The Irish Centre for European Law’s (ICEL) Annual Asylum and Immigration Law Conference returns this year on Friday, 26 June 2026 from 2-5pm in The Richmond Education and Event Centre, 1 Brunswick Street N., Smithfield, Dublin, D07 TH76 and streamed live online. You can purchase tickets here.

The theme of the conference will be to discuss the key changes arising from the International Protection Act 2026.

Professor Catherine Costello will deliver the keynote address “Implementing the EU Migration and Asylum Pact: practices vs, principles”.

Professor Catherine Costello is Full Professor of Global Refugee and Migration Law at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin.  Ms Costello was formerly Professor of Fundamental Rights and Co-Director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School (2020 – 2023). Ms Costello is a leading scholar of international and European refugee and migration law, having co-edited the Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law.

Following the keynote discussion, a moderated panel discussion will be held to discuss the key changes arising from the International Protection Act 2026 and feature leading experts including:

  • Hilkka Becker who is the Chairperson of the International Protection Appeals Tribunal since April 2017.:  was previously a Deputy Chairperson of the Tribunal and served as a part-time Member of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal from 2013 to 2016. Ms Bccker is a lawyer with over 20 years of leadership and management experience in private practice, and the NGO, IGO and public sectors. She was Senior Solicitor at the Immigrant Council of Ireland – Independent Law Centre for over 10 years, was a Regional Legal Advisor with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and has provided consultancy services for IOM offices in a number of Western Balkan states and Azerbaijan. Previously she worked as a private solicitor and as Legal Officer with the Irish Refugee Council.
  • Catherine Cosgrave who is the Managing Solicitor of the Immigrant Council Ireland. Ms Cosgrave is a specialised migration/human rights lawyer and is the author of several leading publications relating to family and child migration, trafficking and citizenship. In addition to legal practice,  Ms Cosgrave has worked as a legal trainer/consultant and lecturer at the University of Limerick and the Dublin Institute of Technology (now TU Dublin). Catherine is the EUDO Ireland Country Expert on Citizenship and sits on the Advisory Committee of the European Network on Statelessness.  Catherine is also the Fundamental Rights Agency Network (Ireland) expert on migration. She was a member of the National Advisory Committee on Children and Young People (2019-2023).
  • David Leonard BL who is a barrister and has practised at the Irish Bar since 2005, specialising in public, administrative, regulatory and constitutional law, judicial review, and EU law. He is an elected member of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for Ireland and its Editorial Committee, and was nominated by the Bar Council to the Legal Services Regulatory Authority Review Committee. In 2018, he became a junior counsel mentor on the Denham Fellowship, and he has acted as master to devils since 2012.

Coffee and tea refreshments will be provided on arrival.

There are 2.5 CPD points available for this conference.

You can purchase tickets here.

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