Research interests

My research interrogates the impact which law’s conception of corporeality has on certain types of bodies and reflexively, the issues which particular interventions on bodies raise that challenge certain assumptions of the law. Therefore it is quite interdisciplinary with a primary focus on law but drawing from medicine, ethics, sociology and history. The main legal areas which my research covers are consent in medical law and ethics and human rights law which I consider through the lens of gender, sexuality and law.

There are three main themes to my research. The first, building on my doctoral work considers the parameters within which law conceptualises gender recognition for legal purposes. Using human rights arguments around dignity, privacy and self determination as a basis, I have argued for a depathologisation of legal gender recognition. Conceiving legal recognition of gender within a medical model, I contend, conflates medical treatment pathways with access to legal rights such that the former acts as a barrier to the later. Much of my work in this area in the past few years has focused on policy development and advising both the Minister for Social Protection, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, other Oireachtas members, NGOs and UN officials on drafting gender recognition legislation.

The second theme also builds on work undertaken as part of my doctoral studies and research conducted as a postdoctoral fellow on an IRCHSS funded project Gender Equality, Multiculturalism and Religious Diversity in Contemporary Ireland at the School of Law in UCC. It investigates whether it is possible to martial medical law principles on consent both to protect vulnerable people from potentially unwanted medical or surgical interventions which would permanently alter their bodies while simultaneously ensuring that autonomous adults can consent to such permanent alterations. Thus far this theme has interrogated issues such as consent to treatment for intersex children and the creation of legislative frameworks to protect against female genital mutilation practices. Under this theme, my research also examines emerging medical technologies, such as in the area of womb transplantation and assisted human reproduction, to uncover the limits or opportunities which law’s understanding of the ‘acceptable’ body might place on the regulatory or legislative framework surrounding such innovations.

The final strand of my research has developed from my teaching interest in legal systems and skills. I have become interested in exploring the role of legal education in legal systems. In particular, I am intrigued by the transformative potential of law as a tool for social justice and uncovering the extent to which this underpins both the structures of the legal system and the education of future lawyers. To this end I have written a book with Liam Thornton and Catherine O’Sullivan for Round Hall Press Fundamentals of the Irish Legal System: Law, Policy and Politics which will be published in 2016.