Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh has a broad civil and criminal law practice, appearing in both domestic and international courts and tribunals.
Blinne Ni Ghralaigh
Domestically, Blinne’s practice encompasses all areas of criminal defence and criminal justice, including prison law, actions against the police and judicial review of prosecutorial decisions. She has particular expertise in cases involving questions of human rights, with a focus on civil and criminal cases arising out of protest and direct action activities. Blinne has also been instructed in death penalty appeals before the Privy Council. She is a contributing author to Human Rights and Criminal Justice by Emmerson, Ashworth and Macdonald (2nd Ed., Sweet & Maxwell, 2007) and to Prison Law by Livingstone, Owen and Macdonald (4th Ed., Oxford, 2008). Blinne also has a general public law and discrimination law practice.
Blinne’s international law practice includes cases before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea and arbitral tribunals. Blinne also regularly advises non governmental organisations on matters of international law, including the availability of domestic remedies for violations thereof. She has a particular interest in international criminal law and the human rights obligations of multinational corporations. Blinne is an executive committee member of the Bar Human Rights Committee, the international human rights arm of the Bar Council, and frequently provides training to international NGOs and foreign national Bar Associations on issues relating to human rights and humanitarian law. The international and human rights sides of her work frequently take her to the Middle East, including to the occupied Palestinian Territory.
Prior to joining the Bar, Blinne worked for a number of NGOs and solicitors’ firms, including two years on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, after an initial career working for a Washington DC-based think tank. She joined Matrix as a full member in October 2006, on completion of her traineeship.
Blinne studied Modern and Medieval Languages (French and Latin) at Queens’ College, Cambridge, graduating with a First in 1998. She obtained a distinction for the Graduate Diploma in Law in 2004 and gained the grade of Outstanding on the Bar Vocational Course in 2005, placing fourth in her year. Blinne undertook further study in the field of human rights and the laws of war at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the London School of Economics in 2005 and 2009.