LawGov Research Carnival #11: Professor Yvonne Daly

Yvonne Daly is a Professor of Criminal Law and Evidence in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. 

Professor Daly is an expert on criminal evidence and procedure, with a specific research focus on effective criminal defence and the legal regulation of criminal investigations. She engages in detailed doctrinal and comparative work across European and international jurisdictions, and empirical research which explores the law in action, as compared with the theory. Her research is grounded in fundamental human rights instruments, such as the Irish Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, and advocates for the practical and effective protection of individual rights, specifically in relation to suspects under criminal investigation.  

Professor Daly is committed to research with real-world impact and her research on access to legal assistance in police custody, on the right to silence, and on the consequences of improperly obtained evidence has been foundational in the creation of training for police station lawyers, which is now in use in Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Scotland. Further information on this SUPRALAT training can be found here; an article on the importance of active lawyering at the investigative stage is here (co-authored with colleagues from the SUPRALAT project); and another article on the changing role of the solicitor in the garda station is available here (co-authored with Dr Vicky Conway, DCU).

Professor Daly is currently the Principal Investigator for Ireland on the EU-funded EmpRiSe project - EmpRiSe: Right to silence and related rights in pre-trial suspects’ interrogations in the EU: legal and empirical study and promoting best practice. This project is examining the operation of the pre-trial right to silence in Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. Professor Daly is working on this project with colleagues at Maastricht University, the University of Antwerp and KU Leuven. In Ireland, Professor Daly has conducted focus groups and interviews with criminal defence solicitors (19), barristers (10), prosecutors from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (11), retired gardaí (5), and judges of the Circuit, Central and Special Criminal Courts (4) in order to provide a rounded view of the right to silence in garda interviews and its impact on criminal cases as they progress through the criminal process.

Professor Daly is also very interested in legal education and has written a number of articles in this area. She has co-edited Teaching Evidence Law: Contemporary Trends and Innovations (Routledge, 2020) with Prof Jeremy Gans (Melbourne Law School) and Prof P.J. Schwikkard (University of Cape Town). Part of Routledge’s series on Legal Pedagogy, this book, with a Foreword by Prof William Twining, sets out the contemporary experiences of evidence teachers in a range of common law countries across four continents. It addresses key themes and places these in the context of academic literature on the teaching of evidence, proof and fact-finding. The chapters describe innovative ways of overcoming the many challenges of this field, addressing the expanding fields of evidence law, how to reach and accommodate new audiences with an interest in evidence, and the tools devised to meet old and new pedagogical problems in this area.

For more information see Yvonne’s DCU profile page, or her open access publications on DORAS. Also, you can follow her on Twitter: @YvonneDaly