Honorary members and patrons

Honorary Members

Honorary Members According to the terms of the IALT Constitution, honorary membership may be conferred on an individual who has conferred important benefits on the Association or on legal education.

The Association is privileged to have twelve Honorary Members: Professor Kevin Boyle, Bruce Carolan, Professor Brice Dickson, Judith Eve, Advocate General Gerard Hogan, Mrs Justice Mary Laffoy, President Mary McAleese, the Honorable Mr Justice Bryan McMahon, the Honorable Mr Justice Aindrias Ó Caoimh, Professor Desmond Greer, John Stannard and Frank Watters.

 

Professor Kevin Boyle

Kevin Boyle was appointed an honorary member of the IALT at its annual conference in November 2010.

Educated at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Cambridge, through his academic career Professor Boyle held posts in Queen’s University Belfast, National University of Ireland, Galway – where he founded the Human Rights Law Centre – and at the University of Essex. He was active in promoting human rights, equality and conflict-resolution in Northern Ireland, where he served as a board member of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. Professor Boyle was also a committed advocate of human rights for the Kurdish people, mounting several important cases in the European Court of Human Rights addressing serious human rights violations against the Kurdish population in Turkey. Professor Boyle also served as senior advisor to former President Mary Robinson in her role as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

A lawyer, academic and human rights advocate of international repute, Professor Boyle was instrumental in the establishment of the Irish Association of Law Teachers in 1979 and served as President from 1982-83 and again in 1986. In recognition of his contribution, Professor Boyle was made an honorary member of the IALT at our Annual Conference in Limerick in 2010. Sadly, Kevin passed away on Christmas Day, 2010. He will be sorely missed by the Association, which will remain deeply indebted to Professor Boyle for his contribution as founder and former President.

 

Bruce Carolan

A native of New Jersey, Bruce Carolan was instrumental in formalising and developing the provision of legal education at Dublin Institute of Technology and in enhancing its academic profile. He served as the first permanent Head of the Department of Law from 1997 to 2013 and as Acting Head of the School of Social Sciences and Law from 2004-2007.

Bruce held a BA in Economics from the University of Arizona (1976) and a Juris Doctor (JD) law degree from the University of Miami School of Law (1981). He also held an LLM from University College Dublin. Prior to joining DIT, he held various posts including  Deputy City Attorney for the City of San Francisco, Legal Advisor to Cork City Council and Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of East London (UK). He served as President of the Irish Association of Law Teachers from 1999 to 2000. In 2014, Bruce was awarded honorary life membership of the Association at our conference in Kilkenny. Bruce sadly passed away – all too early – on September 4th 2015.

 

Professor Brice Dickson

Brice Dickson is Professor of International and Comparative Law at Queen’s University Belfast. He Has written extensively on international human rights, their application in Northern Ireland and the attitudes of national supreme courts to their invocation. A graduate of the University of Oxford, he was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1976. He has worked as a legal academic since 1977, including at the University of Leicester and the University of Ulster. From 1990 to 1996 he served as a commissioner on the Equal Opportunities Commission for Northern Ireland. He also acted as a consultant to the Forum on Peace and Reconciliation. From 1999 to 2005 he served as the first Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. In 2015 he was appointed as an Independent Member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

 

Judith Eve

Judith Eve graduated with an LLB degree from Queen’s University Belfast in 1971 and was appointed to a lectureship there in the same year. Her main area of teaching and research was Property Law. Judith was Dean of the Faculty of Law at Queen’s from 1986 to 1989. She was elected President of the Irish Association of Law teachers for the 1987 – 1988 year. From 1989  Judith took on the job of promoting Queen’s internationally. She established the International Liaison Office and was its Head until she took early retirement in 2002.

From 1986 to 1990 Judith held the post of Mental Health Commissioner for Northern Ireland. She was Equal Opportunities Commissioner with the Department of Economic Development from 1992 to 1998. In 1998 Judith was appointed Chairperson of the Northern Ireland Civil Service Commissioners, a post she held until 2006. In 2011 she became a Member of the Board of Public Appointments in the Republic and from 2014 to 2017 she was Chairperson of that Board. Judith currently serves on the boards of three housing trusts and one further and higher education college and is Deputy Lieutenant of Belfast. In 2005, she was awarded a CBE for her contribution to public service in Northern Ireland.

 

Professor Desmond Greer

Des Greer was appointed an honorary member of the IALT at its annual Spring seminar in April 2011.

Desmond Greer is a graduate in law of Queen’s (1962) and Oxford (1964); in 1992 he was awarded the degree of LL.D. for his published work and in 1997 he was appointed an honorary QC by the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland. He became Professor of Common Law at Queens’ in 1973, and was Dean of the Faculty from 1973-1976 and 1983-1986. In 1976-77 he was visiting professor in the School of Law of the University of West Ontario, and he spent 1990-91 as a visiting professor at Cornell Law School. He retired from QUB in 2005 after a long and distinguished career, having provided outstanding leadership in the Law School at Queen’s during some of the most difficult times in Northern Ireland’s recent history. On 16 December 2002 he was appointed by the Irish Government to the Residential Institutional Redress Board, where, until recently, he used his considerable expertise to the benefit of the many applicants who have availed on this scheme. He has over the years been heavily involved in the founding and workings of the IALT and served as President from 1981-1982.

 

Advocate General Gerard Hogan

Advocate General Hogan began his career as an academic at Trinity College Dublin in 1982 and was later awarded a Ph.D. from that institution. He also holds a LL.D from University College Dublin and an LL.M. from the University of Pennsylvania. Until 2007 he lectured in Constitutional Law, Competition Law and US Constitutional Law at Trinity. His contribution to Irish legal scholarship has been immense. The 1980s saw the first edition of Hogan and Morgan’s Administrative Law and also the publication of Political Violence and the Law in Ireland, co-authored with Clive Walker. In the late 1980s Gerard Hogan and Gerry Whyte joined forces with John Kelly to produce a supplement to the second edition of Kelly’s seminal work The Irish Constitution. The fifth edition of Kelly: The Irish Constitution was launched in November 2018. Advocate General Hogan is also the author of The Origins of the Irish Constitution, 1928-1941, published by the Royal Irish Academy in 2012.

Over the course of his academic career, Advocate General Hogan also produced a prodigious number of journal articles, both on live and emerging constitutional issues and on diverse aspects of twentieth century constitutional history. After a distinguished career as an academic and a barrister, Dr Hogan was appointed a judge of the High Court in 2010. In 2014 he was made a judge of the Court of Appeal. In 2018 he was nominated by the Government to be an Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg.

 

Mrs Justice Mary Laffoy

Mrs Justice Mary Laffoy was awarded Honorary Membership of the Association at the Annual Conference in Cork in 2021. Attending School at Tourmakeady College, she received a BA from UCD in 1968 and a BCL in 1971. She was also educated at Kings Inns where she received the John Brooks Scholarship for the highest marks. She was called to the Bar in 1971 and the Inner Bar in 1987. She served as a Judge of the Supreme Court from 2013 to 2017 and of the High Court from 1995-2013. She chaired the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse from 1999-2003 and in 2016 chaired the Citizens’ Assembly, which dealt with issues such as the 8th amendment and climate change. She was President of the Law Reform Commission from 2018 to 2022.

 

Mr Justice Aindrias Ó Caoimh

Aindrias Ó Caoimh was awarded a Bachelor in Civil Law from National University of Ireland (UCD ) in 1971 and was called to the bar in 1972. A lecturer in European Law at the King’s Inns, Dublin, he took silk in 1994 and was a representative of Ireland on many occasions before the Court of Justice of the European Communities.  He was appointed to the High Court bench in 1999 and has been a Judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union since 13 October 2004.  He is a Vice-President of the Irish Society of European Law, as well as a member of the International Law Association (Irish Branch), and a member of the board of the Irish Centre for European Law. He also delivers courses to Master’s degree students at the University of Luxembourg.

 

President Mary McAleese

Mary McAleese is a barrister and former Reid Professor of Law at Trinity College Dublin. She graduated in Law from the Queen’s University of Belfast in 1973 and was called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1974. In 1975, she was appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin and in 1987, she returned to her Alma Mater, Queen’s University Belfast, to become Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies. In 1994, she became the first female Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Queen’s University Belfast.  On 11th November, 1997, she was inaugurated as the eighth President of Ireland, and re-elected on Friday 1st October 2004, being the only validly-nominated candidate. He Presidency was marked by the themes of reconciliation and bridge building and is credited as contributing to the ongoing peace process in Northern Ireland. Since leaving office she has pursued her academic interests, studying for a doctorate in Canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome.

 

Mr Justice Bryan McMahon

The Honourable Mr. Justice Bryan M.E. McMahon, Judge of the High Court, BCL, LLB, LLM, PhD received his BCL and LLB degrees from UCD and later undertook further postgraduate study at Harvard Law School, having been awarded the Harvard Fellowship. He returned to Ireland in 1967 to take up a post as a Statutory Lecturer in the Law Faculty, UCC. During his time at UCC Mr. Justice McMahon went on to become Professor of Law and Head of the Department of Law. In 1987 Mr. Justice McMahon joined the law firm of Houlihan and McMahon, Ennis, Co. Clare, as a Senior Partner. While continuing to practise law he simultaneously held a part-time Chair of Law at the National University of Ireland, Galway. In 1999 he was appointed a Judge of the Circuit Court and in 2007 he was appointed a Judge of the High Court. Mr. Justice McMahon has co-authored many legal texts including Law of Torts, co-authored with W. Binchy (Butterworths: 1980, 1989, 3rd Edition 2000), Casebook on Irish Law of Torts, co-authored with W. Binchy, (Butterworths 1983, 2nd Edition 1991), and European Community Law in Ireland, co-authored with F. Murphy (Butterworths: 1989). He is a founding member of the IALT.

 

John Stannard

John Stannard was awarded Honorary Life Membership of the Association at our Annual Conference in Cork in 2021 in recognition to his unique contribution to the Association over the years. He is one of the longest and most active members of the Association and has attended all IALT conferences with the exception of the inaugural conference of 1979. He has served on the council a number of years and weas Secretary and then President in 2001-2002 when he organised a very successful conference in Belfast. In addition to his formal positions within the association John Stannard has always played a proactive role within the association embodying its values of collegiality and inclusivity. He is a Senior Lecturer in Queen’s University Belfast and leading scholar in the field of law and emotion and has presented many papers on the topic over the years.

 

Frank Watters

Frank Watters was conferred with honorary membership of the association at our 2017 conference in Dunboyne. He commenced lecturing in what is now Dundalk Institute of Technology in October 1978 and was one of the founding members of the IALT. His particular area of expertise was employment law. He served as President of the IALT from 1986-1987 and was the first IALT President from outside the university sector. He organised a very successful conference in Dún Laoghaire and a mid-year conference at UCD. During his presidency the Council also made a submission to the Fair Trade Commission on legal education in the context of the latter’s report on the legal profession.  Frank retired in 2015, his career spanning an impressive 38 years.