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Alan Cusack

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Alan Cusack

Dr.

20102026

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Biography

Alan Cusack is an Associate Professor of Law (Senior Lecturer), and Director of Policing Studies, at the University of Limerick. He is a co-founder and co-director of the Irish Mendez Centre for Investigative Interviewing.
 
Alan is a graduate of University College Cork (BCL, LLM, PhD), University College Dublin (Dip. Emp) and the Law Society of Ireland (Solicitor, 2012). In 2017, he completed a PhD in the School of Law at University College Cork in the area of access to justice for victims of crime with intellectual disabilities. In pursuit of his studies, Alan was awarded a Government of Ireland PhD scholarship from the Irish Research Council as well as a Faculty of Law PhD Scholarship from University College Cork. 
 
Alan has recently completed a monograph, entitled Victims of Crime with Intellectual Disabilities and the Criminal Process: Adversarial Procedure on Trial (London: Routledge, 2026) and he is co-author of Criminal Law in Ireland: Cases and Commentary (2nd ed. Clarus Press, 2021) [together with Liz Campbell, Shane Kilcommins, Catherine O’Sullivan]. Alan's research has also been widely published in national and international journals including, British Journal of Criminology; Human Rights Law Review;  International Journal of Law and Psychiatry; Policing: An International Journal; and International Journal of Evidence and Proof. He has has acted as an Expert Advisor to the Minister for Justice, Garda Commissioner, the Strategic Human Rights Advisory Committee, the European Commission, the High Level Taskforce on Mental Illness, RCNI, and the Department of Justice and he has provided expert analysis on the treatment of vulnerable witnesses for national media outlets in Ireland including Drivetime (RTÉ Radio 1), Newstalk FM and The Irish Examiner. 
 
In support of his work at the fontier of securing equal access to justice, Alan has secured institutional funding from a range of national and international agencies including: the Irish Research Council; Department of Justice; HSE, COST (EU Commission) and University College Cork.  In 2021 he was appointed by the Department of Justice to design, deliver and evaluate Ireland's first training and accreditation programme for Registered Intermediaries and he has been appointed, as principal investigator, to a series of outstanding policy and procedural reform projects within An Garda Síochána, including:
 
  • Cusack, A. (2020). Review of An Garda Síochána Custody Record Risk Assessment Form C.84(a) (University of Limerick) 1-23.
 
  • Cusack, A. et al. (2021) Disability Awareness Training Pilot for BA in Applied Policing and MA in Serious Crime Investigation (University of Limerick)
 
  • Cusack, A. et al. (2022) Introducing an Easy-Read Notice of Rights Form C.72(s) for Persons in Garda Custody (University of Limerick).

  • Lacey, A., Cusack, A. and; O'Shea, B. (2022) Report on a Roundtable Symposium with International Collaborators to Explore the Feasibility of Implementing a Community Safety Co-response Model in Ireland (Irish Research Council and; Policing Authority)
  • Cusack, A. et al. (2024) Autism Awareness Training Pilot (University of Limerick)
 
 
Alan is currently member of the Management Committee of COST Action: 22128- ImpleMendez. He is a qualified solicitor and, subsequent to commencing his doctoral research, practiced for a number of years with Arthur Cox solicitors in Dublin.  In 2013 Alan was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights at University College Cork and, more recently, in 2018 he was elected to the Board of Directors for the Irish Criminal Justice and Disability Network. Alan is a professional member of The Law Society of Ireland and is also a member of the Society of Legal Scholars and the Socio-Legal Studies Association. In 2015 Alan was an Academic Visitor at the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford (January - March 2015). Alan was appointed in 2018 to the editorial board for the Irish Judicial Studies Journal.

Research Interests

Alan's research interests lie in the broad areas of criminal procedure, policing, criminal law, victimology, criminology, the laws of evidence and disability studies. In particular, Alan is interested in the intersection of vulnerability and criminal procedure. Topics falling within Alan's research expertise, in this regard, include: access to justice for victims of crime with intellectual disabilities, the procedural treatment of suspects with intellectual disabilities, policing and human rights, investigative interviewing, the origins and characteristics of the adversarial legal tradition, the role of intermediaries, the implementation of co-response policing models and vicitmology.

Alan has supervised six PhDs to completion and he is interested in supervising doctoral research that pertains to any of the above fields of inquiry.

 

Teaching Interests

Dr Alan Cusack is Director of Policing Studies in the School of Law at the University of Limerick. In this role, Dr Cusack chairs the Quality Assurance Board for the Garda College, Templemore and he is also responsible for overseeing the following programmes:

  • Master of Arts in Serious Crime Investigation
  • Graduate Diploma in Intelligence Management
  • Professional Diploma in Intermediary Studies [inter-faculty]
  • Certificate in Policing and Human Rights Law in Ireland
  • Certificate in Policing and the Rights to Freedom of Expression & Assembly.

Dr. Cusack is also responsible for co-ordinating the following undergraduate and postgraduate modules:

  • LA6051: Penology & Victimology 
  • LA5061: Penology & Victimology (Online)
  • LA4082: Laws of Evidence
  • LA5222: Covert-Operations Management

Education/Academic qualification

PhD, PhD, University College Cork

Award Date: 1 Jan 2017

Diploma, Diploma in Employment Law, University College Dublin

Award Date: 1 Jan 2011

Masters, LLM, University College Cork

Award Date: 1 Jan 2008

Degree, BCL, University College Cork

Award Date: 1 Jan 2007

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  1. SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
    SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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View all 85 research outputs
  • 8 Membership of council
  • 6 Membership of committee
  • 1 Invited talk
View all 15 activities
View all 8 prizes
View all 6 press/media