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Research OpportunitiesSupervisors
  • Health and human rights
  • Science, technology and human rights, in particular questions concerning law's capacity to regulate the life sciences
  • Human rights method
  • Human rights more broadly
  • Health law and ethics
  • Global health law
My work focuses on human rights law and practice. I am particularly interested in health and human rights, including the relationship between human rights and new technologies, and the right to share in the benefits of scientific progress. I am also interested in human rights method.
Professor Thérèse Murphy
  • Constitutional law
  • Administrative law
  • The legal system of Northern Ireland
  • Legal history
My work focuses on constitutional and administrative law. I am particularly interested in the role of law officers, as well as the role of governmental and parliamentary lawyers more generally. I am also interested in legal history and the legal system of Northern Ireland.
Dr Conor McCormick
  • Transitional justice
  • Enforced disappearances
  • Efforts to deal with the past in Northern Ireland
  • Victim mobilisation
  • The relationship between the environment and transitions from conflict
  • The role of forensic science in transitions from conflict
My work focuses on transitional justice. My research is interdisciplinary, drawing on law, criminology, anthropology and politics in particular. I am particularly interested in enforced disappearances, specifically in relation to victim mobilisation, the involvement of non-state armed groups in ‘disappearing’ and efforts to recover the ‘disappeared’. I am also interested in efforts to deal with the past in Northern Ireland, the environmental impacts of conflict and transition, and the relationship between transitional justice and so-called ‘dark tourism’.
Dr Lauren Dempster
  • Socio-legal studies
  • Transitional justice - Dealing with the past particularly in relation to archives, apologies, victims, oral history and ‘from below’ initiatives
  • Cause lawyers
My research has developed at the intersection of socio-legal studies, transitional justice and oral history. In recent years I have worked on a number of local and international research projects relating to the role of lawyers as transitional actors, dealing with the past in Northern Ireland, the role of apologies in mitigating past harms, and the impact of Brexit on the peace process in Northern Ireland. I have a particular interest in the contribution of oral history to transitional justice approaches to dealing with a conflicted past. Socio-legal research; transitional justice; oral history; conflict transformation
Dr Anna Bryson
  • Contract law
  • Tort
  • Private law and commercial remedies
  • Dispute resolution
  • Civil procedure
  • Commercial law
My work focuses on the law of obligations, commercial law, and civil procedure.  I am particularly interested in private law and commercial remedies, and am also interested in dispute resolution methods.   Socio-legal research; transitional justice; oral history; conflict transformation
Dr David Capper
  • Criminal law
  • Comparative criminal justice policy and practices
  • Sentencing and corrections
  • Punishment and society
My work focuses on criminal law and criminal justice. I am particularly interested in comparative criminal justice policy, sentencing and corrections, and the sociology of punishment. criminal law; sentencing; comparative penal policies; sociology of punishment
Dr Alessandro Corda
  • The legal framing of sexual consent
  • Rape reform
  • Responses to sexual and gender based violence in international and domestic criminal law
  • Feminist legal theory
My work focuses on defining rape in international and domestic criminal contexts. I am particularly interested in the relationship between consent and coercion when defining this crime and broader trends in rape reform, including the move towards ‘affirmative’ models of consent. I am also interested in the way norms around rape and other sexual offences travel between international and domestic contexts. In my work I engage primarily with feminist theory and criminal legal theory. Sexual consent, rape reform, responses to sexual and gender based violence in international and domestic criminal law, feminist legal theory, children born of sexual violence in conflict
Dr Eithne Dowds
  • Brexit (particularly in relation to Northern Ireland or justice and security issues more broadly)
  • Critical approaches to international law and institutions
  • Postcolonial theory
  • Critical criminology
My research primarily focuses on two areas. The first examines Brexit; specifically, in relation to the implications for Northern Ireland, as well as broader justice and security cooperation between the UK and the EU. The second surrounds postcolonial theory and its application to international law and institutions. As a criminologist, I am also interested in critical criminology. Human rights, Crimes against humanity, International Criminal Court, EU
Dr Amanda Kramer
  • Transitional justice
  • Truth recovery
  • Dealing with the past
  • Victims, Ex-combatants
  • Reparations
  • Emotions
  • Dark tourism
  • Northern Ireland conflict and peace process
My work focuses on the field of transitional justice. I am particularly interested in the areas of truth recovery, dealing with the past, victims, ex-combatants, reparations, emotions and dark tourism. I have conducted comparative research on these themes in a range of international sites. I am also interested in a wide range of topics relating to the Northern Ireland conflict and peace process. Transitional Justice; Truth recovery, Dealing with the past; Victims; Ex-Combatants; Reparations; Emotions; Dark tourism
Dr Cheryl Lawther
  • Amnesty laws
  • Transitional justice practitioners and stakeholders
  • Dealing with the past in Northern Ireland
  • International law and policy on truth, justice and reparations
My research focuses on transitional justice. I am particularly interested in how the concepts of amnesty, accountability and impunity are understood and applied within the transitional justice field. My research also explores how different actors advocate for, design and work within transitional justice mechanisms and how the nature of transitional contexts can shape the design and legitimacy of transitional justice processes. I am also interested in the use of socio-legal research methods within transitional justice research, particularly databases. international human rights law, human rights practice, research methods and theories, constitutional law
Professor Louise Mallinder
  • Competition law
  • Antitrust law
My research focuses on selected aspects of competition law and policy in international and transnational contexts, including the limits of extraterritorial jurisdiction, state involvement in anticompetitive practices as well as the challenges facing new and developing competition law systems. Competition Law, Antitrust Law, International Economic Law, Law And Economics, Public International Law, Global Governance, Law and Development, Globalization and Governance, European Law, EU Law, WTO law, International Trade Law, Regulation of Transnational Commerce, and Contract Law
Professor Marek Martyniszyn
  • Sexual abuse or exploitation
  • Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV)
  • SGBV in the digital age
  • Peer forms of abuse
  • Historical forms of abuse
  • Restorative justice
  • Risk management of sexual offending
  • Transnational regulation of sexual crime
  • Criminal justice responses to sexual offending
  • Community responses to sexual offending
  • Cultural myths around sexual violence
  • Public health and prevention
My main research interests are in the area of sexual offending against children, including the dynamics of how offending behavior occurs and how it can best be managed. My work takes a socio-legal approach in examining not just legal and policy frameworks around ‘risk’ but the impact of cultural and societal values on our conceptions of and responses to sexual offending behavior. Recent projects include ‘grooming’ and the sexual abuse of children; desistance from sexual offending; sexual exploitation and abuse by children and young people; and apologies and the past where one of the case studies is institutional child abuse. child sexual abuse or child sexual exploitation; 'cyber' or on-line forms of offending; restorative justice; peer abuse; institutional abuse; transitional justice approaches to historic institutional abuses; community or social attitudes to sexual offending; sex offender desistance and reintegration
Professor Anne Marie McAlinden
  • Reparations
  • Transitional justice
  • Victims’ rights
  • Land, housing and displacement
My work focuses on the role of reparations in remedying the consequences of conflict and its place in transitional justice. I am particularly interested in reparations for human rights violations and international crimes, victims’ rights, and land rights. My research involves engaging with victims, affected communities and responsible actors in making amends for the past and co-design and co-produce policy outputs that can find common ground to advance the realisation of issues such as reparations. I am also interested in international humanitarian law and international criminal justice. I have written on the issues of the destruction of cultural property and forced displacement. Reparations Victims' rights, International Criminal Court, Transitional Justice
Dr Luke Moffett
  • Constitutional law and theory
  • Democracy and participation
  • New technology
  • Smart cities
  • Algorithmic government
  • The legal profession and judges
My work focuses on legal and constitutional theory and I have a particular interest in new technology and its impact. This covers issues around e-government and e-democracy as well as the ‘Smart City’. I am also interested in aspects of the legal profession and the judiciary. Constitutional law and theory, e-government and e-democracy, new technology, (including smart cities, big data, surveillance etc.), judges and the legal professions
Professor John Morison
  • Corporate social responsibility
  • Business and human rights
  • Accountability within corporate governance
  • Computational approaches to the study of company law, corporate responsibility and corporate governance
My work focuses on corporate responsibility, accountability, and business and human rights. I am particularly interested in how moral language is used within corporate governance. I am also interested more broadly in the use of computational methods in the study of company law and governance. Socio-legal study of corporate governance, Moral commitments and action within corporate governance and the corporate form - Discourses of responsibility and accountability within corporate governance and public administration - Textual analysis of law and governance, socio-legal perspective
Dr Ciarán O’Kelly
  • Critical approaches to public international law
  • International human rights law and comparative law
  • Right to truth and accountability for human rights abuses
  • International law and Israel/Palestine
My work focuses on doctrinal and applied challenges in Public International Law and Human Rights, as well as International Humanitarian Law (especially the law of occupation) and aspects of International Criminal Law. I am particularly interested in how the international legal framework exists in the Middle East, and adopt a law-in-context approach. I am also interested in property and land law from a human rights and international law angle. International law, human rights, Middle East
Dr Alice Panepinto
  • Financial law and regulation
  • European Banking Union and Capital Markets Union
  • (Post-)Brexit financial markets integration in Europe
  • Sustainable finance and financial inclusion
  • Commercial law
  • Trade law (especially WTO law; trade in financial services; regional trade integration; trade, the environment and precaution)
  • Business regulation (e.g. energy sector; chemical industry; financial services)
  • Competition law and policy (especially tensions between competition law and public policies; relationship between competition law – sector-specific regulation; EU competition law and policy; competition in the financial sector)
My work focuses on global and European financial law and regulation. I am particularly interested in financialisation, financial crises, financial instability, financial (de)globalisation, financial markets (dis)integration, financial markets deregulation and re-regulation, banking law, capital markets regulation, financial exclusion and inclusion, fintech, and (un)sustainable finance. I am also interested in business law and sector-specific regulation, commercial and trade law, competition law, risk regulation and precautionary public policy, greening business, environmental law and policy, and sustainable development. Financial Regulation, Financial Crises, Business Regulation, Risk Regulation and Governance
Dr Dieter Pesendorfer
  • International and regional human rights law particularly applications which focus on gender-based violence
My work focuses on international human rights law. I am particularly interested in domestic abuse as a human rights issue. I am also interested in issues surrounding gender-based violence more broadly. Domestic violence; human rights; violence against women
Dr Ronagh McQuigg
  • Medical Law and Ethics
  • The connection between religious and/or cultural beliefs and medical law
  • Capacity in the context of children
  • Capacity in the context of adults, especially dementia
  • Assisted Suicide
  • Conscientious Objection to Abortion
My work focuses on the in intersection between religion, medicine and the law, as well as medical law and ethics more generally. I am interested in the way in which human rights law and ethics connect in the particular context of healthcare. I am also interested in global health law, especially global health rights and global patient safety. I am interested in the concepts of vulnerability and capacity in healthcare and, dementia, in particular. Medical Law and Ethics, Human Rights Law, Law and Religion
Dr Clayton Ó Néill
  • WTO Law
  • EU external trade relations law
  • UK trade law
  • International investment law
  • Foreign relations law
My work focuses on EU law and international trade law. I am particularly interested in the regulatory dimension of trade agreements, the interplay between international trade law and regulatory autonomy/democratic legitimacy. I am also interested in trade law dimensions of Brexit with a particular focus on the role of devolved authorities in shaping UK trade law and policy. EU External Relations, International Economic Law
Dr Billy Melo Araujo
  • Business and Human Rights
  • OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises (particularly NCPs)
  • Remedy (as related to corporations and international law, access and enforcement)
  • Corporate Governance
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
My work focuses on the intersection of business and human rights. I am particularly interested in how corporations, international and domestic law have shaped the corporate obligation to respect human rights and how, in cases where these obligations have not been fulfilled, a remedy can be sought. Regarding remedy, I am particularly interested in access to and enforcement of remedy. I am also interested in the corporate form, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility. Business and Human Rights OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises (particularly NCPs), Remedy (as related to corporations and international law, access and enforcement) Corporate Governance Corporate Social Responsibility
Dr Ciara Hackett
  • The theory of human rights;
  • The concept of human dignity;
  • The implications of Brexit for the island of Ireland
My work focuses on human rights and equality, in international law, in the ECHR, in the United Kingdom, and comparatively. I am particularly interested in the theoretical underpinning of human rights, particularly the idea of human dignity. I am also interested in the implications for the island of Ireland of the UK’s departure from the European Union.
Professor Christopher McCrudden
  • International human rights law
  • Legal theory/International legal theory
  • Feminist legal studies
My work intersects the areas of international human rights law, legal theory, and feminist legal studies. I am interested in engagements with the theory as well as the practice of human rights, with a particular focus on how ideas of time and temporality can be used as tools to better understand the work of human rights internationally.
Professor Kathryn McNeilly
  • Business and human rights
  • Corporate social responsibility
  • United Nations Guiding Principles
  • Corporate governance (particularly board diversity, director duties and role of business in society)
  • Company law
My work focuses on commercial determinants of health, especially for women and children. My research sits at the intersection of health, and business and human rights. I am particularly interested in how corporations influence health outcomes, most often through marketing strategies, and how both soft and hard law can be invoked to help mitigate harmful impacts. I am also interested in corporate social responsibility, corporate governance and company law. 
Dr Clare Patton
  • International criminal law and transitional justice
  • Critical and post-colonial approaches to international law
  • International human rights
  • Sociology and criminology of mass atrocity crime
  • International peace and security
  • United Nations law
  • Post-conflict peace and cultural heritage protection
  • International law and colonialism
My work focuses on the intersection between international law and international justice. I am particularly interested in the transformation of global legal concepts, the role of international organisations and international criminal courts and tribunals, and the relationship between international criminal justice, peace and transitional justice. I am also pursuing a research line on law and colonialism, in particular the law and ethics regarding return of cultural colonial objects and cultural heritage.
Professor Carsten Stahn
  • Transitional justice
  • Human rights
  • Criminology
  • Sociology of the legal profession
My work focuses on the relationship between law, transitional justice and conflict transformation including; apologies, truth recovery, politically motivated prisoners, ex-combatants, victims, amnesties, human rights, restorative justice and the role lawyers in conflict.
Professor Kieran McEvoy
  • All aspects of law relating to the treatment of the recently dead, bodily disposal, funeral, exhumation and memorialisation
  • Succession law
  • Law and Emotion
  • Property and land law
My work focuses primarily on the legal issues surrounding bodily disposal laws and treatment of the dead. I am particularly interested in the legal frameworks around burial and cremation; disputes around funerals; exhuming the dead and memorialisation. Linked to this, my research also looks at selected aspects of succession law, and the legal and emotional dynamics of inheritance contests within families. My other primary interests are in property law, and the core principles of land law (especially co-ownership).
Professor Heather Conway
  • Criminal law
  • Criminal procedure
  • Sentencing
  • Evidence
  • Victimology
  • Hate crime
  • Criminal law and technology
My research explores the relationship between the criminal law and society, particularly the impact of law on the most vulnerable. I am one of a minority of legal academics skilled in the use of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Two current areas of interest are: 1) Public Space and the Law - use of law to exclude and curtail the freedoms of vulnerable members of society in their use of public space. This research builds on my previous research on the control of anti-social behaviour. In recent years, I have been exploring how current trends in law reform in the UK and elsewhere have been towards greater regulation of the use of public space in the name of gentrification, consumerism and crime control. 2) Older Victims of Crime - exploring crimes that impact on older people and the response of the justice system to this. This has included exploring the phenomenon of unequal access to justice for older victims of crime, including commissioned work for the Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland. It also involves exploring age as a protected characteristic in hate crime legislation.
Dr Kevin Brown
  • Health law
  • Medical law
  • European law and global law and standards
  • Public health
  • New health technologies
  • Biomedical research
  • Clinical trials
  • Equitable access to research findings and new medicines and vaccines
  • Comparative health law
  • Comparative medical law
  • Risk regulation
  • Bioethics
  • Biopolitics
  • Epistemic injustice
My work focuses on health law and regulation and biopolitics, specifically the integration of citizen knowledges in legal and regulatory decisions in the areas of public health and new health technologies at the EU and global levels. I explore how this integration may help to improve the quality, efficacy and legitimation of legal and regulatory decisions. More broadly, I am interested in all areas of the law and bioethics relating to health and medicine.
Dr Mark Flear
  • The Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030
  • The Climate Emergency
  • The Rights of Nature
  • The Commons and Commoning
  • The Wellbeing Economy
  • The Attention Economy
  • Ecological Civilization
  • Law and the Pluriverse
  • The Lawscape and Critical Approaches to Law and Environment
My research interests span the spatial turn in law (‘the lawscape'), critical wellbeing economics, the attention economy, climate change and the rights of nature. I have particular interests in the commons and commoning. My writing is often informed by critical writing and practice outside the dominant Western legal and societal experience, drawing on my interests in Asian philosophical traditions and practices (Chan, Zen). I have also written about and delivered innovative approaches to experiential learning to help students connect their biographical reflections with a greater understanding of the challenges of the climate emergency and delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Dr Peter Doran
  • Transitional justice
  • Counter-terrorism and human rights
  • Feminist legal theory
  • Gender justice
  • Law of armed conflict
My research interests are in the fields of international law, human rights law, national security law, transitional justice, and feminist legal theory. I have long addressed the operation of states of emergencies and continue to pursue this work through COVID-19 analysis.  My national security work addresses the human rights dimensions of countering terrorism and countering (violent) extremism, including the growing international institutional architectures of counter-terrorism, the gendered dimensions of counter-terrorism, the relationship between legal regimes in the context of counter-terrorism, and the emerging challenges of democratic deficit and authoritarian empowerment through security regimes. In the field of transitional justice, my research has addressed complex conflict transitions with a focus on governance capacity, accountability deficits, and gendered impact.
Professor Fionnuala Ni Aolain
  • Human rights
  • Constitutional law
  • Refugee law
  • Migration and citizenship
My work focuses on human rights and constitutional law. I am particularly interested in the interaction between constitutionalism and human rights in a British-Irish context. I am also interested in the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants and the relationship to debates around citizenship, membership and belonging.
Professor Colin Harvey
My work focuses on public law in general and judicial review in particular. I am also interested in tort law. Professor Gordon Anthony
  • Policing, crime prevention and community safety
  • Security sector reform
  • Overseas development assistance and international policing
  • Commercial sex and its policing and regulation
My research has focused on a number of overlapping areas over the years. Firstly, I am interested in processes of police and security sector reform in post-authoritarian and transitional states and the role of overseas development assistance in this.  More recently I have looked critically at the ways in which the police reform process in Northern Ireland has been hailed as a model for overseas emulation. Finally, I am interested in the policing and regulation of commercial sex in a number of European and UK jurisdictions.
Professor Graham Ellison
  • Transitional justice and conflict transformation
  • Youth Justice/Young people in conflict with the law
  • Youth and social justice
  • Penology and former prisoners
  • Criminal Justice
My main research interests lie in the areas of criminal justice, transitional justice, conflict transformation, politically motivated former prisoners and youth, crime and social justice. My recent research has focused on the experiences of children and young people growing up in interface areas, the experiences of young people with community justice/punishment and the impacts of conflict legacy on children and young people in Northern Ireland and the border regions of Ireland.
Dr Clare Dwyer
  • EU Constitutional Law
  • EU Internal Market Law
  • Transnational Law
  • The Social Question
I am generally interested in the transnational dimension of law and in particular in EU law. My work currently focuses on the social question in a transnational context. Previously, I have worked on solidarity, citizenship and EU health care law.
Dr Clemens Rieder

 

  • Adoption law and policy
  • Child protection
  • Adoptee rights
  • Surrogacy
  • Gamete donation; the changing nature of 'the triad;
  • The rights of the child
  • Models for kinship care/alternatives to adoption
  • The right to origin/identity
  • Law and literature

 

My work focuses mainly on human rights issues within family and child law. I am particularly interested in adoption law and policy, child protection, kinship care, closed birth records, vetoes on contact and information release, and the right to origin (i.e. accessing original ancestries and authentic identities) especially across borders and cultures. I am also interested in works of literature relevant to the study of law/legal theory e.g. by Beckett, Steinbeck, Mary Shelley, Godden, the Brontës.   
Dr Alice Diver
  • Climate law (with a particular focus on governance/regulatory initiatives)
  • Environmental law
  • Planning law
  • Coroners law
  • Medical ethics
My research interests lie broadly in the fields of environmental and planning law, particularly climate governance. I am particularly interested in interactions and connections between regulatory initiatives, such as emissions trading schemes, and architectures to enhance complementarity. My research critically engages with the contemporary theoretical, substantive, and operational challenges of climate governance. In addition, I am also interested in medical ethics, clinical negligence, and the coronial jurisdiction.
Dr Gerard Kelly
  • Intellectual property
  • Copyright
  • Visual artist rights
  • Artists resale rights
  • Moral rights (IP)
  • Music law
  • Law and the challenges of technology
My work focuses on copyright in the visual arts and the music industry. I am particularly interested in the effects of technology on these rights. I welcome applications from individuals in either of these subject areas.
Dr Anthony O'Dwyer
  • International and comparative intellectual property law
  • Copyright
  • Trademarks
  • Patents
  • Biotechnology law and policy
  • Law and technology
My research focuses on international and comparative intellectual property law, including copyright, trademarks, patents, biotechnology law, and law and technology. I am particularly interested in exploring the challenges posed by emerging technologies on the way we share information and transact business in the modern digital society. I am also interested in empirical, cross-disciplinary work that examines the connections between law, psychology and social behaviour, including studies that explore the impact of non-traditional trademarks (such as scents, abstract colour marks, and commercial symbols developed in virtual reality platforms) on the purchasing habits of consumers in an age of multisensory branding.
Dr Eugene C Lim
  • International intellectual property law and policy
  • Intellectual property and economic development
  • International investment law
  • Issues related to global south/asian legal studies
My research focuses on the intersection between International Intellectual Property (IP) Law, World Trade, and International Investment Law. My interest lies in exploring the role of national and international legal orders in implementing IP laws and policies in developing countries. I am also interested in policy issues on IP, sustainability and innovation; and interfaces of IP with other branches of international Law. Increasingly I am interested in interfaces of different legal regimes in international law with a focus on Asian Legal Studies (particularly South Asia).
Dr Pratyush Nath Upreti
  • copyright law broadly
  • copyright law in the digital environment
  • copyright, cultural heritage, and digital libraries
  • copyright, public interest, and global justice, including cultural appropriation and access to knowledge
  • intellectual property and fundamental rights online and offline
  • internet governance and platform regulation
  • intermediary liability of online service providers
  • intellectual property enforcement online
  • algorithmic enforcement online
  • artificial intelligence and the law
  • artificial intelligence and intellectual property
  • history and economics of creativity/innovation
  • intellectual property theories and justifications
My work begins from a central question: how does the law adapt to technological innovation? In this context, interdisciplinary working characterizes my research agenda to the maximum extent, since my primary research interest lies at the intersection of law, technology and the humanities. I have dedicated most of my academic career to studying the interface between technology, innovation, creativity, and intellectual property through the lens of international, European and American law. In doing so, I focused on five main research clusters: (I) Intellectual Property (IP) and digitization; (II) IP, public interest, and global justice; (III) history and economics of creativity; (IV) Information Technology (IT), Internet governance, intermediary liability, and platform economy; and (V) legal aspects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) regulation, with special emphasis on IP rights.
Professor Giancarlo Frosio
  • Agriculture law and international pesticide regulations
  • New technologies and their impact on human health and the environment
  • International trade law, in particular questions concerning international trade in biotechnology and normative antinomies between trade law, international human rights law, and international environmental law
  • International environment law, in particular questions concerning the achievement of sustainable development and biosafety, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems
  • Health law and food safety
  • Science, technology, and law, in particular questions concerning law’s capacity to regulate new technologies and keep pace with the scientific development
My work focuses on international environmental law, human rights, and trade law. I am particularly interested in topics relating to health protection, biosafety, trade rules, food safety, and sustainable development, including the relationship between human rights and pesticide regulations, human rights and new technologies, especially biotechnology, and the links between human health, the environment, and international trade. I am also interested in energy law, international pesticide regulations, agricultural law and law of the sea.
Dr Alessandra Guida
  • International economic law (international trade law, international investment law, regional economic integration (in Africa)
  • African union law
  • Law and development
My work lies at the intersection between international economic law, notably WTO law and investment law, and development. I am interested in international trade law and investment and the participation of developing countries in global economic governance. I also explore non-economic concerns of trade agreements such as labour standards, environment, and sustainable development issues. More recently, my research has focused on legal and policy issues emerging from the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Dr Regis Simo
  • International law
  • Feminism and law
  • International legal theory
  • International legal history
  • Law and humanities
  • Utopia
  • Tyranny
  • Use of force
  • International economic law
  • Feminist constitutionalism
  • Brexit and Northern Ireland
My work focuses on international law, legal theory, history, constitutionalism, law and humanities and feminism. I am particularly interested in research that takes critical approaches, combines methodologies, or re-examines existing narratives or looks at utopias and tyranny. I am also interested in work that looks at the use of force, international economic law or global governance and Brexit.
Professor Aoife O'Donoghue
  • Property law
  • Property theory, especially progressive property
  • Property law and sustainability
  • Theft and other property offences
  • Tort law and property
  • Unjust enrichment and property
My work focuses on property law and theory, and related aspects of criminal law and the law of obligations. I am particularly interested in the nature and justification of ownership. While much of my work on ownership is concerned with analysis of its legal meaning and structure, I am also interested in applying insights from analytical scholarship to global challenges – for example, I have written about property in the context of modern slavery; and in the reconstruction of communities and cultural heritage after conflict; and I am currently researching the relationship between ownership and food waste.
Professor Robin Hickey
  • Criminal law
  • Criminal justice
  • Socio-legal approaches to criminal law
  • Lay participation in justice procedures
My research focuses on criminal law, criminal procedure and criminal justice issues more broadly. I am particularly interested in how vulnerable users of the criminal justice system are treated. My research is sociolegal in nature and frequently involves empirical data collection.
Dr John Taggart
  • Harmful behaviours (including harmful sexual behaviours) among young people
  • Issues of consent
  • Law reform in the area of sexual offences
  • Responses to youth based harmful behaviours
  • Youth Justice
My work focuses on peer-based harmful behaviours (including sexual behaviors) and the regulatory challenges presented for legal and other professionals. I am particularly interested in how young people negotiate consent, especially within an online setting. I am also interested in the relationship between consent and coercion and how young people identify and differentiate between explorative and exploitative behaviours.  
Dr Elizabeth Agnew
  • international law
  • international legal theory
  • law of the sea
  • law of international organisations
  • global governance and constitutionalism
  • marine environmental and conservation law
  • fisheries law
My research focus falls broadly in international law and international legal theory, particularly the areas of the law of the sea, international institutions, global governance and the institutional structure of the international legal order. I am particularly interested in projects that span these fields, especially on the regulation and governance of maritime zones, international institutions in the maritime / ocean space, as well as questions of authority and legitimacy in international law and institutions more broadly.
Professor Richard Collins
  • Business and Human Rights
  • Corporate accountability
  • Human rights and the environment/climate change
  • UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
My work focuses on the intersection between business and human rights. I am particularly interested in corporate accountability for human rights harms from socio-legal and interdisciplinary perspectives. I am further interested in corporate capture and accountability for impacts on the environment and climate change
Dr Marisa McVey
  • Human rights
  • Constitutional Law
  • Administrative Law
  • Judicial studies 
My work focuses on intersections between human rights, judging and discourse. I am particularly interested in the application of human rights to new areas, and how judicial discourse and practice shape the content of rights. I am also interested in wider questions about accountability and judicial behaviour. 
Dr Conall Mallory
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