Research Statement
UCD Sutherland School of Law supports and produces legal research of the highest quality in an International, European and Irish context.
A brief overview of KPI performance in 2022-23 looks like this:
- Research awards - highest ever amount - €1,464,000 versus €644,000 in 2017
- Publication volume and co-authored papers with international collaborators is the highest score for the School since 2017
- Citation impact indicator crossed 1.00 for the first time in 2022
The School has an excellent capacity for research and scholarship of international standing, with staff regularly publishing in top peer reviewed journals and with leading academic presses.
And in a very recent and significant development, following review by the Scopus Content Selection and Advisory Board (CSAB) the Irish Jurist was accepted in December 2022 for coverage in Scopus and is now listed in the Scopus Title list (opens in a new window)here. The editor of the Irish Jurist is Dean Emeritus of the law school, Paul O’Connor.
Given its status as one of Ireland’s leading Law School, it is a major contributor to national debates on law reform in Ireland and through publications shapes the development of the law in Ireland.
The School works closely with UCD Research to support colleagues who bid for major international research grants and we currently house three major European Research Council (ERC) grants: Professor Eoin Carolan is leading a project on (opens in a new window)FIAT - The Foundations of Institutional Authority, Professor Amy Strecker is leading a project on Land, Property, and Spatial Justice in International Law - (opens in a new window)PROPERTY[IN]JUSTICE, and Professor Dagmar Shiek's Advanced ERC Grant kicked off in January 2024 and is titled RIGHTS TO UNITE.
Our very first ERC project was completed by Professor Suzanne Kingston and was titled (opens in a new window)Effective Nature Laws,
Research infrastructure includes the support of a dedicated and highly experienced School Research & Innovation Manager, individual research grants from the School for academic staff and doctoral researchers, regular research funding competitions at School, College and University levels, weekly research seminars and an active visiting scholar’s programme, the UCD Sutherland Fellows. The School enjoys a vibrant doctoral studies community offering doctoral research scholarships every year funded by the School and Matheson and Matheson also support the Matheson Centre for Doctoral Research and Scholarship.
We also support an annual PhD conference - this year's Atlas Agora taking place in June. We regularly secure Government of Ireland postgraduate and postdoctoral studies scholarships and have a history of hosting a number of Marie Curie post-doctoral scholars and (opens in a new window)Newman Fellows.
The School is a member of several international scholarly bodies, including the (opens in a new window)European Law Institute and the (opens in a new window)Society of Legal Scholars, regularly hosting major conferences and events. We publish a dedicated (opens in a new window)SSRN working papers series, and faculty are members of editorial boards of several leading international journals.
The School supports four interdisciplinary university research centres: The Institute for Criminology and Criminal Justice, The Centre for Constitutional Studies, The Centre for Human Rights, The Centre for the Common Law in Europe and and two research groups: EnvReg (Environmental Law Group) and the Legal History Group to further support faculty in their research.
Link to individual staff pages can be found here.