Síofra O’Leary (born 20 September 1968) is an Irish lawyer and judge at the European Court of Human Rights.
Biography
O’Leary was born in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
where she completed a Bachelor of Civil Law, University College Dublin in 1989. She went on to study at the
European University Institute
The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral teaching and research institute and an independent body of the European Union with juridical personality, established by the member states to contribu ...
in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
, where she received her Ph.D. in European law in 1993. O'Leary then worked in research in the Universities of
Cadiz and
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
before going on to become Assistant Director in the Center for European Law Studies at the University of Cambridge in 1996. O'Leary went on to become a Fellow at
Emmanuel College there .
Starting 1996 for three years, O'Leary held the position of ''
Référendaire'' (consultant) at the
Court of Justice of the European Union in
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
. She then became the "Chef de cabinet" from 2000 to 2004. During her time at the court of justice, O'Leary also worked as a visiting fellow at the University of Dublin from 1999 to 2004 and from 2003 she has been a visiting professor at the
College of Europe in
Bruges
Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...
. Her lectures addressing practitioners, government agencies and academics on fundamental rights, EU law and European Court of Justice practice and procedure. She writes articles on fundamental rights, EU employment law, the free movement of persons and services and EU citizenship. O'Leary held various positions at the Court of Justice of the European Union until in April 2015 she was elected to replace
Ann Power
Ann Power (born 23 November 1962) is an Irish judge who has served as a Judge of the Court of Appeal since November 2019. She previously served as a Presiding Judge of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor's Office from 2017 to ...
as Ireland's judge at the
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
. Her term began on 2 July 2015 and is expected to end on 1 July 2024. From 1 January 2020 O'Leary has been President of Section.
On 15 November 2021 she was elected as the Court's vice president. On 19 September 2022, she was elected President of the Court and became the first woman to hold that position when she took up office on 1 November 2022 replacing
Robert Spano who is Icelandic.
Bibliography
* The Evolving Concept of Community Citizenship (Kluwer, 1996)
* Employment Law at the European Court of Justice (Hart Publishing, 2001)
References and sources
{{DEFAULTSORT:OLeary, Siofra
1968 births
Living people
Lawyers from Dublin (city)
Presidents of the European Court of Human Rights