William Binchy is Regius Professor

Regius Professor

Regius Professorships are "royal" professorships at the ancient universities of the United Kingdom and Ireland - namely Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dublin. Each of the chairs was created by a monarch, and each appointment, save those at Dublin, is approved by the...

 of Laws at Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

 Law School, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

.

Binchy was educated at University College Dublin

University College Dublin

University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...

. He is a Barrister-at-Law and practised at the Irish Bar from 1968-70. He was a Research Counsellor to the Irish Law Reform Commission and special legal advisor on family law reform to the Department of Justice. He has been a consultant to the Department of Foreign Affairs and represented Ireland at the Hague Conference on Private International Law. Professor Binchy is a member of the Irish Human Rights Commission.
He specialises in private international law, the law of torts and family law.

He has been involved in a number of campaigns in connection with proposed amendments to the Constitution of Ireland. In particular, he campaigned:

• in favour of the constitutional ban on abortion in 1983 (successfully);
• against the introduction of divorce
  Divorce
  Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
  
   in Ireland (successfully in 1986 , and unsuccessfully in 1995);
• against the restriction of the automatic, constitutional right to citizenship of all of those born on the island of Ireland (unsuccessfully in 2004).

His uncle was the historian D. A. Binchy

D. A. Binchy

Daniel Anthony Binchy was a scholar of Irish linguistics and Early Irish law.From 1919-20 he was Auditor of the Literary and Historical Society...

. He is the brother of novelist Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy

Maeve Binchy is an Irish novelist, newspaper columnist and speaker. Educated at University College Dublin, she worked as a teacher then a journalist at The Irish Times and later became a writer of novels and short stories.Many of her novels are set in Ireland, dealing with the tensions between...

. His daughter is the RTÉ

RTE

RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...

 producer and former College Tribune

College Tribune

The College Tribune is a student newspaper based in University College Dublin. Established in 1989 by one of Ireland's best known print journalists, Vincent Browne, it is UCD's oldest surviving newspaper. It is currently edited by Conor McKenna and Ryan Cullen.The various sections throughout the...

 editor Sarah Binchy.

He is well-known in Trinity College's Law School for his catchphrase
"Plaintiff, you lose!"

Publications

• Human Rights, the Citizen and the State: South African and Irish Approaches, co-edited with Jeremy Sarkin, (2001)
• Annual Review of Irish Law (1990-2003), co-author with Raymond Byrne and specialist contributors, (1992–2004)
• Irish Conflicts of Law (1988)
• Is Divorce the Answer? An Examination of No-Fault Divorce Against the Background of the Irish Debate (1984)
• A Casebook on Irish Family Law (1984)

Footnotes