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Noreen O'Meara

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Noreen O'Meara

Professor

 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0214-5305
20112026

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Biography

Noreen O'Meara joined UCC as the Synnott Family Chair in European Union Law in May 2025. With research interests that cross-cut EU, human rights, climate and environmental law, she has particular expertise on connections between human rights and the environment, environmental governance and pollution, and relationships between the EU and ECHR.

Experienced at leading and supporting interdisciplinary, funded research projects (UKRI/GCRF, ESRC/IAA, EPSRC, GIZ, UNEP, British Academy), current projects focus on plastics pollution, urban sustainability and trade. Noreen holds a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship advancing her research on national, EU and international dimensions of environmental governance. She read Law at the University of Cambridge (Corpus Christi College) and UCL (LLM (Public Law) and completed her PhD research in European Law at Queen Mary, University of London. She has also completed non-degree studies at the European University Institute (EUI), Florence, Université Paris-1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and RADA.

Noreen previously worked as a research fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) and in practice at the European Commission's Legal Service and the Court of Justice of the European Union (cabinet, Advocate General Sharpston). Her work focused on infringement actions against Member States and cases in a broad range of areas of EU law, including data protection, taxation, extradition and environmental law. Until April 2025, Noreen worked at Surrey Law School, University of Surrey, UK, most recently as Reader (Associate Professor) in Human Rights, European and Environmental Law. 

Teaching Activities

Noreen is the director of the LLM (Taught) postgraduate degree programme at UCC. 

Modules in the 2025-26 academic year:

  • LW2100: Constitutional and Institutional Law of the EU
  • LW6567: Introduction to European Union Law
  • LW6618: Climate Change Law and Policy

UCC Futures (primary)

  • Sustainability Institute

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  1. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
  2. SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
    SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
  3. SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
    SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production
  4. SDG 13 - Climate Action
    SDG 13 Climate Action
  5. SDG 14 - Life Below Water
    SDG 14 Life Below Water
  6. SDG 15 - Life on Land
    SDG 15 Life on Land
  7. SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
    SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
  8. SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals
    SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals
View all 28 research outputs