Barry Collins teaches Law and Society, Human Rights, Employment Law and Tort law. His main interest is in the field of legal theory, particularly as it relates tothemes of nationalism, constitutionalism and conflict resolution. His publications to date have brought perspectives from legal and psychoanalytical theory to bear on Irish Constitutional Law and on conflict resolution in Northern Ireland and the Middle East. He is also currently working on a PhD around these topics.

In 2003, he was a visiting scholar at the Socio-Legal Research Centre at the Griffith University, Australia, and he has organised conferences around the theme of Law and Cultural Studies at the Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Spain. He is a member of the management team of the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict, both based at UEL.

• Co-ordinating international exchanges under the Socrates/Erasmus programme.
• Organising research seminars by visiting scholars.

• Legal theory
• Theories of nationalism
• The Northern Irish and Palestine/Israel peace processes
• Irish Constitutional law
• Contemporary psychoanalytical theory

• LLB

• Law and Society
• Human Rights
• Tort Law
• Employment Law

Essays

• “Locating Sovereignty in International Law: Reflections on the Construction of a Wall in Palestine”, in J. Ismael and W. Haddad (eds.), Barriers to Reconciliation; Case Studies on Iraq and the Palestine-Israel Conflict. University Press of America Press (Lanham, MD: 2007).

• “How does the Nation Plug the Hole in Irish Constitutional Discourse”, forthcoming in Law, Culture and the Humanities, 2 (2006), 218-238.

• The Belfast Agreement and the 'Politics of the Ostrich' International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, 15 (2002) 273 – 292.

• "The Belfast Agreement and the Nation that Always Arrives at its Destination", Penn State Law International Law Review, 20 (2002), 385-413.

• “Mothers, Maidens and the Myth of Origins in the Irish Constitution” (with P. Hanafin, Birkbeck College, London); Law and Critique 12 (2001) 53-73.

• “Fantasy, Commitment and the Irish Peace Process”, International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, 12 (1999) 27 – 57.

Conference Papers

• "Post-colonial law and the Invention of the Nation." Workshop on Crime Governance and the Colonial, Goodenough College, London, July 2008.

• "The Nation-State and the Empty Space of Sovereignty", Law and Society Conference, Montreal, June 2008.

• "The Invasion of Iraq and the Mythology of International Law"; Symposium on The War in Iraq - An Assessment, California State University, Fullerton, May 2008.

• “Locating Sovereignty in International Law: The Israeli Wall at the International Court of Justice”; Workshop on Critical Approaches to International Law, Birkbeck College, London, May 2006.

• “On the Construction of a Wall in Palestine – Some Reflections of Law and Sovereignty”; International Centre for Contemporary Middle Eastern Studies Conference, Eastern Mediterranean University, Cyprus; April 2004.

• “Legal Origins and the Politics of Segregation in the Belfast Agreement”; Conference on Aspects of Segregation Policies: the Impact on Palestinians, Birzeit University, Palestine; December 2003.

•  “Psychoanalytical Theory and the Northern Ireland Peace Process”; Griffith University Law School, Australia, August 2003.

• “René Girard and the Politics of Sacrifice”, Griffith University Law School, Australia, August 2003.

• “On Law and Sacrifice”, Post-Colonial Legal Studies Conference, Vancouver; June 2002.

• “The Belfast Agreement and the Politics of the Ostrich”; Law and Society Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver; June 2002.

• “The Nation and the Northern Irish Peace Process”, Guest Lecture, Law Department, Glasgow University; October 2001.

• “The Belfast Agreement and the Impossibility of the Nation”, Critical Legal Studies Conference, University of Kent at Canterbury; September 2001.

• “The Irish Peace Process and the Nation that Always Arrives at its Destination”, Law, Culture and the Humanities Conference, University of Texas at Austin; March 2001.

• “Law and the Temporality of Peace”, Law and Cultural Studies II Conference, International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Oñati, Spain; September 2000.

• “Remembering the Future: The Middle East peace Process and the Nation that Never Arrives”, Critical Legal Conference, University of Helsinki; September 2000.