Profile
Biography
BA (Cantab), LLM (Leeds), PhD (Liverpool), PGCAP (York)
Professor and YLS Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Champion
I joined York Law School in 2009, having completed an AHRC-funded PhD at the University of Liverpool.
I have degrees in Law and Social and Political Sciences, and many years of experience of working and volunteering in Citizens Advice offices. I specialise in the emerging discipline of Withdrawal Law and retained EU law; migration justice and human rights; EU social law and citizenship; and social security law. My work focuses on bringing together doctrinal and empirical study, in particular developing new socio-legal research methods to capture and analyse law in action.
I have co-authored reports for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the EU Commission; presented evidence to the European Parliament; the All Party Parliamentary Groups on the Rule of Law, and on Citizens’ Rights; the London Assembly; the House of Commons Select Committee on Exiting the European Union; and the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee. I have further submitted evidence to the Joint Human Rights Select Committee; the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Migration and on Poverty; and the European Affairs Committee of the House of Lords.
I lead the EU Rights & Brexit Hub – a project in advice-led ethnography, to give advice to organisations working with EU nationals and documenting evidence of problems encountered. We work within the Baroness Hale Legal Clinic, and we began as part of an interdisciplinary project funded by the ESRC. We have contributed to strategic litigation, supporting claimants and/or interveners in high profile test cases – working with the3million; the AIRE Centre; the Child Poverty Action Group; and 4-5 Grays Inn Square Chambers.
I previously led the EU Rights Project, another legal action research project, funded with an ESRC Future Research Leaders award. This led to work cited in the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the UK Supreme Court, and the Court of Justice of the European Union.
In November 2022, I was awarded the Legal Academic of the Year prize, in the Inspirational Women in Law Awards in recognition of ‘pioneering and inspirational work in the legal academic field’.
Research
Overview
- Withdrawal Law
- EU social law, UK public law and human rights law
- EU policies on social security coordination, migration, citizenship, labour law and asylum
- The implications of Brexit for women and children
- Migration justice and human rights
- Theories of equality and fundamental rights
- Social security law, policy and reform
- Feminist and sociolegal analyses of all the above
PhD: I welcome applications from prospective research students in these and related supervision areas; please get in touch if you would like to discuss a proposal.
Projects
Withdrawal Law
In the wake of Brexit, millions of people’s rights to reside, rights to equal treatment, and access public services, and rights to family reunification, are all subject to this new, underexplored species of law, and will be for the rest of their lifetimes, and the lifetimes of their future children. However, mechanisms of enforcement are unclear and untested; it gets tangled with multiple parallel immigration regimes; and the processes for monitoring the implementation of Withdrawal Law – for EU nationals in the UK, and UK nationals in the EU – suffer from transparency, accessibility and accountability deficits. I am working on ways to analyse implementation; to identify problems of interpretation; and to test this new branch of law in action. I have contributed to several test cases on correct interpretation of Withdrawal Agreement provisions. With Dr Sylvia de Mars, I co-authored a report on the provisions affecting people crossing the Ireland/Northern Ireland border for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission: Frontier Workers and their Families: Rights after Brexit | Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (nihrc.org).
Immigration law, human rights and social security
This work focuses the relationship between immigration law and policy, and the management (and creation and amplification) of poverty through social security law. It explores the role of xenophobia in law-making, considering the othering of EU nationals; the dehumanisation of migrants in general, and the demonising of asylum seekers in particular. In 2023 I produced this submission to the Human Rights Select Committee consultation on the Illegal Migration Bill. With Dr Alice Welsh, I submitted a response to the Professional Experience consultation for the APPG on Migration and the APPG on Poverty’s joint inquiry into The Effects of UK Immigration, Asylum and Refugee Policy on Poverty in November 2023.
The EU Rights and Brexit Hub 2020 to 2023
A major ESRC Governance After Brexit project. We set up a nationwide legal action research hub – the first of its kind. From within the Baroness Hale Legal clinic, we offered second tier advice and support to organisations working with EU/EEA nationals, and documented the problems encountered in a parallel ethnography. The team included: Dr Alice Welsh; Co-Investigators Professor Simon Parker, (University of York, Department of Politics and International Relations) and Madeleine Sumption (COMPAS, University of Oxford), and research fellows Dr John Evemy, Denis Kierans and Marina Fernandez Reino.
We produced parliamentary briefings, drafted parliamentary questions, gave evidence to the London Assembly, which formed the basis for a letter from the Assembly to the Mayor of London.
Although the ESRC project has concluded, we are continuing to receive cases through the clinic, give advice and analyse the problems encountered.
Brexit
Prior to the start of the current project, I was able to contribute to the debates and analysis of Brexit documents and processes. I was invited to give evidence on the EU Withdrawal Bill at an oral session of the House of Commons Exiting the European Union Committee (watch the video of the session). My evidence was cited on the floor of the House of Commons (by several MPs), and was drawn upon heavily in the final report of the House of Commons Exiting the European Union Committee on the European Union (Withdrawal Bill).
I have given presentations to the London Assembly, the Public Law Project conference, and the Hart Judicial Review conference on Brexit, free movement and EU nationals' rights.
The EU rights project 2013 to 2017
In 2012 I was awarded an ESRC future research leaders grant for the EU Rights Project which ran until mid 2017. It was an innovative legal action research project, in which I worked with Craven & Harrogate Districts Citizens Advice to set up a specialist advice and advocacy service on EU welfare claims. While advising and representing clients, I conducted a parallel study of administrative obstacles we encountered. This 'advice led ethnography' is a new way to interrogate EU law. It combines socio-legal studies with theoretical, philosophical and historical work on EU social law. It yielded very rich data, revealing and challenging injustices that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.
The major output from the project is the monograph, Unity in Adversity: EU Citizenship, Social Justice and the Cautionary Tale of the UK (Oxford: Hart, 2017). which draws upon the case studies to demonstrate political, legal and administrative obstacles to justice faced by EU nationals in the UK. The book won the Socio-Legal Studies Association Best Book prize in 2019, and was shortlisted for the BBC Thinking Allowed Ethnography Award.
'Doctrinal mastery. Intellectual rigour. Conceptual depth. Empirical enrichment. O'Brien's landmark text offers its readers all of these qualities.' Professor Michael Dougan, University of Liverpool.
Teaching
Undergraduate
I have had a number of learning and teaching roles:
- subject lead for the EU components of the Foundations in law modules
- director of the YLS law clinic
- clinic case supervisor
- co-lead immigration law and policy
Postgraduate
I supervise LLM dissertations and PhDs.
External activities
Memberships
- Analytical expert, European Commission's Free Movement and Social Security network of experts – MoveS/Fressco
- Cases Editor, Journal of Social Security Law
- Trustee, Welfare Benefit Unit
- Peer reviewer for the ESRC
- Peer reviews, e.g.: European Law Review; European Journal of Social Security Law; Routledge; Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Reports
O’Brien, Spaventa and De Coninck, “The concept of worker under Article 45 TFEU and certain non-standard forms of employment”, FreSsco Comparative Report, European Commission (2015) available at <www.ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=15476&langId=en>.
Overmeiren, O'Brien, Spaventa, Jorens & Schulte "The notions of obstacle and discrimination under EU law on free movement of workers" Fressco Analytical report, European Commission (2014) available at <http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=13535&langId=en>
Media coverage
Selected blogs and news articles
- See multiple blogs at EU Rights & Brexit Hub; for example: “Court of Appeal decides the Secretary of State is wrong, wrong, wrong”: The Charter applies to people with pre-settled status” 16 November 2023
- Free Movement: “UK wrongly insisted on Comprehensive Sickness Insurance for years, EU court finds” 15 March 2022
- Free Movement: “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, and Santa was filling in UK border forms” 3 December 2021
- Oxford Human Rights Hub: "Inevitability as the New Discrimination Defence: UK Supreme Court Mangles Indirect Discrimination Analysis While Finding the Two-Child Limit Lawful" 26 July 2021
- The Conversation: "Over 2 million EU nationals are at risk of discrimination in UK after shock EU court ruling – here’s what happens next" 20 July 2021
- The Conversation: “Brexit party: Nigel Farage’s threat to disrupt EU business is a waste of his energy” 18 April 2019
- The Times: “Settled status scheme for EU citizens risks being next Windrush” 04 April, 2019
- The Conversation: “Brexit: The Uncivil War – what it told us, and what it didn’t” 09 January 2019
- UK in a Changing Europe: "A failed duty of care? the draft EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement denies unpaid carers key rights" 27 November 2018
- Equality and Diversity Foundation: "Gentlemen’s agreements: proposals on the table for EU citizens’ rights disadvantage women by design" 21 November 2018
- Free Movement: "The rights of EU nationals in the UK post-Brexit – five pessimistic predictions" February 2018
- Lexis Nexis: "Naturalisation and dual citizenship (Lounes v Secretary of State for the Home Office)" 1 December 2017
- The Conversation "There’s only one woman on the UK Brexit negotiating team – here’s why that matters" 25 July 2017
- Political Studies Association UK Election Analysis 2017: Media, Voters and the Campaign, "Totem, taboo and trigger word: the dominance and obscurity of Brexit in the campaigns", June 2017
- University of York News, "Expert reaction: Article 50", 28 March 2017
- Cambridge European Legal Studies, "Brexit, free movement and welfare: we must bring evidence back into fashion", October 2016.
- Co-authored with Professor Laurent Pech EU Law Analysis, "EU Free Movement Law in 10 Questions & Answers", 2 November 2016.
- The Conversation "Brexit Britain: sovereignty is not a licence to disregard international law" 3 August 2016
- The Equality Trust “The ‘E’ word must go back on the legislative agenda” 2 August 2016
- The Independent “European migrants are not just paying their way, they're paying our way too” 24 July 2016
- EU Referendum Analysis 2016: Media, Voters and the Campaign “Bonfires and Brexterity: what’s next for women?” 6 July 2016
- European Financial Review “It’s our economy too: gender equality is not a luxury to be abandoned in times of crisis” 20 June 2016
- EU Law Analysis “Don’t think of the children! CJEU approves automatic exclusions from family benefits in Case C-308/14 Commission v UK” 16 June 2016
- The UK in a Changing Europe “Brexterity, eusterity and child welfare: whoever wins, women and children are at risk” 15 June 2016
- The Conversation “Leaving EU would be bad for women – but staying in doesn’t look too great either” 1 June 2016
- Full Fact “Is Turkey likely to join the EU?”27 May 2016 (last updated 23 June 2016).
- Positive News “EU: In or Out?” 6 May 2016
- The Guardian “Would Brexit make it harder to hire EU workers ?” Small business network referendum panel 29 March 2016
- Lexis Nexis “Immigration aspects of Cameron’s EU settlement” in Continental shift: Brexit and the Law 27 March 2016
- The Conversation “The EU talks the talk on gender equality – but in a male voice” 8 March 2016
- Full Fact “Explaining the EU deal: child benefit” 27 February 2016 (last updated 23 June 2016)
- The Independent “Why the EU emergency brake on migrant benefits is sexist” 5 February 2016
- The UK in a Changing Europe “Cameron’s renegotiation and the burying of the balance of competencies review” 2 February 2016
- EU Law Analysis “An insubstantial pageant fading: a vision of EU citizenship under the AG’s Opinion in C-308/14 Commission v UK” 7 October 2015
- EU Law Analysis “More back-slapping than soul-searching: The European Commission’s reflections on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” 11 June 2014
- Durham European Law Institute “The CJEU’s chance to stop punishing pregnancy – the St Prix case” 1 November 2013
