Academic Staff

Cathal Curran

Lecturer

Cathal completed his doctorate in the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin, in 2014. His thesis considered the rule of law ideal and the practice of statutory interpretation in the jurisprudence of the superior Irish Courts, in light of interpretative theory. He has lectured in the Law Department in Maynooth University, as well as in the Law School in UCC.

Cathal’s primary research interests concern the rule of law ideal, interpretation and the philosophy of language, statutory theory and critical theory.

Cathal lectures in Jurisprudence, Prison Law, Introduction to Law and Core Legal Skills.

Education:

BA, NUI Galway – 2005

LLB, NUI Galway – 2006

LLM, University College Cork – 2007

PhD, Trinity College Dublin – 2014

Recent Conference Papers/Presentations

Irish Jurisprudence Society - Spring Series Workshop, 16 April 2015; “Literal interpretation and Common Sense Adjudication: Applying Lonergan Studies to Legal Interpretation”

Trinity College Dublin, Constitutional Law and Policy Group Workshop, 14 June 2012: “Very Fine Lines: Statutory Interpretation and the Role of Literalism and Purpose”

Trinity College Dublin Law School Postgraduate Presentation Series, 21 March 2012; Does the Orthodox Theory of Statutory Interpretation Reflect the Rule of Law Ideal?

Irish Jurisprudence Society - Spring Series Workshop, 26 May 2011; “Does Dworkin’s “Rights Conception” of the Rule of Law amount to a Persuasive Substantive Reading of the Ideal?”

Publications

'Reappraising the Constitutional Justification for Intentionalism and Literalism in Statutory Interpretation'
Cathal Curran and Eoin Daly (2013) 'Reappraising the Constitutional Justification for Intentionalism and Literalism in Statutory Interpretation'. Dublin University Law Journal, 36 (2)

Research Interests

The Rule of Law Ideal, Theories of Authority, Critical Theory, Law and Interpretation, Philosophy of Language, Statutory Theory.