Law students have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore international and human rights law in the breathtaking setting of Galway, Ireland, through this study abroad program—open to both New England Law | Boston students and students from ABA-accredited law schools.
Galway Program Faculty
Professor Anna Arstein-Kerslake
Doctor Anna Arstein-Kerslake is an Associate Professor at Melbourne Law School (MLS) at the University of Melbourne (UoM) and a Lecturer at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG). Her research focuses on the human rights of persons with disabilities. Her recent books, Legal Capacity and Gender (Springer 2021) and Restoring Voice to People(Cambridge University Press 2017), focus on the right to equal recognition before the law. She has led several large-scale research projects on gender and disability rights. From 2014-2017 she was the Academic Convenor of the Hallmark Disability Research Initiative across UoM. Prior to joining UoM, she held a Marie Curie Research Fellowship at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy (CDLP) at NUIG. She has participated widely in consultation with governments and other bodies, including providing support to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on a general comment on the right to equal recognition before the law. Her expertise has also been sought from: the World Health Organization, the United Kingdom Ministry of Justice, the Irish Ministry of Justice, Amnesty Ireland, Interights, the Mental Disability Advocacy Center, and others.
Professor Shane Darcy
Professor Shane Darcy is the Deputy Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights in the School of Law at the National University of Ireland Galway, where he teaches business and human rights, international humanitarian law and international criminal law. He is the author of Judges, Law and War; The Judicial Development of International Humanitarian Law (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and To Serve the Enemy: Informers, Collaborators and the Laws of Armed Conflict (Oxford University Press, 2019). He is a member of the Editorial Boards of the Business and Human Rights Journal, the Irish Yearbook of International Law and Criminal Law Forum.
Professor Victor Hansen
Before joining New England Law | Boston faculty, Professor Hansen served a 20-year career in the US Army, as a Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG) officer. As a JAG officer, he served as a regional defense counsel for the US Army Trial Defense Service, a military prosecutor, and supervising prosecutor. He has been involved in military capital litigation as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney. Professor Hansen also served as an associate professor of law at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is the author of several articles and books on criminal and military law, evidence, and national security issues.
Professor Dina Francesca Haynes
Before teaching Professor Haynes was an international human rights lawyer, serving as director general of the Human Rights Department for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as human rights adviser to the OSCE in Serbia and Montenegro, and as a protection officer with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. She also received appointments as a human rights field investigator with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Rwanda, and with UNHCR in Afghanistan. Professor Haynes has provided direct legal representation to hundreds of asylum seekers and victims of human trafficking. She has also brought cases and complaints before the European Court for Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, and the African Commission, as well as with UN Special Rapporteurs on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Protecting Human Rights While Countering Terrorism. She has commented on draft Constitutions for the Republic of South Africa, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, and appeared before most of the appellate circuit courts and the US Supreme Court as counsel or amici. Professor Haynes also served in the Honors Graduate Program with the US Department of Justice and clerked on the Constitutional Court of South Africa.
Professor Ray Murphy
Doctor Ray Murphy is a professor at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, School of Law University of Galway. He is also on the faculty of the International Institute for Criminal Investigations (The Hague). Prof. Murphy was a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for International Law, Al-Haq, Palestine in 2014. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 2006 and worked with Human Rights Watch in New York as a resident scholar. He has conducted international training on behalf of the ICRC, No Peace Without Justice, Amnesty International, the UN, the International Institute for Humanitarian Law and the Pearson Peacekeeping Center, Canada. He is also a Commissioner with the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. Prof. Murphy is a former Captain in the Irish Defense Forces and he served as an infantry officer with the Irish contingent of UNIFIL in Lebanon in 1981/82 and again in 1989. He was Chairperson of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission from 1997 to 2000. He has field experience with the OSCE in Bosnia in 1996 and 1997. He has also worked on short assignments in west and southern Africa and the Middle East for Amnesty International, the European Union and the Irish Government.
An Unbeatable Study Abroad Experience for Law Students
New England Law | Boston, offers an exciting and unique summer study abroad opportunity for law students at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway. Taught by experts from Ireland and the United States, the program focuses on international and comparative human rights law and accountability for human rights violations.
Featuring thought-provoking and rigorous courses, the Galway Program has attracted many distinguished visiting faculty members over the years, including U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.
Outside of class, law students explore the beautiful city of Galway, go to Irish courts, attend social events, and visit the Aran Islands. Students often choose to travel more extensively on the weekends as well.
Studying in Galway was a wonderful way to explore an area of international law I'm interested in but would not have the opportunity to study otherwise. The professors were great and incredibly knowledgeable. Galway is beautiful, there are lots of fun things to do and see, and it's easy to take a weekend trip if you want to go outside the city.” —Sonia McCallum ’21