LLM Programme

RONAN MCCREA Barrister at Law (Republic of Ireland, 2011), Ph.D. (LSE, 2009), Barrister (England and Wales, 2003), M.Sc. (Comparative Politics, LSE, 2002), LL.B. (Trinity College Dublin, 2001). Lecturer in Law Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple contact details: Tel: +44 (0)20 3108 5056 | internal: x55056 Email: ronan.mccrea@ucl.ac.uk Administrator: Anna Schüle +44 (0)20 7679 1407 | internal: x21407

Print version

Profile
Ronan McCrea joined UCL in September 2011 from the University of Reading where he lectured from 2009-2011. In November 2011 he began a three year term as academic fellow of the Inner Temple. He was previously référendaire in the chambers of Advocate General Poiares Maduro at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. He is also a visiting professor at the Central European University in Budapest where he teaches on the Comparative Constitutional Law programme.
 


Dr. McCrea completed his Ph.D. at the London School of Economics where he held a British Council Chevening Scholarship and an Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Award. His dissertation was awarded the University Association for Contemporary European Studies prize for best the Ph.D. thesis of 2010. He is a member of the bar of England and Wales where he was Prince of Wales Scholar of Gray’s Inn and the bar of the Republic of Ireland . Before undertaking his doctorate, he completed pupillage at Matrix Chambers in London and worked as Legal Officer of the Refugee Legal Centre. He is a former associate counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York, has advised several non-governmental organizations including Liberty, Oxfam and the National Secular Society and litigates cases in areas related to his expertise before the European Court of Human Rights.

Research
Dr. McCrea’s research focuses on comparative constitutional law, European Union law and public law with a particular emphasis on fundamental rights, secularism and the relationship between law and religion in liberal democracies.

Publications
Books:

• Religion and the Public Order of the European Union, Oxford University Press, Oxford Studies in European Law, (October 2010) (paperback version forthcoming 2013).
  • Shortlisted for the John Birks Prize of the Society of Legal Scholars
  • Winner of the Research Endowment Trust Fund Prize for Best Social Science Research of 2010
  • Reviewed in the Modern Law Review (2011) 74 (6) MLR 974-977, the Yearbook of European Law [2011] YEL 488-492, the European Law Journal 18 ELJ (2012) 169-171, Politics Religion and Ideology Vol. 12 (4) (2011) 484-485, the Irish Jurist Vol. XLVI (2011) 368-370, Journal of Common Market Studies JCMS 2012 Vol. 50 (2) 358-359, the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion OLJR (2012) 1-6.
    
• Religion et l’Ordre juridique de l’Union européenne, translated by Isabelle Blake-James, Bruylant/Groupe de Boeck, (Brussels, 2013, forthcoming).

Journal Articles:

• ‘The Ban on the Veil and European Law’ 13(1) Human Rights Law Review 50-91
• “Religion as a Basis of Law and the Constitutional Order of the European Union” ‘The Columbia Journal of European Law, Colum. J. Eur. L. 16.1 (2009-2010).
• Review of Bill Kissane, New Beginnings; Constitutionalism and Democracy in Modern Ireland, (review article) (Dublin, UCD Press, 2011) Nations and Nationalism (2011) Vol. 18.1.
• “Limitations on Religion in a Liberal Democratic Public Order: Christianity, Islam and the Partial Secularity of the European Union” The Yearbook of European Law 2008, Oxford University Press, [2008] YEL 195.
• “The Supreme Court and the School Chaplains Case” published in Trinity College Law Review (1999) 2 TCLR 19.
  

Book chapters:

• “Ireland” in M.Hill (ed.) Religion and Discrimination in the European Union, (Trier, The European Consortium for Church-State Research, 2012) .
• “Rhetoric, Choices and the Constitution” in E. Carolan (ed.) The Constitution of Ireland: Perspectives and Prospects (Dublin, Bloomsbury, 2012).
• “L’Interdiction du Port du Voile Intégral et l’Ordre Publique Européen” in O. Roy Quand la Burqa Passe à l’Oeust: Enjeux Politiques et Légaux (Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2013, forthcoming)
• “Contributions to Law and Policy Making in a Secular Political Order: The Approach of European Institutions” in L. Leustean (ed.) Does God Matter? Representing Religion in the European Union (London, Routledge Press, 2012, forthcoming).
  

Policy Papers :

• The International Bar Association “Courting Controversy: The Impact of the Recent Reforms on the Independence of the Judiciary and the Rule of Law in Hungary” (September 2012).
  http://www.ibanet.org/Human_Rights_Institute/HRI_Publications/Country_reports.aspx
• UCL Human Rights Institute: Co-author of the submission of the Institute to the commission studying the possible enactment of a British Bill of Rights (November 2011).
• Liberty (British Civil Liberties Union): Sole author of the report of Liberty on the government proposal in relation to the introduction of a European Evidence Warrant (July 2004).
  

Blog Posts:

• ‘Strasbourg Judgement in Eweida and Others v United Kingdom’ UK Const. L. Blog (16th January 2013).
  

Work in progress:

• “De-Facto Secularism in a Diversifying Religious Environment”
  
• “EU Law and Employment Equality Exemptions in Ireland”

Policy papers/Newspaper articles:

• The Irish Times: Article: “EU Reforms Call for New Approach to Referendums” The Irish Times, Newspaper, 22 June 2012.
  
• The Irish Times: Article: “The Government Can Avoid EU Referendum Nightmare” The Irish Times, Newspaper, 15 December 2011.
• The Irish Times: Article: “Tolerance and Immigration Policy” The Irish Times, Newspaper, 16 June 2011.
  
• The Irish Times: Article: “Lautsi Ruling No Proof of Support for Religious Education System” published in The Irish Times Newspaper, 11 April 2011.
  
• The Irish Times: Article: “State-Funded Schools Must Be Separate from Religions” published in The Irish Times Newspaper, 17 December 2009.
• The Irish Times: Article: “Cardinal’s EU Critique Points to a Reluctance to Play by Rules” published in The Irish Times Newspaper, 26 August 2008.
• The Irish Times: Article: “The EU Should Put its Money Where its Mouth Is: the Need for Fiscal Competence at EU Level” published in The Irish Times Newspaper, 13 January 2004.

Current Teaching
Undergraduate
EU and Human Rights Law
Public Law

Graduate
Human Rights in Europe
Religion, State and the Law (convenor)

PhD Supervision

• Ashleigh Keall (the notion of harm and freedom of religion)
• David Yuratich (theories of democracy in the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union).

page updated on 7 March, 2013