Annual Lecture: Taking Stock & Looking Forward: The Past, Present & Future

The Stefan Cross Centre’s 2026 Annual Lecture will be given by Colm O’Cinneide on Wednesday 25 February 2026 at Southampton University’s Highfield Campus.

Colm is Professor of Constitutional and Human Rights Law at University College London (UCL) and Vice-Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Laws. A graduate of University College Cork and King's Inns, he has published extensively in the fields of comparative constitutional, human rights and anti-discrimination law.

He has also acted as specialist legal adviser to the Joint Committee on Human Rights and the Women & Equalities Committee of the UK Parliament, as well as a range of national and international organisations including the ILO and the European Commission. From 2006 – 2016 he was a member of the European Committee on Social Rights of the Council of Europe (serving as Vice-President of the Committee from 2010 – 2014). Since 2008 Colm has been a member of the academic advisory board of Blackstone Chambers in London.

In 2024, he was nominated by the Government of Ireland as a candidate for the European Court of Human Rights, and his work has been cited by the Court of Justice of the EU and the Irish Supreme Court.