Emma McIllveen BW e1773402899300

Emma Mcllveen

Year of Call: 2016
Email Address: [email protected]
Telephone: 020 7583 8055

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Clerks Details

  • Clerk Name: Gemma Faulkner
  • Clerk Telephone: 020 7583 8055
  • Clerk Email: [email protected]
  • Clerk Name: Russell Porter
  • Clerk Telephone: 01865 793736
  • Clerk Email: [email protected]

Public and Administrative Law

Emma is instructed in judicial review proceedings in the High Court in Northern Ireland, acting for applicants, respondents and interveners. She has appeared unled against senior counsel at contested leave and directions hearings, and is instructed as junior counsel in heavyweight constitutional and legacy litigation. Her practice covers:

  • Devolved government and the Ministerial Code — whether a ministerial decision is significant or controversial, or cuts across departmental responsibilities, such that it must be brought to the Executive Committee under section 20(4) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, and the consequences of a failure to do so.
  • Local government, vires and decision-making — challenges to the lawfulness of council standing orders and procedures, including the operation of the call-in mechanism under the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014, and to the adoption of council strategies and policies.
  • Legacy and Troubles-related public law — the powers, independence and statutory functions of legacy institutions, including the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, and the lawfulness of non-criminal police reviews.
  • Parades, protest and public order — judicial review of Parades Commission determinations, and the Article 9, 10 and 11 ECHR rights engaged by them.
  • Equality, consultation and language policy — equality screening, section 75 duties, consultation adequacy, and the protection of minority interests in local government decision-making.
  • Education and special educational needs — placement, provision and unlawful delay challenges affecting children with special educational needs, informed by her role as a Legal Chairman of the SEND Tribunal.
  • Health, social care and vulnerable adults — decisions affecting the care and treatment of vulnerable individuals, including procedural impropriety and delay.
  • Urgent and interim relief — expedition, interim relief and injunctive applications brought at short notice, including in the run-up to fixed events and decision deadlines.

Notable Public Law Cases 

In the matter of an application by Ann McClure for leave to apply for judicial review and in the matter of the call-in process applied to the decision of Belfast City Council of 1 October 2025. Court reference 2025/99304/01. High Court (McLaughlin J), 16 April 2026, rolled-up leave and substantive hearing; appeal listed in the Court of Appeal for 24-25 November 2026.

Challenge to Belfast City Council's standing orders 48(8)-(9), said to be ultra vires section 41 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 and Schedule 3 to the Local Government (Transitional, Supplementary, Incidental Provisions and Modifications) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014, and to defeat the qualified majority mechanism in section 41 and Standing Order 25. The issue was whether a call-in requisition may be filtered by reference to a legal opinion on community impact before the qualified majority requirement is engaged. The proceedings arose from four call-in requisitions, including those concerning the Council's Irish Language Policy approved on 1 October 2025 and the flying of the Palestinian flag from City Hall, and the case was opened as a systemic challenge to local government decision-making rather than a challenge to any single decision, the standing orders in question being replicated across nine of the eleven district councils. The Department for Communities and Derry City and Strabane District Council were notice parties. The application was dismissed, the court holding the standing orders not ultra vires; the matter is now under appeal.

In the matter of an application by Gary Murray for leave to apply for judicial review and in the matter of a public statement made by the Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.

Judicial review brought by the brother of Leanne Murray, killed in the 1993 Shankill Road bombing, challenging public statements made by the Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Alyson Kilpatrick, in an interview reported on 14 July 2025, questioning the independence of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery and the tenability of the position of its Legacy Lead by reason of his former RUC service. The respondent is the Commission itself. The grounds concerned vires, the absence of corporate authority and the limits of the Commission's statutory functions. Leave was refused on the improper purpose ground, the court observing that the Commission's complaints process was a potentially valuable mechanism, and the remaining grounds were adjourned to allow the applicant to pursue that alternative remedy.

In the matter of an application by Martin Marchant for leave to apply for judicial review and in the matter of Operation Denton and Operation Kenova. High Court (McLaughlin J).

Challenge to the lawfulness of Operation Denton, the review into approximately 130 murders attributed to the so-called Glenanne gang, including the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings. The applicant is the son of the late William Marchant, and brings the application on his own behalf and in the interests of his father's family. The respondents are the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Sir Iain Livingstone, head of Operation Kenova and Operation Denton. The proceedings raise whether the police may lawfully commission a non-criminal review under the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000, obligations under Articles 2 and 8 ECHR, the disclosure of intelligence material outside the jurisdiction, and the lawfulness of releasing extracts and briefings making findings amounting to criminal culpability against a deceased man without notice to or consultation with his family, including the risk of jigsaw identification. An application to restrain publication of the summary report was refused on the balance of convenience on 8 December 2025. Substantive decision is awaited.

In the matter of an application by Alan Hynes for leave to apply for judicial review. High Court (McAlinden J), 25 August 2026; ex tempore, no neutral citation issued.

Judicial review of the Parades Commission's determination in respect of the Portadown LOL No 1 parade of 5 July 2026, restricting the return parade from Drumcree along the Garvaghy Road, and of the Commission's refusal, communicated on 2 July 2026, to review that determination on the basis that there was no new or additional material. Relief sought included certiorari, declarations that the determination was unlawful and in breach of the applicant's Articles 9, 10 and 11 ECHR rights, and mandamus directing the Commission to review the determination according to law. The determination was quashed by order of certiorari after the Commission accepted that it had not been considered in its final form by all commissioners, the court describing the Commission's procedures as not standing up to scrutiny, with costs awarded against the Commission. The Convention grounds were argued but not determined, the case having been conceded on the procedural ground.

In the matter of an application by Jamie Bryson for judicial review. High Court (McAlinden J); leave granted, substantive hearing listed for September 2026.

Judicial review of the decision of the Minister for Infrastructure of 14 March 2025 to direct the implementation of Irish language signage, physical and on electronic ticket vending machines, at Belfast Grand Central Station without referral to the Executive Committee, and of the Minister's further decision of around 2 September 2025 in the exercise of her continuing duty to keep the question of referral under review. The respondent is the Department for Infrastructure. The challenge engages the cross-cutting and controversial nature of the decision under sections 20 and 28A of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and paragraph 2.4 of the Ministerial Code, together with the constitutional significance of the Part 7B identity and language scheme; equality screening under section 75 is also in issue, and the projected cost of implementation rose in evidence from GBP 150,000 to between GBP 1m and GBP 3m. Emma appears for Timothy Gaston MLA, who was granted permission to intervene in support of the applicant, alongside separate interventions by the Communities Minister and by Conradh na Gaeilge.

  • Recommendations

    "Excellent discrimination barrister. Hard working, skilful and a great person to instruct." Instructing solicitor

    "Very driven and successful in everything she does, yet she has a very personable nature and gets on well with clients in every walk of life."  Instructing solicitor

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