Research Profile
Noreen O'Meara
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 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 did 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. She 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.
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 did 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. She 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.