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Pearce Clancy, an Irish Research Council PhD scholar at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in the School of Law, has been awarded the EJ Phelan Fellowship in International Law by the National University of Ireland. The Fellowship is awarded to one applicant every two years for an 18-month period in honour of Edward J Phelan, the fourth Director-General of the International Labour Organization.

Pearce’s research is supervised by Professor Ray Murphy and looks at the legal concept and status of permanent neutrality which applies to states such as Switzerland, Austria, Costa Rica, and Turkmenistan. Permanently neutral states are bound to remain neutral in all future international armed conflicts, as well as to refrain from any acts during peacetime which would make this impossible upon the outbreak of a conflict. Permanent neutrality is typically based in international treaties but may also be unilaterally declared, and in some cases subsequently recognised. The exact parameters of an individual state’s permanent neutrality may vary depending on how it is neutralised, as well as the specific conditions imposed in the neutralisation instrument.

Pearce is a graduate of the School of Law’s BCL programme and holds an LL.M from the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Peace Operations, Humanitarian Law, and Conflict. His work has been published in the Irish Yearbook of International Law, Irish Studies in International Affairs, the Journal of International Humanitarian Studies, EJIL:Talk!, and Opinio Juris.

Contact details: p.clancy5@universityofgalway.ie