment of entertainment services in international trade and investment agreements. In doing so, the project would consider how such agreements can be used to protect or promote trade and investment in the entertainment sector. This project is particularly topical in light of potential trade barriers affecting entertainment services including the cinema industry.

Professor Billy Melo Araujo

LAW-PCL -01

An inclusive and responsible FinTech regulatory system for NI

The project will develop an empirical study of the experience of young people in Northern Ireland with online investment platforms and subsequently proposes an inclusive and responsible FinTech regulatory framework.

Dr Zi Yang

LAW-PCL-02

Reconsidering Directors’ Fiduciary Duties for a Sustainable Corporate Future

This project adopts a social-legal approach to explore common law’s role in encouraging corporate engagement with sustainable development.

Dr Zi Yang

LAW-PCL-03

Embedding Human Rights in Business Practice: Approaches to Corporate Accountability in Northern Ireland

The project will develop a legal blueprint for embedding human rights within business activities in NI and across supply chains, while also contributing to scholarship on devolution, human rights and global governance. It will include collaborations with government departments, regulators, and legal practitioners in the co-design of recommendations.  

Dr Marisa McVey

LAW-PCL-04

Business and Human Rights and corporate development of military use AI

This project will analyse how the use of AI is evolving into being used for military software. This will include looking at how business innovation takes into consideration the business and human rights implications of this emerging use of new technology.

Professor Luke Moffett

LAW-PCL-05

Border, Business and Human Rights, Liminality and Northern Ireland

This project will address the legacy of the NI Conflict and the networks and communities created around the border areas. Specifically, it looks at how these communities have struggled post conflict with public health crises around mental health as well as economic and social hardship. We propose addressing these communities through the lens of business and human rights, and specifically thinking about these communities as marginalised groups, liminal in so far as their experiences are unique and part of the context of their histories and their future.

Dr Ciara Hackett

LAW-PCL-08

Non-judicial remedies for corporate harms in Northern Ireland

This project will analyse how part of the benefits of a growing economy is a stable and accessible system of redress where incidences in the economy have resulted in a negative impact.  Traditional judicial mechanisms are burdensome (financial, procedural and evidentiary).  Instead, this project will focus on regional approaches to non-judicial remedies particularly those that prioritise mediation and conciliation as an outworking of the OECD Guidelines of Responsible Business Conduct.

Dr Ciara Hackett