Brian Tobin

Winner, Legal Educator of the Year, LEAP Irish Law Awards 2025

Winner, CBPPL Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning 2023

Winner, CBPPL Dean's Award for Inclusive Teaching 2021

Shortlisted for the Society of Legal Scholars' Margaret Brazier Prize for Outstanding Scholarship 2024

I am an Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer at University of Galway School of Law.  I hold LL.B, LL.M and Ph.D degrees from the University of Dublin, Trinity College, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in HE from NUI Galway.

My primary research interests are in the areas of Family and Child Law, with a particular focus on the legal recognition of contemporary family forms and the position of children born via donor-assisted human reproduction (DAHR) and surrogacy. I have published articles on these areas in leading peer-reviewed journals such as the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, Child and Family Law Quarterly, the Irish Jurist, Australian Journal of Family Law and European Human Rights Law Review. My book, The Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Relationships: Emerging Families in Ireland and Beyond (Oxford: Hart, 2023), described by Mr Justice Gerard Hogan of the Supreme Court of Ireland as "scholarship at its finest in terms of avant garde family law", was shortlisted for the Society of Legal Scholars' Margaret Brazier Prize for Outstanding Scholarship in 2024.

I have a sustained record of engagement with parliamentary committees and law reform processes at domestic and international levels. I have been invited to provide expert written/oral evidence to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality (2014), the Joint Committee on International Surrogacy (2022), and the Joint Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (2025). Internationally, I have been invited to appear before the U.K. All-Party Parliamentary Group on Surrogacy (APPG Surrogacy), to contribute to the U.K. regional consultation on the Verona Principles, and to contribute to an impact assessment for an EU-level legislative initiative, a Digital Certificate of Parenthood. 

I have secured external research funding from the Royal Irish Academy, the Department of Justice (Ireland), the Society of Legal Scholars and, as part of an academic consortium, the Irish Research Council. I also have a significant presence in print and broadcast media, where I contribute to informing public debate on contemporary issues in family law.

At University of Galway, I have held senior administrative roles at the School of Law (Deputy Head of School; Director of Student Career Development; Programme Director, BCL) and within the university (Member, Research Ethics Committee). 

Externally, in 2018-2019, I was a Visiting Researcher at the Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London. From 2022-2025, I was a Council Member of TREOIR (NGO), the national federation of services for unmarried parents, and in 2025 I was appointed as a Board Member of the Assisted Human Reproduction Regulatory Authority (AHRRA) by the Minister for Justice, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, TD.

Family and Child Law, with a particular focus on contemporary family forms and the legal position of children born via assisted human reproduction and surrogacy; Sexuality and the Law; Equity and Trusts.

I am an award-winning legal educator with numerous accolades recognising my excellence in teaching and learning. Nationally, I was named Legal Educator of the Year at the LEAP Irish Law Awards 2025, and locally, at University of Galway, I have received the College of Business, Public Policy and Law Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (2023) and the Dean's Award for Inclusive Teaching (2021).