School of Law Researchers Secure Prestigious ERC Consolidator Grants

These prestigious grants, valued at up to €2 million each over a five-year period, are designed to help mid-career researchers consolidate their own independent research teams and pursue innovative and pioneering research. 

Provost Dr Linda Doyle congratulated the awardees, explaining that the grants are a reflection of their "outstanding research" that will facilitate the development of strong research teams in the years ahead. "These successes are an example of how Trinity is intensifying its research and innovation and consolidating its position globally as a research-intensive university." 

Professor Mary Rogan: Dignity and the Deprivation of Liberty

Professor Mary Rogan has been awarded a grant for her project, ‘DOLI: Dignity and the Deprivation of Liberty’. This project will explore how dignity is experienced by individuals living in prisons, psychiatric hospitals, and care homes for older people across three European countries: Ireland, Norway, and Romania. 

The DOLI project aims to support the expression of lived experiences when liberty is deprived. It will combine insights and methodologies from law and human rights, social sciences, philosophy, theology, and health sciences. 

It is important to note that the DOLI project is the third ERC award for Professor Rogan; having previously obtained grants for two other projects:  

• ‘Prisons: the rule of law, accountability, and rights’ (PRILA), which provided insights into the reality of the rule of law behind prison walls 

• ‘Prison Oversight: Improving Rights in Europe’ (POIRE), where the purpose of the study was to better understand how senior prison officials, as well as people in prison, understand and engage with the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). This work led to the creation a few months ago of ‘Materials to Support Awareness Amongst People in Prison of the CPT’. 

Dr Brian Barry: AI-Assisted Judicial Decision-Making 

Dr Brian Barry has secured funding for his project, ‘JUDGEASSIST: A framework for principled AI-assisted judicial decision-making’. 

Dr Brian Barry has secured funding for his project, ‘JUDGEASSIST: A framework for principled AI-assisted judicial decision-making’. This project builds on Dr Barry's empirically-focused and interdisciplinary research to date, including his book, How Judges Judge: Empirical Insights into Judicial Decision-Making (2021), linking areas such as the psychology of judicial decision-making, the operation of courts, and technologies for judging. 

JUDGEASSIST extends this research agenda to consider the impact of AI tools used by judges to assist with their judicial decision-making, and how to develop this technology appropriately. To date, these tools have been used for recommending sentences, determine liability, and draft

The project will create a robust, multidisciplinary framework for generating principles to guide the development of these tools, which are operationalised through technical standards. The aim is to ensure that AI tools used by for assisting judicial decision-making are only introduced when judges, legal practitioners, and the public trust such tools, accept them, and believe the court processes in which they operate to be procedurally just.

Dr Barry will soon be building his team of 3 PhD candidates, 2 postdoctoral researchers, and 2 research assistants to pursue his project.

The School of Law extends its warmest congratulations to both Professor Rogan and Dr Barry on these achievements.  

Read more about the projects here.