HSS - School of Law and Government header
School of Law and Government

Research Centres & Groups | School of Law and Government

 

The DCU Centre for Climate & Society brings together perspectives from across the social sciences and humanities to shed light on how we can shape effective and fair responses to climate change and broader environmental challenges. The Centre provides a focal point for DCU's large and growing expertise in these areas, and underpins our teaching on the MSc in Climate Change: Policy, Media and Society.

 

DELI is the prime hub for research and scientific collaboration in the field of European Union (EU) law and policy at DCU. DELI brings together a team of more than 20 international scholars, from a half dozen EU member states and beyond, led by Prof. Federico Fabbrini, and working on a plurality of issues in EU and international affairs. In particular, DELI focuses on 4 core thematic areas, namely: 1) Institutional affairs: including EU governance and integration, defense, EU enlargement and withdrawal; 2) Law & Technology: including privacy and data protection, artificial intelligence and innovation, and the green transition; 3) Economic affairs: including trade and industrial policies, banking and sustainable finance, and competition law; 4) Human rights & the rule of law: including fundamental rights and non-discrimination, migration and democratic backsliding.

 

The DCU Conflict Institute brings together researchers working on a wide range of subjects in the area of conflict, security, and peace. It is adopting its current name in the middle of 2024. It was launched by Hillary Clinton in 2012, and originally named the Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction (IICRR). It draws on Ireland’s own historical experience of peace and conflict to produce internationally accessible, academically rigorous and definitive accounts of the implementation of the Northern Ireland peace process; to draw on the Irish experience to assist in the analysis of other conflict zones, and to use international best practice to assist the remaining legacies of conflict in Ireland.  The geographical scope of Institute’s work is global but focuses in particular on Northern Ireland, the post-Soviet space, the Western Balkans, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Middle East. 

 

At the Law Research Centre, we believe that a holistic, contextual, interdisciplinary approach to the law is essential to grasp both its importance in contemporary society and to uncover the forces that drive change in the law itself. We adopt such a multifaceted method to our work, embedding the study of law in society and linking theory to practice, focusing on the lived experiences of individuals subject to the law. By combining legal analysis with perspectives from other disciplines and methods, the research generated by the members of the Centre offers the means to investigate and more effectively address the interaction of legal problems with their social, economic and political contexts.

 

Given the multifaceted legal, political and economic implications of Brexit, Dublin City University has established the Brexit Institute with the aim to explore how Brexit impacts on government, business and society at large. The DCU Brexit Institute operates as a hub and a magnet for the analysis of Brexit, both from an academic and a policy perspective. Through the organization of regular events the Brexit Institute provides a leading platform to document and debate developments in the relations between the UK and the EU.

 

The Ireland India Institute, at Dublin City University, supports collaboration in education, research and knowledge exchange between Ireland and India. The Institute builds on the political and cultural affinities between the two countries, and their record of historical links, to develop a greater cultural awareness of India in Ireland. Its primary aim is to act as a knowledge exchange hub that links DCU and Indian academics, with cultural organisations, civil society organisations, public institutions and business in Ireland and India.

 

The Pathway Project, ‘They Are Here Too', is a new research project focused on the challenges of countering gender violence in migrant communities in Ireland. It will lead to policy recommendations and launch of a community space aimed towards enhanced interactions within these communities. The project's podcast, ASHA, will be launched soon.