Staff Profile
Dr Sylvia de Mars
Reader in Transnational Public Law
- Email: sylvia.de-mars@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 7568
- Personal Website: https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/sylviademars/
- Address: Newcastle Law School,
21-24 Windsor Terrace,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
NE1 7RU.
Introduction
I am a Reader in Transnational Public Law. I joined the Law School in September 2010, following a PhD at the University of Nottingham on the national regulatory responses to a variety of EU-level public procurement measures. I previously taught at the University of Nottingham, where I also administrated the Public Procurement Research Group and organized the 2009 edition of the Public Procurement Research Students Conference. From February 2018 until August 2020, I also worked as a Senior Researcher in EU and International Law and Policy at the House of Commons Library.
Qualifications
PhD (Nottingham, 2011)
LLM in International Law (Nottingham, 2006)
BA(Hons) in Social Science (University College Utrecht, 2004)
Areas of Expertise
EU Law, Brexit-related 'law', International Trade Law, Transnational Public Law (with focuses on healthcare regulation, social security coordination, and non-discrimination rights)
Research Area
My academic history lies in public international law, with a focus on international economic/trade law. Since completing my PhD, I have focused on how different aspects of EU law affect the public law of EU Member States. From 2016, I have become a Brexit specialist; the majority of my work since 2017 has been on the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland, covering trade law but also movement of persons and social security coordination. Given that I also look at areas of public law in other jurisdictions when they become relevant for comparative purposes or stand-alone interests I have, the easiest way to describe my work is as that of a transnational public lawyer.
My current work is about UK conceptions of sovereignty and various dimensions of Brexit as they affect the UK as a whole.
My work on Brexit has led to substantial engagement with Parliament and the media. In November 2015, I was interviewed about the legal consequences of a 'Brexit' by BBC Radio 4's Law in Action; the interview can be downloaded/listened to here. In 2017, I gave evidence on the implications of Brexit for trade and the border in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee and the Commons International Trade Committee. In 2018, the Lords Select Committee on the European Union invited me to give evidence on the future UK-EU relationship. Also in 2018, the Lords Constitution Committee invited me to give evidence on the role of the European Parliament in scrutinising EU treaties. I have given further evidence on the effects of Brexit on Northern Ireland to the Lords Sub-Committee on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland between 2021 and 2024. I have also co-produced various consultancy projects and research reports for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission from 2018 onwards, with the most recent being a detailed report on the rights of frontier workers on the island of Ireland after Brexit, co-authored with Professor Charlotte O'Brien.
Research Funding
2018/2020
ESRC Governance After Brexit Grant £249869, alongside Colin Murray (Newcastle), Aoife O'Donoghue (Durham) and Ben Warwick (Birmingham) for a project titled Performing Identities: Post-Brexit Northern Ireland and the reshaping of 21st Century Governance
2015/2016 - 2017/2018
ESRC IAA funding, £19924, alongside Colin Murray (Newcastle), Aoife O'Donoghue (Durham) and Ben Warwick (Birmingham) for a project titled Constitutional Conundrums: Northern Ireland, the EU and Human Rights
2014/2015
BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, £3380, for a project titled Regulating Healthcare Access in a Citizens' Europe: Lessons from the US
2013/2014
For a project titled The Indirect Pressures of EU Free Movement of Persons on Domestic Healthcare Regulation: The EU-Compatibility of Healthcare Access Rules in Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK and Ireland:
- Society of Legal Scholars, £865, for research conducted in Ireland
- Newcastle University's HaSS Faculty Research Fund, £1536, for research conducted in Belgium and the Netherlands
Doctoral Supervision
Note: I am as of 1/9/2024 able to take on PhD supervision again. I am interested in supervising any postgraduate research projects on EU law, particularly those that take a comparative approach to evaluating the effects of EU measures on Member States in a variety of public law fields, as well as any research projects on Brexit and its impacts on the UK's legal landscape as well as on the EU (including on Northern Ireland, but not specifically on Northern Ireland).
If you would like information on reading for a research degree at Newcastle Law School please see www.ncl.ac.uk/nuls/postgraduate/research/index.htm
Undergraduate Teaching
The UK and EU Law
Postgraduate Teaching
Medical Devices' Regulatory Requirements
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Articles
- de Mars S, O'Donoghue A. Law and Scale: Lessons from Northern Ireland and Brexit. Legal Studies 2024, epub ahead of print.
- de Mars S, McArdle D. Your Body is a Battleground: Pregnancy Discrimination and College Sports After Fifty Years of Title IX. Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport 2023, 33(1), 3-45.
- de Mars S. A Little Less Liable? Enforcing Post-Brexit EU Law in the UK. European Law Review 2023, 48(2), 151-166.
- de Mars S. VI v The Commissioners for HMRC [Case Note]. Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law 2022, 36(4), 358-363.
- de Mars S, O'Brien C. Inevitably Diminished: Rights of Frontier Workers in Northern Ireland after Brexit. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 2022, 73(S2), 119-147.
- de Mars S, Murray C. With or Without EU? The Common Travel Area after Brexit. German Law Journal 2020, 21(5), 815-837.
- de Mars S. Managing Misconceptions about EU Citizens’ Access to Domestic Public Healthcare: An EU-Level Response?. European Public Law 2019, 25(4), 709-734.
- de Mars S, O'Callaghan P. Privacy and Search Engines: Forgetting or Contextualizing?. Journal of Law and Society 2016, 43(2), 257-284.
- de Mars S, O'Callaghan P. Narratives about privacy and forgetting in English law. International Review of Law, Computers & Technology 2016, 30(1-2), 42-56.
- Van Garsse S, de Mars S. Corrigerende maatregelen bij overheidsopdrachten. Nieuw Juridisch Weekblad 2016, 340, 274-278.
- de Mars S. Economically inactive EU migrants and the United Kingdom's National Health Service: Unreasonable Burdens without Real Links?. European Law Review 2014, 39(6), 770-789.
- de Mars S. The Limits of General Principles: A Procurement Case Study. European Law Review 2013, 38(3), 316-334.
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Authored Books
- de Mars S. EU Law in the UK. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
- de Mars S, Murray C, O'Donoghue A, Warwick B. Bordering two unions: Northern Ireland and Brexit. Bristol: Policy Press, 2018.
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Book Chapters
- de Mars S. General principles in EU public procurement law. In: Katja Ziegler, Paivi Neuvonen and Violeta Moreno-Lax, ed. Research Handbook on General Principles of EU Law. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2022, pp.462-479.
- de Mars S, O'Donoghue A. Beyond Matryoshka Governance in the 21st Century: The Curious Case of Northern Ireland. In: McHarg, A; Doyle, O; Murkens, J, ed. The Brexit Challenge for Ireland and the United Kingdom: Constitutions Under Pressure. Cambridge University Press, 2021, pp.64-85.
- van Garsse S, de Mars S. Exclusion and Self-Cleaning in the 2014 Public Sector Directive. In: Marique, Y; Wauters, K, ed. EU Directive 2014/24 on public procurement: a new turn for competition in public markets?. Brussels: Larcier, 2016, pp.121-138.
- de Mars S. Exclusion and Self-Cleaning in Article 57: Discretion at the Expense of Clarity and Trade?. In: Ølykke, G; Sanchez-Graells, A, ed. Reformation or Deformation of the EU Public Procurement Rules. Edward Elgar, 2016, pp.253-273.
- de Mars S, Olivier F. Competitive Dialogue in France. In: Arrowsmith, S., Treumer, S, ed. Competitive Dialogue in EU Procurement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012, pp.272-305.
- de Mars S, Craven R. An Analysis of Use of Competitive Dialogue in the EU. In: Arrowsmith, S., Treumer, S, ed. Competitive Dialogue in EU Procurement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012, pp.144-178.
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Note
- de Mars S. Rights versus remuneration – the English NHS and abortion services for women from Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 2014, 65(4), 449-453.
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Reports
- de Mars S, Murray C, O'Donoghue A, Warwick B. Continuing EU Citizenship “Rights, Opportunities and Benefits” in Northern Ireland after Brexit. Dublin: Joint Committee of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, 2020.
- de Mars S, Murray C, O'Donoghue A, Warwick B. Discussion Paper on the Common Travel Area. Dublin and Belfast: Joint Committee of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, 2018.
- Murray C, de Mars S, O'Donoghue A, Warwick B. Policy Paper: Northern Ireland and the Brave New World of Brexit. Durham University, Newcastle University, Birmingham University, 2017.
- Murray C, de Mars S, O'Donoghue A, Warwick B. Policy Paper - Brexit, Ireland and Northern Ireland. Social Science Electronic Publishing: Durham University; Newcastle University, 2016.