Patricia Brazil SC

Patricia Brazil is a barrister specialising in public law and human rights, with particular expertise in the fields of asylum, immigration and citizenship law, as well as the law relating to children and vulnerable adults. She has extensive experience in administrative law/judicial review proceedings and plenary proceedings involving complex and/or novel points of constitutional, EU and ECHR law on behalf of individual litigants, the Child and Family Agency, Health Service Executive, and the General Solicitor for Wards of Court as well as the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission in its role as amicus curiae. While her case work is predominantly before the Irish courts, where she is regularly instructed before the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, she has also been instructed in a number of preliminary references to the CJEU and applications to the European Court of Human Rights. She is also the Averil Deverell Lecturer in Law at Trinity College Dublin since 2008 where she lectures refugee and immigration law and family and child law, and her academic work and experience have informed her practice and contributed to her development of expertise in these fast moving areas of law.

Immigration law

• GV v Chief Appeals Officer Case C-488/21 ECLI:EU:C:2023:115 (for the applicant with Derek Shortall SC) – whether dependent family member in the ascending line of EU citizen worker entitled to disability allowance
• Luximon & Balchand v Minister for Justice [2018] 2 IR 542 – (for the applicants with Garrett Simons SC and Michael Lynn SC) whether Minister required to consider private life rights of applicants in deciding whether to vary immigration permission under section 4 of the Immigration Act 2004
• Singh v Minister for Justice Case C-218/14 ECLI:EU:C:2015:476 – (for the applicants with Colm O’Dwyer SC and Michael Lynn SC) whether TCN spouse retained right of residence in the State post-divorce
• Parhiar v Minister for Justice [2014] IEHC 445 – (for the applicant) whether Minister failed to give reasons for decision to refuse to vary applicant’s immigration permission under guidelines for victims of domestic abuse

Refugee/Asylum law

• UM v Minister for Foreign Affairs [2023] 1 ILRM 24 – (for IHREC/amicus curiae with Conor Power SC) – effect of revocation of parent’s refugee status on child’s status as Irish citizen
• A, S and I v Minister for Justice [2020] IESC 70 – (for the applicants with Michael Lynn SC) – challenge to constitutionality of exclusion from refugee family reunification of post-flight marriages, and to 12 month time limit for submitting applications
• MAM v Minister for Justice [2020] 3 IR 50 – (for the applicant with Colm O’Dwyer SC) – whether naturalised refugee retained right to family reunification under Refugee Act 1996
• ED (A minor) v Refugee Appeals Tribunal [2017] 1 IR 325 – (for the applicant with Michael Lynn SC) whether denial of education to child on account of ethnicity constitutes persecution

Citizenship law

• Damache v Ireland [2021] 1 ILRM 168 – (for IHREC/amicus curiae with Siobhan Phelan SC) – challenge to constitutionality of procedure for revocation of naturalisation
• Iurescu v Minister for Justice [2019] IEHC 535 – (for the applicant with Siobhan Phelan SC) – whether Minister was entitled to refuse naturalisation application in respect of child on good character grounds based on conduct of the applicant’s father

Wards of court/capacity law

• S Ltd v A [2020] IECA 225 – (for the defendant/appellant with Frank Callanan SC and Michael Lynn SC) – whether defendant entitled to stay on High Court wardship inquiry pending outcome of plenary proceedings challenging constitutionality of the Marriage of Lunatics Act 1811 and wardship jurisdiction

Children’s law

• AF v Child and Family Agency [2019] IEHC 435 – (for the notice party parent) – whether Child and Family Agency was entitled to defer making application for special care for young person in respect of whom statutory determination had been made that the young person required special care
• Child and Family Agency v A [2018] 3 IR 531 – (for the plaintiff with Barry O’Donnell SC) – whether Child and Family Agency entitled to disclose HIV status of young person to another person at risk of contracting virus

“A Matter for the Minister? Removal and Exclusion Orders in Irish Law” in Mantu, Minderhoud and Guild (eds) EU Citizenship and Free Movement Rights: Taking Supranational Citizenship Seriously (Brill Nijhoff 2020)

“Asylum & Immigration Law” Chapter  in Byrne & Binchy Annual Review of Irish Law 2019 (Thomson  Round Hall, 2020)

“Children and Young People’s Experiences of Migration in Ireland” in Fanning and Michaels (eds) Immigrants as Outsiders in the Two Irelands (Manchester University Press, 2019) (with C. Cosgrave and K. Mannion)

“Asylum & Immigration Law” Chapter  in Byrne & Binchy Annual Review of Irish Law 2018 (Thomson  Round Hall, 2019)

“Gender and Migration in Irish Law” in Dunne and Black (eds) Law and Gender in  Modern Ireland (Hart, 2019)

“Asylum & Immigration Law” Chapter  in Byrne & Binchy Annual Review of Irish Law 2017 (Thomson  Round Hall, 2018)

“The Implications of Brexit for British Citizens in Ireland Navigating the Irish Immigration System” (2018) 32(1) Journal of Immigration and Asylum Law 10 – 27 (with C. Cosgrave)

“Asylum & Immigration Law” Chapter  in Byrne & Binchy Annual Review of Irish Law 2016 (Thomson  Round Hall, 2017)

“The Citizens Directive in Irish Law – A Cautionary Tale”  [2016] 19(1) Irish Journal of European Law 11

Paper titled “EU Treaty Rights update” at the Irish Immigration Lawyers Association Annual CPD, Dublin, 2 December 2022
Paper titled “Gillick competence in Irish law: The need for a unified approach” to the Family Law Bar Association, Dublin, 24 March 2022
Paper titled “Recent developments in asylum and immigration law” at the UCD Centre for Constitutional Studies Public Law Seminar Series, Dublin, 1 July 2021
Paper titled “Paposhvili and beyond: Recent developments in relation to Article 3 ECHR” at the Immigration, Asylum and Citizenship Bar Association Annual Conference, Dublin, 28 November 2019
Paper titled “The right to asylum in European law: Underexplored Terrain” at the ICON-S Conference on Courts, Power and Public Law, Copenhagen, 5 July 2017

I am a member of PILA and regularly provide pro bono advice and legal assistance to Independent Law Centres including FLAC, Irish Refugee Council Independent Law Centre and Immigrant Council of Ireland Independent Law Centre. I also provide pro bono information sessions to voluntary organisations such as the Children’s Rights Alliance and the Irish Foster Care Association.