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.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Andrea Mulligan, Surrogacy and the Significance of Gestation: Implications for Law and Policy, Bioethics, 2024, p1 - 10
Andrea Mulligan, Constitutional Rights in Assisted Human Reproduction: Charting the Contemporary Impact of Marital Privacy, Dublin University Law Journal, 2024
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
Andrea Mulligan and Rebecca Brown, 'Maternal Request Caesarean Section' and Medical Necessity, Clinical Ethics, 18, (3), 2023, p312 - 320
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
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
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]
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
Sarah Hamill and Andrea Mulligan, Public/Private Healthcare in a Pandemic in n 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, August 2021, 2021
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
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
Andrea Mulligan, A Vindicatory Approach to Tortious Liability for Mistakes in Assisted Human Reproduction, Legal Studies, 40, (1), 2020, p55 - 76
Andrea Mulligan, Protecting Identity in Collaborative Assisted Reproduction: The Right To Know One's Gestational Surrogate, International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 34, (1), 2020, p20 - 42
Redressing Unauthorised Vaginal Examination Through Litigation in, editor(s)Camilla Pickles and Jonathan Herring , Women's Birthing Bodies and the Law: Unauthorised Intimate Examinations, Power and Vulnerability, Oxford, Hart Publishing , 2020, pp171 - 194, [Andrea Mulligan]
Surrogacy Law in Ireland: The Troubling Consequences of Legislative Inertia in, editor(s)Peter Dunne and Lynsey Black , Law and Gender in Modern Ireland, Hart Publishing , 2019, pp117 - 136, [Andrea Mulligan]
Andrea Mulligan, Identity Rights and Sensitive Ethical Questions: The European Convention on Human Rights and the Regulation of Surrogacy Arrangements, Medical Law Review, 2018, p449 - 475
Mulligan, Constitutional Aspects of International Data Transfer and Mass Surveillance, Irish Jurist, 55, 2016, p199 - 208
Andrea Mulligan, The Right to Travel for Abortion Services: A Case Study in "Cross-Border Reproductive Care, European Journal of Health Law, 22, (3), 2015, p239 - 266
Andrea Mulligan, Self-Determination, Capacity and the Right to Die by Hunger Strike: Governor of X Prison v PMcD, Irish Jurist, 54, (2), 2015, p165 - 172
Andrea Mulligan, Maternal Brain Death and Legal Protection of the Foetus in Ireland, Medical Law International, 15, 2015, p182 - 195
Andrea Mulligan, Article 8 and the Right to Respect for the Decision to Have or Not to Have a Child, European Human Rights Law Review, 4, 2014, p378 - 387
Andrea Mulligan, Constitutional Parenthood in the Age of Assisted Reproduction" (2014) 48(1) Irish Jurist , Irish Jurist, 48, (1), 2014, p90 - 122
Andrea Mulligan, From Murray v Ireland to Roche v Roche: Re-Evaluating the Right to Procreate in the Context of Assisted Reproduction, Dublin University Law Journal, 35, 2012, p261 - 291
Andrea Mulligan, Tortious Liability for Mistakes in IVF: Duty of Care, Public Policy and the Non-Identity Problem in A(A Minor) and B(A Minor) v A Health and Social Services Trust, Dublin University Law Journal, 34, 2011, p256 - 270
Andrea Mulligan, Frozen Embryo disposition in Ireland After Roche v Roche, Irish Jurist, 46, (1), 2011, p202 - 210
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Andrea Mulligan, Clinical Negligence as a Mechanism for the Vindication of Fundamental Rights: The Rights of Family Members, Society of Legal Scholars Conference, King's College London, 7-9 September 2022, 2022
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
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
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
Alan Eustace, Sarah Hamill, Andrea Mulligan, Public Health Law During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ireland, COVID-19 LEGAL OBSERVATORY, School of Law, Trinity College Dublin, August, 2021
Andrea Mulligan, Regulating Abortion in the Republic of Ireland, Regulating Abortion: The English, French and Irish Perspectives, Bar Library, Inn of Court of Northern Ireland, 30 January 2020, 2020, European Circuit/Bar of Northern Ireland
Andrea Mulligan, State Obligations and Gamete Donor Anonymity under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, The complicated relationship between genetic relatedness, the family, and the state, Umea, Sweden, 8 May 2020, 2020
Andrea Mulligan, The Law of Assisted Human Reproduction in Ireland (Webinar), Family Lawyers Association of Ireland CPD Lecture Series, 7 May 2020, 2020, Family Lawyers Association of Ireland
Pandemic Ethics Advisory Group, 'Ethical considerations relating to long-term residential care facilities', National Public Health Emergency Team, 2020, - 11
Pandemic Ethics Advisory Group, 'Ethical Considerations Relating to Critical Care in the context of COVID-19 ', National Public Health Emergency Team, 2020, - 6
Pandemic Ethics Advisory Group, 'Ethical Considerations for PPE Use by Health Care Workers in a Pandemic', National Public Health Emergency Team, 2020, - 2
Andrea Mulligan, Recent Developments in the Law of Assisted Human Reproduction in Ireland, Medico-Legal Society of Ireland Webinar, 12 December 2020, 2020
Andrea Mulligan, Beware "Best Interests" In the Regulation of Reproductive Gene Editing Technologies, Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference 2020, Preston, 2 September 2020, 2020
Andrea Mulligan, Limitations in Human Rights and Public Health Laws - Invited Discussant, The Protection of Human Rights in Infectious Disease Control: Lessons for Global Health Governance from a Comparison of National Judicial Practice, Queen's University Belfast, 12 - 13 Nov 2020, 2020
Andrea Mulligan, The Developing Law of Open Disclosure in the Republic of Ireland, Wellcome Workshop: PATIENT SAFETY AND REDRESS, Queen's University Belfast, 6 March 2020, 2020
Pandemic Ethics Advisory Group, 'Procedural Values for Decision Making in a Pandemic', National Public Health Emergency Team, Gov.ie, National Public Health Emergency Team, Department of Health, 2020, - 6
Pandemic Ethics Advisory Group, 'Ethical framework for decision-making in a pandemic', National Public Health Emergency Team, Gov.ie, National Public Health Emergency Team, 2020, - 19
Andrea Mulligan, Protecting the Best Interests of the Future Child in the Regulation of Gene Editing Technologies, European Association of Health Law Conference, Toulouse, September 2019, 2019
Andrea Mulligan, Protecting the Best Interests of the Child in the Regulation of Gene Editing Technologies, 33rd European Conference on Philosophy of Medicine and Healthcare (ESPMH), Oslo, August 2019, 2019
Andrea Mulligan, Should there be a Legal Right to Know your Surrogate? Identity and the Role of Gestational Motherhood, British Sociology Association, Human Reproduction Study Group Annual Conference, May 2018, 2018
Oran Doyle, Andrea Mulligan and Mary Rogan, Graduate Attributes, Curriculum Reform, and Pedagogical Innovation, LERU Law Schools Conference - The Future of Legal Pedagogy, Lund, 14 November 2018, 2018
Andrea Mulligan, Article 8 ECHR and the Right to Identity in Assisted Human Reproduction, Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference, London, September 2018, 2018
Andrea Mulligan, Tortious Liability for Mistakes in Reproductive Treatment, Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference, Dublin, September 2017, 2017
Andrea Mulligan Simon Mills, Medical Law in Ireland, 1st, Dublin, Bloomsbury Professional , 2017, 1 - 619pp
Andrea Mulligan, Regulation of Surrogacy and the ECHR, Surrogacy: Forging a legal and Policy Framework for Ireland, 2016
Andrea Mulligan, The Use of DNAR Orders in Irish Law, CMG Interdisciplinary Professional Conference, 'Legalities in End of Life Care, Dublin, 2015
International Conference on Reproductive Rights, New Reproductive Technologies and the European Fertility Market, Gamete Donation Across International Borders: The Challenge of Ensuring Donor Contact in Europe, International Conference on Reproductive Rights, New Reproductive Technologies and the European Fertility Market, Santander, Spain, 2015
Andrea Mulligan, The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Acts and the Protection of the Best Interests of Future Children., Postgraduate Bioethics Conference, King's College London, May 2013, 2013
Andrea Mulligan, Crafting a Legal Framework for Assisted Reproduction: Values, Rules and Judicial Incrementalism, Irish Association of Law Teachers Annual Conference, Dublin, November 2012, 2012
Andrea Mulligan, The Contested Nature of the Best Interests Test, Conference on the Children's Rights Referendum, TCD, 2012
Andrea Mulligan, Revising the Meaning of Life: Legal Protection of Embryos in Ireland and Germany and Assisted Human Reproduction, Irish Society of Comparative Law, UCD, April 2011, 2011
Andrea Mulligan, Roche v Roche: some guidance for frozen embryo disputes, Trinity College Law Review, 13, 2010, p168 - 181
Recognition
Representations
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.
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/
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
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/
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/
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
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.
Journal of Law and the Biosciences, Peer Reviewer
Irish Supreme Court Review, Peer Reviewer
Lecturer in Assisted Human Reproduction on Law Society of Ireland, PPC II
Lecturer in Assisted Human Reproduction on King's Inns Advanced Diploma in Medical Law
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Bioethics (Journal), Peer Reviewer
Invited to provide policy briefing to Irish Hospice Foundation on constitutional issues and end of life care, including assisted suicide.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Awards and Honours
Visiting Fellow, Wadham College Oxford
Elected to Scholarship, Trinity College Dublin
Lucy Gwynn Prize, Trinity College Dublin
Kingsmill Moore Prize
Fulbright Scholarship
Dean's Scholar in Legal and Ethical Issues in Reproductive Technologies
Ussher PhD Fellowship, Trinity College Dublin
Memberships
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