Sutherland School of Law welcomes a third ERC Grant

L to R Dr Amy Strecker, Professor Eoin Carolan and Professor Suzanne Kingston

Dr Amy Strecker’s European Research Council (ERC) Starter award of €1.5 million is the third ERC grant awarded to Sutherland School of Law. This follows a €2 million ERC Consolidator Grant secured by Professor Eoin Carolan in 2018 and the School’s first ever ERC award of €1.5 million won by Professor Suzanne Kingston in 2015.

Dr Amy Strecker’s project, Land, Property and Spatial Justice in International Law (PROPERTY[IN]JUSTICE) investigates the ways in which international law facilitates spatial justice and injustice through its conceptualisation of property rights. The overall aim of the project is to advocate a more socially-just interpretation of property in relation to land. 

Professor Eoin Carolan, was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for a 5-year study, entitled The Foundations of Institutional Authority (FIAT). This project explores how separation of powers systems are being affected by current social and political trends. This is a problem for constitutional models, like the separation of powers, that divide power between traditional institutions. The questions that will be raised will include: How can a constitution work if voters distrust their government? How should separation of powers systems change to meet this challenge?  

The School’s first ERC grant, Legal Architectures: The Influence of New Environmental Governance Rules on Environmental Compliance asks the question, ‘how can we design our environmental governance laws to maximise environmental compliance?’ Professor Suzanne Kingston and her research team investigate the influence that environmental governance laws have on compliance decisions, and how we might best design our laws to maximise compliance. In 2017, Suzanne was further honoured by Enterprise Ireland as one of Ireland's ‘Champions of EU Research’, for achieving the highest-ranking Irish ERC grant across all disciplines in her category.