Siofra O’Leary New President of the Court

Today, the European Court of Human Rights has elected Síofra O’Leary, judge in respect of  Ireland, as its new President. Síofra O’Leary is the very first female President since the creation of the European Court of Human Rights. 

She joined the Court in 2015 and became section president as well as vice-president of the Court at the start of this current year. After having studied law in Ireland in the 1980s, judge O’Leary wrote and defended her PhD at the European University Institute in Florence and subsequently was connected to universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland. For the almost two decades before joining the Strasbourg Court, she worked in European Union Law at the sister Court in Luxembourg, where she was Référendaire, Chef de Cabinet and Head of Unit. With this strong previous background in EU law and her extensive experience on the Convention, she might be the perfect fit for the era that may, if negotiations this time go well, lead to the generations-long-awaited accession of the EU to the ECHR. Who knows what the future will bring.

Judge O’Leary will succeed the Court’s current President Robert Spano  on 1 November 2022. Good luck to the Court’s new President!