Cillian Blake

Cillian is currently a 4^th year PhD at UL being supervised by Professor Kilcommins.

He completed an LLB in Dublin Institute of Technology in 2015 and then went on to complete an LLM in International Human Rights Law at Griffith College Dublin; the focus of his dissertation was the use of lethal force by the police in counter-terrorist operations.

The title of his PhD thesis is, “A study of the extent to which legal standards for the permissible use of force by Gardaí are adequately clear to protect society from excessive use.”

This study is building on Cillian’s LLM dissertation and providing a more in-depth analysis of the legal rules regulating the use of force by Gardaí.

Cillian has been appointed an expert with the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Cillian is also a member of CEPOL’s Human Rights Expert Group for developing human rights standards in policing at a horizontal level.

Cillian has been published in the International Journal of Human Rights, the Irish Criminal Law Journal and on the Criminal Justice in Ireland Blog hosted by the CCJVS in UL.