Maureen O'Sullivan

Maureen O’Sullivan’s principal interests lie in intellectual property, including patents, ethics, morality and biotechnological inventions involving human and animal hybrids and chimeras. She has published a book on this area. This work has also led to an interest in animal rights and law, along with vegetarianism and veganism. She has just completed writing a book on the Vegetarian Society of Ireland 1978–2024 and is negotiating publication.

She also has a keen interest in copyright law and has published widely on this theme. She is currently studying the Law Society’s trademark course to develop expertise in the third pillar of intellectual property and considers herself a lifelong scholar. Having taught Land Law and Property Law at three different universities in Britain and Ireland, she also publishes in this area and has expertise in native title and aspects of Nigerian Land Law.

Maureen’s background interests include Philosophy, Ethics, History, Sociology, Property and Political Science. She is interested in supervising hard-working and meticulous PhD students in the following areas: biotechnology and patents and related ethical questions; copyright and technology (and art); animal law, welfare and rights; and themes in property and land law. She welcomes email contact to discuss potential projects.

She holds degrees from several universities and jurisdictions, in reverse chronological order as follows: PhD, University of Edinburgh (2018). The title of her thesis was Morality Patently Matters: The Case for a Universal Suffrage for Morally Controversial Biotechnological Patents; PG Cert HE, University of the West of England, Bristol; Research LLM, University of Warwick (thesis: The Linux Operating System: A Socio-Legal Study); BCL, University College Cork; and BA in English and Philosophy, University College Cork. She is bilingual, speaking fluent Spanish, and holds a Certificate from the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas, Zaragoza, Spain.

Her teaching career began in Spain, where she taught TEFL for five years. After studying for her BCL, she taught on the Property Law course at the University of Warwick for three years and later took up a lectureship at the University of the West of England, Bristol. There, she continued teaching Property Law, eventually becoming module leader, and also taught on the Cyber Law course. She introduced a course on the LLM in Commercial Law entitled Software Licensing and Legislation.

Maureen was appointed as a lecturer at University of Galway (as it now is) in 2006 and served as Interim Head of School from 2008 to 2009. The University funded her PhD, which she completed in 2018. She has been the Chairperson of the Research Ethics Committee of the University since 2022.

She has supervised four PhD students to completion in the following areas: patents, biotechnology and human dignity; land law in Nigeria and the UK; and animal law. She currently supervises two PhD students, one in biologics, patents and innovation, and the other in open-source software licences. She was Director of the BA in Public and Social Policy from 2013 to 2016 and is the Law School representative on the MA in Public Policy in the School of Sociology and Political Science. She is also the Law School Director of Careers.

Selected Publications

• O’Sullivan, M. (2021) Vegetarian Rights Denied: No Longer Cutting the Mustard? European Human Rights Law Review 2, 181–193.
• O’Sullivan, Maureen. Biotechnology, Patents and Morality: A Deliberative and Participatory Paradigm for Reform (Routledge, 2019).
• O’Sullivan, Maureen (2015) Irish Artistic Copyright Law: A Menagerie of Holy Cows and Turtle Doves? Intellectual Property Quarterly (1): 31–61.