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Dr. Andrea Mulligan

Assistant Professor (Law)
HOUSE 39, COLLEGE

 mulliga3@tcd.ie

 3531896 1773


Biography

I am an Assistant Professor of Law at the School of Law, teaching and researching in the field of Medical Law and Bioethics. My particular area of specialisation is the legal regulation of human reproduction, encompassing maternity care, assisted reproduction and abortion. I am interested in both the public law and private law aspects of this research field. I am PI on the IRC-funded CORALE Project investigating attitudes to conscientious objection in abortion services in Ireland. I graduated from the LL.B programme at the School of Law, before going on to study on the LL.M programme at Harvard Law School, where I specialised in reproductive technologies and constitutional law. I returned to TCD for my doctoral studies, and was awarded my doctorate in 2014, for my thesis entitled "Fundamental Right and Organising Principles in the Regulation of Assisted Reproduction in Ireland." I was called to the Bar of Ireland in 2012. I was appointed a Commissioner at the Law Reform Commission of Ireland in 2020.

Representations

Details Date
Appointed by Government of Ireland as Law Reform Commissioner (Part Time) 2020 - 2025. The Law Reform Commission is the independent statutory body with responsibility for law reform in Ireland. The vast majority of its recommendations are ultimately enacted as law by the legislature. Commissioners are nominated by the Attorney General and appointed by the Government. I am the only academic Commissioner and the other three part-time Commissioners are current or former judges of the High Court and Supreme Court. I was Coordinating Commissioner on the Report on a Regulatory Framework for Adult Safeguarding (Approx 1000 pages), meaning that I had overall responsibility for the content of the Report and was responsible for achieving consensus among all the commissioners on the recommendations. 2020-2025
Independent Ethics Advisor, KitNewCare. This is a pan-European project investigating how to make kidney healthcare more sustainable, funded by the EU's Horizon 2020 project and UK Research and Innovation. I have been appointed as Independent Ethics Advisor for the duration of the project (4 years). During this time I will provide ongoing consultancy services and write annual reports on issues arising. Details on the project can be found here:https://kitnewcare.eu/ 2024-2028
Provided preliminary data from CORALE Study to Marie O'Shea for use in the Independent Review of the Operation of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018, commissioned by the Department of Health. The final draft of the report published in April 2023 cites the CORALE Study 12 times and specifically acknowledges that our data provided information that would not otherwise have been known. The final report is available here:https://docs.google.com/file/d/1OZJj1KXvFir86JcEA0RiSQJpagfT6MHF/view January 2023
Invited to address the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying. I was cited 9 times in the Final Report of the Committee. My contribution to the debate can be found here:https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/joint_committee_on_assisted_dying/2023-06-20/ 20 June 2023
Invited to address Joint Oireachtas Committee on International Surrogacy. I was invited to address the Committee in my capacity as an expert on surrogacy law. My contribution can be found here:https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/joint_committee_on_international_surrogacy/2022-04-14/2/ 14 April 2022
Invited to address Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health on Adult Safeguarding, in my capacity as Law Reform Commissioner and Coordinating Commissioner of the Adult Safeguarding Project February 2021
Engaged by the Attorney General to advise on the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Act 2024. I was engaged as an academic expert on surrogacy to advise on the law of international surrogacy. Through this piece of work I had the opportunity to directly implement my academic research on surrogacy into law. 2021-2022
Journal of Law and the Biosciences, Peer Reviewer 2021 to date
Irish Supreme Court Review, Peer Reviewer 2023 to date
Lecturer in Assisted Human Reproduction on Law Society of Ireland, PPC II 2017-2019
Lecturer in Assisted Human Reproduction on King's Inns Advanced Diploma in Medical Law 2019 to date
Engaged by the Attorney General to advise on constitutional law issues arising in respect of, and work on the drafting of, the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022. This seminal piece of law reform gave adopted persons a legal right to access to their birth information for the first time in the history of the Irish State. January-April 2021
Member of the Pandemic Ethics Advisory Group, March - July 2020. This was a subgroup of the National Public Health Emergency Team, the expert advisory group that advised Government during the COVID-19 pandemic. I was jointly responsible for drafting guidance documents on ethical topics such as allocation of critical care resources. Our guidance documents were disseminated across the health service by the HSE/Department of Health and formed the practical basis for ethical decisions during the most acute phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic. March-July 2020
Engaged as an academic expert by the UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to provide an expert report for the High Court of England and Wales on surrogacy laws in the Member States of the Council of Europe. Report cited by Mrs Justice Lieven of the High Court of England and Wales in her judgment. February/August 2019
Commissioned by Special Rapporteur for Children Geoffrey Shannon to work on legal report on discovery of mass graves at Tuam Mother & Baby Home. Report contributed to ultimate decision by government to exhume bodies. 2018 - 2019
Briefed by Attorney General to represent State in case of IRM v Minister for Justice before the Supreme Court. Case defined scope of right to life of unborn, prior to repeal of 8th Amendment. February 2018
Bioethics (Journal), Peer Reviewer
Invited to provide policy briefing to Irish Hospice Foundation on constitutional issues and end of life care, including assisted suicide. September 2019
Council Member, Irish Association of Law Teachers. This is the association for Law teachers in Ireland. My role involved liaising between the IALT and the Trinity Law School. 2019 to 2021
Medical Law Review, Peer Reviewer
Journal of Medical Ethics, Peer Reviewer
Medical Law International, Peer Reviewer
Fulbright Commission, Interview Panel for Law Scholarships. I was invited by the Fulbright Commission of Ireland to sit on the law interview panel for the award of student and academic fellowships to study in the United States. 2016 and 2017
Member, Incorporated Council for Law Reporting in Ireland. This is the body that is responsible for the reporting of cases of the Superior Courts of Ireland. I am involved both in the policy decisions of the Council and in the review of decisions of the courts to decide which should be formally reported. Reported cases typically are more widely used in legal argument and cited in course so the decision as to what cases are reported has significant potential influence on development of the law. 2019 to date
Commissioned by Special Rapporteur for Children Geoffrey Shannon to prepare a report on uncommenced sections of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 relating to assisted human reproduction. October 2016

Memberships

Membership of Professional Institutions, Associations, Societies

Details Date From Date To
European Association of Health Law
International Association of Bioethics
Northern/Irish Health Law and Ethics Network
Ethics, Law and Pregnancy in Ireland Network (ELPIN)
Bar of Ireland October 2014 To date
Andrea Mulligan, Constitutional Rights in Assisted Human Reproduction: Charting the Contemporary Impact of Marital Privacy, Dublin University Law Journal, 2024, Journal Article, IN_PRESS
Andrea Mulligan, Surrogacy and the Significance of Gestation: Implications for Law and Policy, Bioethics, 2024, p1 - 10, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Andrea Mulligan and Rebecca Brown, 'Maternal Request Caesarean Section' and Medical Necessity, Clinical Ethics, 18, (3), 2023, p312 - 320, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Andrea Mulligan and Clayton Ó Néill, Health Law: Convergence and Divergence on the Island of Ireland, Irish Studies in International Affairs, 34, (2), 2023, p285 - 329, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Desmond Ryan, Marta Lasek-Markey, Andrea Mulligan, Linda Hogan, Bryana Tunder, Conscientious Objection in an Uncertain Time: New Challenges in Ireland, Religions, 14, 2023, p1 - 16, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly Special Issue: Covid-19 and Legal Responses on the Island of Ireland, 73, 2, (2022), Ollie Bartlett, Neil Maddox, Ronagh McQuigg and Andrea Mulligan, [Guest Editor], Journal, PUBLISHED
Andrea Mulligan, Anonymous gamete donation and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights: The case for incompatibility, Medical Law International, 22, (2), 2022, p119 - 146, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Joan Gabrielle Lalor , Greg Sheaf , Andrea Mulligan , Magdalena Ohaja , Ashamole Clive , Sylvia Murphy-Tighe , Esperanza Debby Ng , Shefaly Shorey, Parental experiences with changes in maternity care during the Covid-19 pandemic: A mixed-studies systematic review, Women and Birth , 2022, p5 , Notes: [Aug 10;S1871-5192(22)00307-9. doi: 10.1016/j.wombi.2022.08.004 ], Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Andrea Mulligan, Patient Confidentiality and Disclosure Of HIV Status: Disentangling the Entitlement to Disclose From the Duty To Warn, Medical Law Review, 29, (4), 2021, p688 - 698, Journal Article, IN_PRESS
Conor Casey, David Kenny and Andrea Mulligan, Public Health Governance: The Role of NPHET, in Public Health Law During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ireland Editors: Alan Eustace, Sarah Hamill, Andrea Mulligan A Public Policy Report of the COVID-19 LEGAL OBSERVATORY School of Law, Trinity College Dublin, August 2021, 2021, Report, PUBLISHED
  

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Andrea Mulligan, Conscientious Objection in Termination of Pregnancy Services in Ireland: Interdisciplinary  Insights, Trinity Long Room Hub Medical Humanities Seminar, Trinity Long Room Hub, 18 April 2024, 2024, Medical Humanities Research Group TCD, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Andrea Mulligan and Joan Lalor, Conscientious Objection in Termination of Pregnancy in Ireland: Balancing Rights and Ensuring Service Provision, Conference of the European Association of Health Law 2024, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland, 18-20 September 2024, 2024, Oral Presentation, PUBLISHED
Andrea Mulligan, Conscientious Objection in Termination of Pregnancy in Ireland: Doctrinal and Empirical Insights, Society of Legal Scholars Conference 2024, University of Bristol, 3-5 September 2024, 2024, Oral Presentation, PUBLISHED
Andrea Mulligan and Joan Lalor, Uncharted Territory: Investigating the Right toConscientious Objection in Termination ofPregnancy in Ireland, Law and Society, Denver, Colorado, 6-9 June 2024, 2024, Oral Presentation, PUBLISHED
Mulligan, Caulfield, Grant, Hunt-Sheridan, Molony, O'Brien and Tolan, Law Reform Commission Report: A Regulatory Framework for Adult Safeguarding, LRC-128, Law Reform Commission, April 2024, 2024, Notes: [This publication was added to the 5th Programme of Law Reform decided by the LRC in consultation with the Government and the Office of the Attorney General. It is expected to form the basis of forthcoming large-scale legal reform, establishing for the first time a legal framework for adult safeguarding in Ireland.], Report, PUBLISHED
Andrea Mulligan, Health Law on the Island of Ireland, Cross-Border Practice on the Island of Ireland: Convergence and Divergence, Distillery Building, Bar of Ireland, 22 February 2023, 2023, Bar of Ireland, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Andrea Mulligan, Modern Marital Privacy: Re-Evaluating McGee for Contemporary Reproduction, CONTRACEPTION AND THE CONSTITUTION: REPRODUCTIVE AUTONOMY AND CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE AFTER MCGEE V ATTORNEY GENERAL, Trinity College Dublin, Long Room Hub, 2 December 2023, 2023, Oral Presentation, PUBLISHED
Andrea Mulligan, Surrogacy and the Significance of Gestation: Implications for Law and Policy, Guest Presentation at Centre for Health, Law, and Society, University of Bristol, Centre for Health, Law, and Society, University of Bristol, 7 July 2022, 2022, Centre for Health, Law, and Society, University of Bristol, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Andrea Mulligan, The Covid 19 Pandemic and the Rule of Law, European Lawyers Union and Irish Centre for European Law Conference,`The Rule of Law in the European Union", The Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, 11 November 2022, 2022, European Lawyers Union and Irish Centre for European Law, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Andrea Mulligan, Surrogacy and the Significance of Gestation: Implications for Law and Policy, Presentation to Medical Law and Ethics Discussion Group, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, 27 April 2022, 2022, Medical Law and Ethics Discussion Group, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED

  

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Awards and Honours

Award Date
Visiting Fellow, Wadham College Oxford January - June 2022
Elected to Scholarship, Trinity College Dublin 2007
Lucy Gwynn Prize, Trinity College Dublin 2007
Kingsmill Moore Prize 2008
Fulbright Scholarship 2009
Dean's Scholar in Legal and Ethical Issues in Reproductive Technologies 2010
Ussher PhD Fellowship, Trinity College Dublin 2010-13