prof. Michael Doherty

Michael Doherty joined the School of Law and Criminology (then Department of Law)  at Maynooth University in 2013, and was Head of School from 2013-2022.

He is a Full Professor of Law, with particular expertise in the areas of Irish and EU employment and labour law, industrial relations, and social dialogue and collective bargaining. He has published widely in national and international outlets on all of these topics and presented his work at numerous domestic and international conferences.

He has worked on a number of projects for the European Commission, on cross-border working terms and conditions, and platform work, as part of European-wide research networks and as co-investigator on a major, EU-funded project on public procurement. He has worked on a major European Parliament study on free movement of labour, on projects on the REFIT of the Written Statements Directive, and is a member of several European research networks looking at labour law in the EU.

He is a frequent media contributor on labour relations issues. In 2021, he was appointed by the Irish Government as Chair of a High Level Group reviewing industrial relations and collective bargaining in Ireland (which reported in 2022). He is a past President of the Irish Association of Law Teachers. 

He has supervised a number of PhD students working on projects relating to employment rights, public procurement processes, youth unemployment and the implementation of human rights instruments, and welcomes applications from students interested in employment law and policy.

He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin (LL.B), Queens’ College Cambridge (LL.M) and the Honorable Society of King’s Inns (called to the Irish Bar in 2002). He also holds a PhD (on Irish Trade Union Membership) from Trinity College Dublin. From 2004-2013, he worked at the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University, where he served as Director of Undergraduate Studies (2007-2010) and Director of Law (2011-2013).