Law

Ciara researches in the areas of refugee and immigration law, policy and practice at the international, European and domestic levels and is interested in how these fields intersect with human rights law. Her specialised interest is the human rights implications of the treatment of migrant, asylum seeking and refugee children. Her recent research includes an exploration of the interaction between mutual trust and the fundamental rights of children under the EU Dublin Regulation; the permissibility of the immigration detention of children under international and regional human rights law; and the implications of adopting a child-rights approach to the refugee definition.

Ciara has supervised three PhD students to completion: Dr Stefano Angeleri's PhD research concerned the right to health of irregular migrants; Dr Luke Hamilton, an Irish Research Council scholar, conduced research into constructions of vulnerability in International Refugee Law; and Dr Maria Portuondo conducted comparative research into the impact of human rights law on internment during the Troubles in Northern Ireland and in Guantanamo Bay. Ciara is currently supervising two PhD students: Clara Bosch March and Phil Collins. Clara, an Irish Research Council scholar, is researching the prohibition on the collective expulsion of aliens in the European Convention on Human Rights, with a particular focus on so-called 'hot returns' from Spain and Italy. Phil, who Ciara is co-supervising with Professor Siobhan Mullally, is conducting research into the normative content of the right to asylum and how this right is affected in the US immigration-control context.

Ciara teaches Public International Law and International Protection of Human Rights, at the undergraduate level in the School of Law, and International Refugee Law and the Common European Asylum System, at the postgraduate level in the Irish Centre for Human Rights.