Síofra O’Leary

Síofra O’Leary (born 20 September 1968) is an Irish lawyer and judge who served as president of the European Court of Human Rights from November 2022 to July 2024 and as a judge of the European Court of Human Rights since July 2015. She previously served as a vice-president of the European Court of Human Rights in 2022.

Early life O’Leary was born in Dublin where she completed a Bachelor of Civil Law degree at University College Dublin in 1989. She went on to study at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, where she defended her PhD in European law, titled The evolving concept of Community citizenship : from the free movement of persons to union citizenship, in 1993.

Academic career O'Leary then worked in research at the Universities of Cadiz and London before going on to become assistant director in the Centre for European Law Studies at the University of Cambridge in 1996. O'Leary went on to become a Fellow at Emmanuel College there . Starting in 1996 for three years, O'Leary held the position of Référendaire (consultant) at the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. She then became the "Chef de cabinet" from 2000 to 2004. During her time at the Court of Justice, O'Leary also was a visiting fellow at University College Dublin's faculty of law from 1999 to 2004. On 19 September 2022, she was elected president of the court and became the first woman to hold that position when she took up office on 1 November 2022 replacing Róbert Ragnar Spanó who is Icelandic.