Letter from Mr Peter Gunning, Ambassador of Ireland to the Council of Europe, to Mr Wojciech Sawicki, Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly, dated 13 February 2015.
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I refer to the above matter and your letter of 30 July 2014 requesting a list of three candidates for the position of judge of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Ireland.
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The three persons are: Professor Siobhán Mullally, Dr Síofra O’Leary and Professor Gerard Quinn. As requested, I am enclosing the curricula vitae (in Word format) of the above persons according to the model CV adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly.
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Information on national selection procedure for the position of a judge of the European Court of Human Rights
Following on from the Council of Europe’s request of 30 July 2014, an advertisement in Irish and English was placed in the national newspapers, circulated to appropriate persons in the legal community, posted on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website and on the Public Appointments Service website. The closing date for applications was 16 October.
Twenty-nine applications were received within the deadline for the competition. These applications were considered by a Selection Panel convened by the Attorney General to advise on persons qualified to act as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights. The Selection Panel was composed of: Mr Liam O’Daly (Director General of the Office of the Attorney General), Professor Donncha O’Connell (Established Professor of Law and Head of the School of Law at NUI Galway, part-time Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission) and Ms Justice Catherine Mc Guinness (retired Supreme Court Judge).
A short list of nine candidates was drawn up and those persons were interviewed by the Selection Panel on 26 and 27 November. The Selection Panel recommended three of the interviewees be put forward as candidates for election and the Government accepted this recommendation on 16 December.
Name: Mullally, Siobhán
Gender: Female
Date and place of birth: 6 December 1968, London, United Kingdom
Nationality: Irish
N/A
English (Mother tongue), French (working language), Italian (conversational), Irish (passive working knowledge)
Member of professional associations: International Law Association (Irish Branch); American Society of International Law; European Society of International Law.
I confirm that if appointed, I would establish my residence in Strasbourg, France.
Name: O’Leary, Síofra
Nationality: Irish
Date and place of birth: 20 September 1968, Dublin, Ireland
Gender: Female
PhD on The Evolving Concept of Community Citizenship - From the Free Movement of Persons to Union Citizenship. The doctorate was awarded, with distinction (Jury: Profs. K. Lenaerts, D. O'Keeffe, J. Schwarz, F. Snyder and H.U.J. D'Oliveira), in October 1993. The doctoral thesis was subsequently awarded the Salvador Madariaga prize by the Spanish government, in May 1995, as a thesis on European law of outstanding quality.
Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) with First Class Honours.
Winner of university prizes in the fields of real property law, constitutional law and jurisprudence.
Responsible for a team of twenty lawyers and assistants. The unit assists the Court of Justice in the exercise of its judicial functions by analysing incoming cases, particularly preliminary references, by analysing the judgments and orders of the Court itself and by providing the Court with comparative research notes and updates regarding legal developments at European, national and international level, including regular reviews of the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights. The unit is responsible, inter alia, for the following areas of EU law – internal market, area of freedom, justice and security, Union citizenship, common foreign and security policy (CFSP), taxation, social policy and fundamental rights – and has initiated several projects on fundamental rights, restrictive measures (asset freezing) in the context of the CFSP, EU asylum law and the procedural law of the Court of Justice.
In the three aforementioned positions I worked in close association with each Judge when they were designated Reporting Judges in any given case or in their capacity as ordinary members of the bench. This involved working frequently in the context of the plenary and Grand Chamber formations at the Court. In cases in which the Judges were designated as Reporting Judges I was responsible for preparing every aspect of the case for the Reports for the Hearing and for the Preliminary Reports. For the latter, which are confidential documents, prepared at the end of the written procedure, to which only members of the Court have access, this entailed analysis and synthesis of the issues raised by each new case, analysis of the written observations submitted by legal counsel, in-depth analysis of relevant case-law, identification of when and how the case-law might need to be developed, the treatment of all relevant procedural issues, recommendations regarding how the cases should be dealt with within the Court (appropriate formation, measures of instruction etc) and preparation of the oral phase of procedure, including suggested questions for legal counsel for the provision of answers in writing or orally. These judicial responsibilities, carried out in conjunction with and with reference to each member, regarding the running of cases, covered all subsequent stages of the procedure before the Court, and included advising Judges on the Opinions handed down by Advocates General, the preparation of judicial deliberations and the orientation of the case in the manner each Reporting Judge considered appropriate. As Chef de cabinet for two consecutive Irish members of the Court, I was, in addition, responsible for the attribution of new cases within the chambers, for liaising with, supporting and supervising the work of more junior lawyers, for the treatment of procedural questions, particularly when the members in question served as Presidents of chambers, and, generally, for the smooth running of the chambers.
Responsible, inter alia, as the only Irish lawyer working in the Directorate, for analysing all incoming Irish cases lodged at the Court of Justice and for the preparation of contributions on Irish law for comparative research notes requested by members of the Court to assist them when treating a case. Analysis, on a daily basis, of decisions of the Court in the fields of EU law mentioned above.
Responsible for the supervision of Masters thesis and for the teaching of seminars on:
European Social Law and the European Citizen
Employment and Social Law and Policy in the European Union
Lecturer on the first EC Law programme, University of Cádiz
Lecturer on the Jean Monnet EC Law programme, University of Cádiz
Ranked as one of the top ten International and European Law journals, the Review’s editors, who come from different Member States of the EU and different fields of European law, are responsible for subjecting articles submitted for publication to rigorous peer review.
PhD on Union citizenship - one of the very first in the field - with an important fundamental rights component. The PhD led to further teaching activities in the field of fundamental rights at, inter alia, the EUI, the College of Europe and the Institute of Human Rights in Turku, Finland.
In the context of the different judicial roles I have fulfilled at the Court of Justice, outlined in section III above, I have been responsible for the preparation and tracking of numerous cases involving fundamental rights at EU level, before and after the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, and for tracking relevant developments at ECHR level (see, for example, Cases C-356/11 O & S, C-571/10 Kamberaj, C-391/09 Runevič and Wardyn, C-135/08 Rottmann, C-303/06 Coleman, C-413/99 Baumbast or C-354/95 National Farmers’ Union).
I am presently responsible for the preparation and organisation of comparative research notes at the request of the Judges and Advocates General of the Court, many of which cover the case-law of the ECHR, and for the publication three times a year of a legal bulletin called “Reflets”, accessible via www.curia.europa.eu., which covers developments at ECHR level. In my present capacity as Head of Unit I am also responsible for a year-long project which will culminate in the publication of a digest of the case-law of the Court of Justice in the field of fundamental rights, covering the period from the proclamation of the Charter in 2000, through the recognition of its equal legal value in Article 6 TEU, following the Treaty of Lisbon, up until the end of 2014.
Responsible for two seminars and many Masters thesis with fundamental rights at their core.
A list of some examples is provided below:
Author of three books, two co-edited books and over forty articles published in nationally and internationally recognised legal journals. I have also presented evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Communities.
The articles published in journals were accepted after rigorous peer review. The articles in collected works or edited books were submitted on foot of invitations received from the editors.
A sample of publications is provided below:
In accordance with Article 5 of Resolution CM/Res(2009)5 Resolution CM/Res(2009)5 on the status and conditions of service of judges of the European Court of Human Rights, I hereby declare that I will reside in Strasbourg if elected a judge on the Court.
I also declare that all the information furnished in this curriculum vitae is, to the best of my knowledge, complete and correct.
Name: Gerard Quinn
Sex: Male
Date and place of birth: 25 August, 1958, Galway, Ireland
Nationality: Irish
1976-1979: University College, Galway, Ireland. B.A. (Hons)
Legal & Political Science. First class honours degree.
1979-1981: University College, Galway, Ireland. LL.B. (Hons)
First class honours degree and first place in graduating year.
1981-1983: King's Inns, Dublin, Ireland. B.L., Barrister-at-Law.
Called to the Irish Bar, 1983.
1984-1985: Harvard Law School Cambridge, MA, USA. LL.M.
Awarded Harvard University Fellowship to study for LL.M., graduated in 1985. Studied human rights, public international law, American civil liberties law, legal history and theory, and comparative law. Professor Alston acted as LLM supervisor. The LL.M. Dissertation entitled 'Liberal Democracy and the European Convention in Human Rights: The Problem of Drittwirkung.'
1985-1986: Harvard Law School, Cambridge MA, USA. S.J.D.
Doctoral dissertation on the utility of human rights and comparative constitutional theory entitled ‘Constitutionalism, Nationalism and Divided Societies: The Case of Northern Ireland' under Professor Frank Michelman.
Council of Europe, European Committee on Social Rights (2001-2006) (treaty monitoring body under the European Social Charter). The Committee sits in a quasi-judicial capacity when dealing with Collective Complaints. I was its Rapporteur on equality, non-discrimination, the rights of the elderly and the rights of persons with disabilities. I helped to develop transform its jurisprudence on non-discrimination and connect it with the caselaw on non-discrimination under Article 14 of the ECHR.
Professor of Law at the School of Law, National University of Ireland (Galway).
Director, Centre for Disability Law & Policy (National University of Ireland (Galway). Current Post.
I direct a Centre on Disability Law & Policy at the School of Law in the National University of Ireland (Galway) that's builds on a variety of human rights instruments including the ECHR to put forward legislative and other blueprints for change at both European and domestic level. This is a world class research entity that has garnered major plaudits, significant funding by, e.g., Atlantic Philanthropies, the Open Society Foundations, the Marie Curie programme and a variety of European funding sources (e.g., DG Justice). Our research work is designed to assist policy makers expand their options for reform. Our education work is designed to equip students with the skills to engage constructively with government as well as civil society and with solutions for change. Our clinical work is designed to give experiential learning experiences as well as train students in the crafting of amicus briefs.
The Centre is a Founding member of a new Lifecourse & Society Research Institute in the University that is designed to bring together inter-disciplinary research on the elderly, children and families and people with disabilities to build on a human rights approach to policy and legislative innovation.
I previously taught law at University College Cork, Trinity College Dublin (LLM course on Mental Health and the Law – Human Rights Perspectives), University of San Diego (International Summer Schools on Human Rights). I was an Instructor on Legal Methods for 1L students at Harvard Law School and acted as research assistant to Professors Daniel Lewis Sargentich (legal theory) and Philip Alston (human rights) at Harvard.
All of my professional activities are legal in nature
I divide my human rights activities into engagement in (a) Ireland, (b) the Council of Europe, (c) the EU and (d) internationally.
I understand Public Activities under this head to mean general activities in addition to the human rights specific activities as above in IV. I divide them into (1) International advisory board membership and (2) distinctions and awards,
Elected by Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to sit on the European Committee of Social Rights (2001-2006).
None. I have never been a member of any political party or grouping.
I list hereunder the (a) Reports produced under my direction at the Law Reform Commission aimed at assisting Government with broad reform options on a range of policy challenges and (b) a sample of funded research which I attracted to the University aimed at producing research that harnesses human rights to have a positive impact on Government and European disability law and policy.
Director of Legal Research (1997-1998 inclusive). The Work product included:
I include here (a) headline statistics on publications, (b) a representative sample of key publications with high impact.
Keynotes: 51.
Papers delivered in Ireland: 38
[This sample is representative only. A full list is available on request].
I declare I meet the language proficiency requirements.
I am regularly called on to deliver keynote papers around the world on general themes connected with human rights, equality, non-discrimination, intersectionality, disability and elder rights. The following is a representative sample.
If appointed I will take up full-time residency in Strasbourg.