News
The CCJHR is pleased to welcome Dr. Nessa Lynch as a member of the CCJHR Executive Board.
26 Apr 2024
The CCJHR is delighted to share that Dr. Nessa Lynch has joined the CCJHR Executive Board. Dr Lynch joined the School of Law, UCC in Spring 2024 as the newly appointed Matheson Lecturer in Law, Innovation and Technology.
Dr Lynch brings considerable expertise in the fields of criminal justice, surveillance and emerging technology and rights. Her research and work to date aligns strongly with the CCJHR'S criminal justice strands, and we look forward to working with her on CCJHR activities moving forward.
More on Dr Lynch here:
Dr Nessa Lynch has recently joined UCC's School of Law as the Matheson Lecturer in Law, Innovation and Technology. In this role, she will be building the research, teaching and engagement capabilities of the School and the wider University in the law and technology sphere. Dr Lynch is a graduate of UCC's School of Law (BCL 2003; LLM, 2004), and spent most of her career to date in New Zealand, first as a Humanities Scholar for her PhD at the University of Otago, and then from 2008 to 2022 as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington. From 2022 - 2024, she held a senior leadership role in New Zealand Police. She is also a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington.
Dr Lynch has two main research areas: The first is emerging technology and law, particularly in biometrics and surveillance, and new technologies in policing. She has led influential research on facial recognition technology in New Zealand, particularly in policing. Dr Lynch is also a leading expert on youth justice law and policy. Recent work focusses on the use of developmental science and neuro-science to law and policy, particularly in age-boundaries in law and in culpability assessments in sentencing for serious offending. Her book on New Zealand youth justice is in its third edition, and she has collaborated with leading experts around the globe.
Dr Lynch's scholarly work is high impact globally and locally, and her expertise is sought after in the government, judicial and non-governmental fields. She was the Academic Advisor for the Youth Court Education Committee for New Zealand's Institute of Judicial Studies. She has spent time on secondment at the New Zealand Ministry of Justice's Sector Strategy group advising on criminal justice reform, and was a member of the New Zealand Law Commission's Expert Advisory Group on the review of DNA legislation which reported in December 2020. She was a special advisor to New Zealand Police on facial recognition technology in 2021, and member and then Chair of the New Zealand Government's Data Ethics Advisory Group which provides advice on ethical use of data in the public sector in New Zealand. She was the independent advisor on the New Zealand Cross-Government Biometrics Group in 2020-2021. She has consulted for a range of government and non-governmental agencies on matters such as data ethics and technology assurance. Currently, she is a member of New Zealand Police's Emerging Technologies Independent Panel, and an expert advisor to the New Zealand Criminal Cases Review Commission's Systemic Enquiry on visual identification evidence.
Dr Lynch's current research projects are on biometric surveillance and human rights, and children's rights and AI, particularly in child justice systems.