ELI
William McKechnie has been an ELI Council Member and a Member of the Membership Committee since 2019. In addition to being a Team Member on the ‘Blockchain and Smart Contracts’ project, he was an Assessor on the Ecocide project. McKechnie is the Co-Chair of the Irish Hub.
Qualifications/Appointments
McKechnie obtained a BCL, BL, SC, and LLM (European Law; Fundamental Rights). In 2000, he became a High Court Judge: (Main Trial Court) and, in 2010, a Supreme Court Judge: (Final Appellate Court): (R 2021).
Judicial Career
While serving at the High Court, his areas of interest were administrative, company, competition (President of that Court from 2004–2010); Fundamental Rights (the decision in the transgender case of ‘F’, directly led to fundamental legislative innovation in this area of human interchange). While serving at the Supreme Court, McKechnie’s areas of interest were the EU (many areas), constitutional (involving comparative traditions from USA, Australia, etc), public law and regulation; environmental; human and fundamental rights; corporate governance and financial services.
Chairs Occupied
Since 2019, McKechnie has been a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (2019 – present). He has also held the following chairs: President of the Association of European Competition Law Judges (2010 – 2014); Chairperson of the General Bar of Ireland (1998 – 2000); Chairperson of the Valuation Tribunal of Ireland (1995 – 2000) and Chairperson of the Editorial Board of the Judicial Studies Institute Journal (2002 – 2007).
Associated Interests
McKechnie has authored for several publications and he has participated in and presided over many international conferences. In 2010, he delivered the 4th Annual CCJ HR Lecture. McKechnie has lectured at a number of prestigious national and international universities/institutions, including the University of Florence, the European Commission and Trinity College Dublin.