Masters of the Bench

Ivana Bacik, LLB, LLM (Lond), BL, FTCD, is Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin, a Senior Lecturer and Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, and a barrister.

She is a Labour Party Senator for Dublin University (elected 2007, re-elected 2011 and again in 2016), she has been Leader of the Labour Party in the Seanad since 2011 and was Deputy Leader of Seanad Eireann 2011-2016.

Ivana has written and published extensively on criminal law, criminology, human rights, constitutional law and related matters, and has a long track record of campaigning on civil liberties, penal reform and feminist issues. She was Editor of the Irish Criminal Law Journal from 1997-2003 and co-authored a major report on gender discrimination in the legal professions in Ireland (Gender InJustice, 2003). Her other publications include Kicking and Screaming: Dragging Ireland into the Twenty-First Century (O’Brien Press, 2004); and she is co-editor (with Mary Rogan) of Legal Cases that Changed Ireland (Clarus Press, 2016). She is Chairperson of the Oireachtas Vótáil 100 Programme, the series of events being run by the Houses of the Oireachtas to celebrate the 2018 centenary of women’s suffrage in Ireland.

Master Bacik has been Leader of the Labour Party since 24 March 2022.