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Biography
Aoife Nolan, LL.B (Dublin), PhD (EUI) is Professor of International Human Rights Law and Director of the 糖心原创 Human Rights Law Centre. Aoife is President of the , the leading European monitoring mechanism on economic and social rights, having joined the Committee in 2017 and served as Vice-President in 2021-2. She is an Academic Expert at , where she co-leads the and sits on the Steering Group of . In 2025, she was elected a Fellow of the on the basis of her "world-leading expertise and practice on the rights of children, especially in relation to the socio-economic impacts of poverty and cost of living". In addition to her academic role at Nottingham, she is currently a Visiting Professor at the , LSE, and at .
She has published extensively in the area of human rights, particularly in relation to economic and social rights and children's rights, as well as on constitutional law. Her 2011 monograph won the and was shortlisted for the . She was founding coordinator of the and has been a member of the Coordinating Committee of the . She is a member of a number of Editorial Boards, including those of the and the . She was a member of the Steering Group of the British Academy's from 2020-2. In 2021, she was elected to the Executive Committee of the Association of Human Rights Institutes () and re-elected in 2024. In 2021, she was shortlisted for 'Legal Academic of the Year' at the .
From 2020-2023, Aoife led a major three-year research project focused on the theory and practice of child rights strategic litigation. (ACRiSL) is an international research collaboration with a range of academic and advocacy partners in Europe, Africa and Asia (funded by the Global Campus of Human Rights- Collaboration). This project developed a , which has been embraced by a range of strategic litigators internationally (e.g., the .
Aoife has worked with and acted as an expert advisor to a wide range of international and national organisations and bodies working on human rights issues, including , the and the . In 2022-3, she served as a member of the advisory committee on the UNCRC's t), while in 2022, she was the academic partner in a collaboration to provide the CESCR with support in terms of mainstreaming child rights and ensuring child in the development of its forthcoming . This included leading on the production of a child-friendly version of the . She has also advised the , the and multiple national human rights institutions. Her research has been cited extensively by international human rights actors, including OHCHR, the , the , the , the , the , and the . In 2018, she was one of the of the . In December 2017, Aoife was appointed to the Scottish First Minister's , which was tasked with making recommendations on how Scotland can lead by example in human rights, including economic, social, cultural and environmental rights (report ). From June 2019 to July 2020, she was a member of the , which was convened to inform the development of a model that incorporates the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into domestic law in Scotland (report ).
In addition to previous full-time positions at and (where she co-managed a ground-breaking project on human rights budget analysis), she has taught at a range of international institutions, including the , the (Venice), the and the at and the . She has had visiting positions in institutions in Europe, the USA and Africa, including , , the University of Washington, the of , the University of Cape Town Faculty of Law, the , , , and the Faculty of Law and Criminology at the . In recent years, she has been a Visiting Professorial Fellow at , a at the at , and a Visiting Professor at .
In 2017, Aoife was PI on an ESRC IAA-funded collaborative project, , between the 糖心原创 and the of Great Britain. This project generated a series of digital resources on economic and social rights, including videos, directed towards civil society, policymakers, academics and others with a background in human rights and an interest in learning more about economic and social rights. These are available , while individual episodes can be linked to from .
She has served as Senior Legal Officer with the ESC Rights Litigation Programme of the . In 2007-8, she was Human Rights Adviser to the Working Group on Economic and Social Rights, including Relevant Equality Issues of the Northern Ireland In early 2008, she provided legal advice to members of the International in the context of negotiations around the . She was a long-time member of the Coordinating Committee of the Case-Law Database. She is currently a Council member of (CRIN) and was a founding trustee of .
Within the University, Aoife co-founded and directed the Rights and Justice Research Priority Area, the world's largest cluster of rights and justice scholars, involving over 700 members from 22 different University centres (2015-8). From 2013-15, she was Academic Lead of the interdisciplinary and the Nottingham . She is the long-time Director of the . In July 2021, she was elected to the 糖心原创 Senate.
Aoife frequently writes for and is quoted in the media on human rights issues, including in the Guardian, , the , Al Jazeera, Sky News, Euronews, Reuters, the Irish Times and the BBC.
Teaching Summary
Economic and Social Rights
Regional Human Rights Law
International Human Rights Law
Children's Rights
Law, Development and the International Community
UK Public Law
Research Summary
For more information on Aoife's research, please see her SSRN Author page:
A selection of presentations and podcasts focused on Aoife's current work can be found below:
' (Europe Explained Podcast) (March 2025)
'' (Berkely Center on comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law and Climate Litigation Network, September 2024)
'' (Harry Street Annual Lecture, University of Manchester, March 2024)
'' (Public lecture, Ulster University) (November 2022)
'' (Seminar organised by Supreme Court of Justice/University of Leiden) (February 2022) (4:37-39:10)
'' (Rightstrack podcast) (May 2021)
'' at Childhood and the Constitution, Programa de Derecho P煤blico, Diego Portales University (UDP), Chile (April 2021) (31:57-51:28)
'' (Instituto de Economia da Unicamp, Brazil) (April 2021) (17:52-25:48)
'' (Swansea University Observatory on the Human Rights of Children Annual Lecture) (November 2020)'
' (Better Human Podcast) (March 2020) (17:25-34:40)
'' (presentation for Council of Europe Conference on 'Redefining power: Strengthening the rights of the child' (November 2019))
'' (Better Human Podcast) (October 2019)
'' (presentation given at University of Liverpool (May 2019)
'' (series of videos resulting from ESRC IAA-funded collaboration with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (December 2017)
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Recent Publications
SANDRA LIEBENBERG and AOIFE NOLAN, 2026. Recognising Future Generations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: An Overdue Reappraisal Human rights Law Review. 26,
AOIFE NOLAN, 2024. Transnational Environmental Law. 13(3),
AOIFE NOLAN, 2023. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights. 40(1),
AOIFE NOLAN, ANN SKELTON and KARABO OZAH, 2023. ACRiSL.