We use cookies to collect and analyse information on site performance and usage to improve and customise your experience, where applicable. View our Cookies Policy. Click Accept and continue to use our website or Manage to review and update your preferences.


Three nominees to succeed O’Leary at ECtHR

14 Mar 2024 human rights Print

Three nominees to succeed O’Leary at ECtHR

Three candidates have been put forward for election as Ireland’s next judge of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Two are judges and one is a professor of law.

The nominees are:

  • Judge Fergal Gaynor, an international judge at Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague,
  • Court of Appeal judge Ms Justice Úna Ní Raifeartaigh, and
  • Prof Colm Ó Cinnéde (Professor of Constitutional and Human Rights Law at University College London).

One of the three will be elected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe as Ireland’s judge on the Strasbourg-based court, to replace Ms Justice Síofra O’Leary.

O’Leary (pictured) became president of the ECtHR in 2019, following her election as judge in 2015.

A total of 17 applications for the ECtHR judgeship were examined by a panel chaired by Attorney General Rossa Fanning.

Other panel members were:

Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh was appointed a judge of the High Court in 2016 and went to the Court of Appeal in 2019.

UCC law graduate Professor Ó Cinnéide graduated as a BL from the King’s Inns in 1997.

Social rights

He has been a member of the European Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe for ten years, and specialises in European and international human-rights law, comparative constitutional law, EU law, and anti-discrimination law.

Trinity graduate Judge Gaynor holds a BL from the King’s Inns and a Cambridge Master’s degree in International Relations. He was appointed in 2020 at Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague and has served as a full-time judge since May 2021.

Gazette Desk
Gazette.ie is the daily legal news site of the Law Society of Ireland

Copyright © 2024 Law Society Gazette. The Law Society is not responsible for the content of external sites – see our Privacy Policy.