The Centre

The ICEL is a Centre of the School of Law of Trinity College Dublin, constituted as a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity, with an independent Board. The Board chairperson is the Centre’s President, Advocate General Anthony M Collins.

It was founded in 1988 by Senator Mary Robinson SC (now the Centre’s Patron) as a membership-based association to further education and research in the law of the European Union and European human rights.

The Centre serves the legal professions, legal academics, law students, public institutions, the voluntary sector, businesses and the wider public.

The Centre organises conferences and seminars across the island of Ireland in various areas of EU law (in particular, environmental, public procurement, data protection, Brexit and competition law) and in human rights law. The Centre is also the Irish member of the European Law Association for Criminal Law and the Protection of the Financial Interests of the EU, which is run by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).

The Centre has annual revenues of at least €120k and 2 part-time members of staff based in Trinity. The Centre has recently launched activities in Northern Ireland, and additionally has recruited a part-time Assistant Director for Northern Ireland based in Belfast.

The Role

The ICEL seeks applications for appointment as ordinary members of its Board, who are charity Trustees and volunteers. Two Board vacancies arise due to the retirement of Professor Mark Bell and Dr Róisín Costello BL. (A further 3 vacancies arise by constitutional rotation of Board members, Professor Tobias Lock, Professor Chris McCrudden and Bernadette Quigley SC.)

The Board is made up of eight ordinary members and four officers (President, Deputy President, Secretary and Treasurer).

For ordinary Board members, a range of skills is sought, both within and outside the legal sector, to devise and implement a strategy of legal education and research in relation to EU and human rights law for the public and for the legal sectors and to participate in the governance of the Centre as a company and a registered charity.

Responsibilities will include the following:

• Providing input to the strategic direction of the ICEL and contributing with insight, oversight, and experience of strategy formulation in the sector
• Policy formation, planning and implementation as required
• Governance responsibilities, including service on Committees

Essential Skills/Qualities required for the role:

• An understanding of and commitment to the Centre’s objects, in particular education and research in relation to the law of the European Union and Council of Europe.
• Commitment to highest levels of corporate governance.

Desirable Skills/Qualities/Profile required for Board members:

• A deep appreciation and knowledge of the legal education and/or continuing professional development sectors.

• Any of the following profiles:-
  • Persons with significant commercial experience;
  • Persons with experience of fundraising in charitable or voluntary organisations (including applications for grant funding); or
  • Persons with experience in marketing/digital communications;
  • Persons with experience in event management and planning;
  • Practising or retired Solicitors, Barristers, In-House Counsel, Academics, Judges or other legal professionals in Ireland or Northern Ireland, particularly those with experience of EU and/or human rights law.

General duties of a Charity Trustee

• Comply with the Centre’s Constitution and governance policies
• Ensuring that the Centre is complying with its charitable purpose for the public benefit
• Acting in the best interest of the Centre
• Act with Reasonable Care and Skill
• Manage the assets of the Centre prudently

Term

The successful candidate will be appointed at the AGM on 25th September 2024 for a term of 3 years (renewable once).

Board Meetings

There will be 4 board meetings per year. There will also be meetings of Committees which some ordinary Board members may be requested to attend. Board and Committee meetings are typically held online and otherwise are held in Trinity College, Dublin.

Diversity

The ICEL is committed to diversity in appointments to the Board and Committees, in terms of: gender; age; ethnicity; sexual orientation; the inclusion of members of the legal professions and those involved in legal education; geography in terms of residence or place of business on the island of Ireland (including both legal jurisdictions).

The Nomination, Employment and Remuneration Committee, chaired by Gerald FitzGerald, has been asked to have regard to the skills and diversity on the Board and to recommend appointments, where possible, on the basis of bringing the Board towards gender balance.