Dr. Síofra O'Leary, BCL (University College Dublin), PhD (European University Institute) is Judge at the European Court of Human Rights elected in respect of Ireland. Previously she was a Head of Unit at the Research and Documentation Directorate of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

She is also a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, 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. She was previously a Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Law, University College Dublin, a Postdoctoral 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 generally.

Sample of articles:

  • "Nationality and Community Citizenship - A Tale of Two Unhappy Bedfellows" (1992) 12 Yearbook of European Law 353-384.
  • "The Relationship Between Community Citizenship and the Protection of Fundamental Rights in Community Law" (1995) 32 Common Market Law Review 519-554.
  • "Judicial Exceptions to the Free Provisions of Services" (1995) 1 European Law Journal 308-329 (in conjunction with J.M. Fernández-Martín).
  • "The Free Movement of Persons and Services" in P. Craig and G. de Búrca (eds.), European Union Law from an Evolutionary Perspective, 1998, pp. 377-416 and 2011, pp.499-544, Oxford University Press,
  • "The New Frontiers of Sex Equality Law in the European Union" (1999) 24 European Law Review 331-353 (in conjunction with G.F. Mancini).
  • "Revisiting Defrenne" in Poaires Maduro and Azoulai (eds.), Past and Future of EU Law. The Classics of EU Law Revisited on the 50th Anniversary of the Rome Treaty, Hart Publishing, 2009.
  • "Developing an Ever Closer Union Between the Peoples of Europe? A reappraisal of the case-law of the Court of Justice on the free movement of persons and EU citizenship" (2008) 27 YEL 167-193.

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