2024 Celebrating Impact Prize for EU Rights and Brexit Hub’s Charlotte O’Brien
Professor Charlotte O’Brien won the ESRC celebrating impact prize for Outstanding Public Policy Impact through her work on the EU Rights and Brexit Hub.
The prize recognises the work of the Hub in navigating the new frontier of withdrawal law with a particular focus on using strategic legal action to help shape and secure the rights of more than 6 million EU nationals residing in the UK.
The prize highlights the work of the EURBH setting up a specialist advice clinic for the charitable organisations, local councils and legal teams supporting EU nationals across the UK. The clinic has a dual role, says Professor O’Brien:
“It created an opportunity for advice-led research and research-led advice. By working on real cases, the clinic allowed us to capture and analyse evidence of the systemic problems being encountered by the Withdrawal Agreement and identify legal routes to address them.
This then informed our advice, ensuring important test cases had the full panoply of legal expertise at their disposal. It’s such a new area of law that there is no precedent in case law, which means test cases are critical to shaping how provisions are defined.”
The prize also highlights the role of the Hub in providing expert second-tier advice on EEA national’s access to public services. The Hub received testimonials from a number of advisers we had worked with speaking to how our advice and support had assisted their work and their clients.
“Support provided by the Hub to help all of our vulnerable clients helped single mothers and parents alike to remain living in Northern Ireland, able to claim benefits, rent homes, and retain their residencies, forever changing the trajectory of their life paths.”
Professor Charlotte O’Brien standing by a display about the work of the EU Rights and Brexit Hub
The trophy for Outstanding Public Policy impact