Professor Mary Rogan and Dr Brian Barry in the School of Law are among three Trinity researchers who have secured highly competitive consolidator grants from the European Research Council (ERC).

Professor Rogan’s project, entitled ‘DOLI: Dignity and the Deprivation of Liberty’, will explore how dignity is experienced by people living in prisons, psychiatric hospitals, and care homes for older people in three European countries: Ireland, Norway and Romania.

The DOLI project will support the expression of people’s own lived experience when their liberty is taken away, combining insights and tools from law and human rights, social sciences, philosophy, theology, and health sciences perspectives. 

Dr Barry’s project is entitled ‘JUDGEASSIST: A framework for principled AI-assisted judicial decision-making’.

JUDGEASSIST will examine the use of AI for assisting judicial decision-making, providing a robust, multidisciplinary response to the challenges and opportunities that arise.

Combining law, psychology and computer science, the project will examine how trust, fairness and procedural justice can be maintained as judges adopt emerging AI tools in their work.

Trinity provost Dr Linda Doyle congratulated both academics on their “fantastic achievement”.

“These ERC consolidator grants are a reflection of their outstanding research and will enable the development of strong research teams in the years ahead,” she said.

Professor Rogan said: “To receive a third ERC award is both an honour and a demonstration of the transformative potential of ERC funding.

“I am so grateful to have the opportunity to advance our understanding of what dignity means to people whose experiences are often missing from our scholarship, policy and legal practice.

“We know people in prisons, psychiatric hospitals and care homes for older people are at risk of human rights violations, and being seen as less than, or even not human.

“This funding will enable me to bring together a team of researchers and people with lived experience across Europe to explore the meaning of dignity and support the protection of human rights in ways that were not previously possible.”

Dr Barry said: “I’m thrilled to have been awarded a consolidator grant by the European Research Council and am grateful for their support.

“I’m really looking forward to building an interdisciplinary team to join my fantastic colleagues and students at Trinity, to whom I owe huge thanks, particularly the Trinity Research Development Office.

“AI and related technologies are rapidly reshaping how justice is delivered and will continue to do so. It’s already being used for measuring whether criminals might reoffend, determining liability, and drafting text for judgments.

“Although JUDGEASSIST focuses on the role of AI in assisting judicial decision-making, its deeper purpose is to ensure that legitimacy and integrity remain at the heart of how courts operate.

“I feel enormously privileged to lead this work and can’t wait to get started.”