Ronan McCrea has graduate degrees in political science and law. He is professor of Constitutional and European law at University College London where he lectures on the future of the European Union and the relationship between religion and the law.  He was formerly a barrister, lawyer for the Refugee Legal Centre and assistant to a judge in the European Court of Justice. He is a regular newspaper columnist whose writing has appeared in The Irish Times, The Financial Times, Handelsblatt, The Irish Independent and The Sunday Business Post.