Nessa Lynch

Professor Nessa Lynch is the  Matheson Professor in Law, Innovation and Technology at University College Cork, Ireland. This support from Matheson LLP, research, teaching and engagement capabilities of the School and the wider University in the intersections between law and technology in the public and private law contexts.

Professor Lynch is a graduate of UCC's School of Law (BCL 2003; LLM, 2004), and spent most of her career to date in New Zealand, first as a Humanities Scholar for her PhD at the University of Otago, and then from 2008 to 2022 at the Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington. From 2022 - 2024, she held a senior leadership role in New Zealand Police. She is a Research Fellow and adjunct faculty at the Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Professor Lynch's scholarly work is high impact globally and locally, and her expertise is sought after in the government, judicial and non-governmental fields. Professor Lynch is a member of the Policing and Community Safety Authority which oversees the performance of An Garda Síochána (the Irish national police service) and serves as the Chair of New Zealand Police's Expert Panel on Emergent Technologies. She was the Academic Advisor for the Youth Court Education Committee for New Zealand's Institute of Judicial Studies. She has spent time on secondment at the New Zealand Ministry of Justice's Sector Strategy group, and was a member of the New Zealand Law Commission's Expert Advisory Group on the review of DNA legislation which reported in December 2020. She was a special advisor to New Zealand Police on facial recognition technology in 2021, and member and then Chair of the New Zealand Government's Data Ethics Advisory Group which provides advice on ethical use of data in the public sector in New Zealand.

Professor Lynch is a Salzburg Global Fellow.

Professor Lynch has two distinct research areas: The first is law and technology in both the private and public law contexts. Professor Lynch is also a leading expert on youth justice law and policy. Her work on responses to serious offending by children is world-leading and has had significant impact on law, policy and practice in relation to the use of the life sentence for children. Her book on New Zealand youth justice is in its third edition, and she has collaborated with leading experts around the globe.

Undergraduate 

Criminal Law

Postgraduate

Law and emerging technology

Cybercrime

Child Justice

Children's rights