Prof. Deirdre Curtin is a legal scholar specialising in European Union law and governance. She is Professor of European Law at the Law Department of the European University Institute, a position she has held full time since 2016. In addition to her professorship, she is the Director of the Centre for Judicial Cooperation at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and served as the Dean of Graduate Studies of the EUI (2021-2025).

Prior to joining the EUI, she held the Chair in European Law and Governance at the University of Amsterdam, where she was the founding Director of the Amsterdam Centre of European Law and Governance (2008-2016). Previously, she held the Chair in European and International Governance at the Utrecht School of Governance, University of Utrecht (2003-2013), and the Chair in the Law of International Organizations at the Faculty of Law, University of Utrecht (1992-2002).

Prof. Curtin is an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW, 2003) and a laureate of the Spinoza Prize awarded by the Dutch Scientific Organization (NWO, 2007) for the excellence of her research in European law and governance. She holds Honorary Doctorates in Law from University College Dublin (2008) and the University of Copenhagen (2018). She is also an Honorary Bencher of the King’s Inn, Dublin (2013). Born in Dublin, Ireland, Prof. Curtin pursued her legal studies at University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin. She began her career as a Legal Secretary (Referandaire) in the Cabinet of the Irish judge at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. In 1991, she earned her PhD from the National University of Ireland.

Research projects, clusters and working groups

Ongoing

Digital Public Sphere Working Group

Completed

Supervisees

Fields of expertise

European law and institutions EU constitutional and administrative law Protection of fundamental rights in Europe Accountability of European governance Privacy and security in a global context Transparency and secrecy in law and practice

Recent research output

CURTIN, Deirdre; PATRIN, Maria (2024), Playing fast and loose : unravelling membership in the AFSJ, Contribution to book
CURTIN, Deirdre; RUBIO, Adrian (2024), Regulation 1049/2001 on the right of access to documents, including the digital context, Book
BENIFEI, Brando; BUSUIOC, Madalina; RANCHORDAS, Sofia; ROTENBERG, Marc (2023), The citizen is not a dataset, Video
BUSUIOC, Madalina; CURTIN, Deirdre; ALMADA, Marco (2023), Reclaiming transparency : contesting the logics of secrecy within the AI Act, Article
CURTIN, Deirdre; CATANZARITI, Mariavittoria (2023), Data at the boundaries of European law, Book
CURTIN, Deirdre; PATRIN, Maria (2022), Constitutional standards of democracy and accountability in differentiated integration, Other
CURTIN, Deirdre (2022), The practice of judicial interaction in the field of fundamental rights : the added value of the Charter of fundamental rights of the EU [Foreword], Contribution to book
CURTIN, Deirdre; PATRIN, Maria (2021), EU constitutional standards of democracy in differentiated integration, Working Paper
CURTIN, Deirdre; BASTOS, Filipe Brito (2020), Interoperable information sharing and the five novel frontiers of EU governance : a special issue, Article
DE WITTE, Bruno; GENSCHEL, Philipp; CURTIN, Deirdre (2020), Constitutional design of the European Union : getting rid of the unanimity rule, Video

View more Research Output Go to Cadmus

Supervision interests

"I welcome research proposals on all aspects of European governance and European institutions, in particular in relation to their accountability and transparency. In addition issues relating to the protection of fundamental rights in Europe and beyond, in particular privacy and data protection, are part of my current research interests. I encourage researchers to address their topic from theoretical, empirical and interdisciplinary perspectives”