Bróna McNeill

Dr Bróna McNeill is a lecturer at the School of Law in Queen's University Belfast. She holds an LLB in Common and Civil Laws with French (Queen's University Belfast and L'Université des Sciences Sociales, Toulouse); an LLM in Law (QUB) and a PhD in Law (QUB). She is also a trustee and steering group member of the Environmental Justice Network Ireland (EJNI).

Land law, property, ownership, environmental law, nature conservation, agricultural law, conacre

Brona's research area is property and sustainability, looking specifically at the relationship between ownership (particularly land ownership) and environmental concerns. This includes considering the ways in which we conceptualise property in natural resources, and whether this can (or should) be challenged in order to produce better environmental outcomes.

Bróna has expertise in land rights and property ideology across the island of Ireland, as well as in environmental and agricultural law and policy. She has a particular interest in agricultural land ownership in Ireland and has conducted specific research into the conacre system - publishing a chapter in Modern Studies in Property Law on this topic in 2021.

Bróna is also working on other projects that expand on the idea of reconceptualising property to achieve better environmental outcomes. For example, she is researching Rights of Nature as a means of addressing environmental crises, and how this approach might interact with property rights, both on the Island of Ireland and further afield. One important case study in this area is Lough Neagh in NI, and Bróna has co-authored a briefing paper on the ownership of Lough Neagh in response to the ecological catastrophe that has unfolded at the lough over Summer 2023.

Bróna is also working with colleagues at Queen's University on a project exploring the problem of food waste by consumers, and the role that a changed understanding of ownership might play in helping address this issue.