Dr Sylvia de Mars, who lectures in EU and International Law at Newcastle University, will be taking up a new position part time as a Senior Researcher in EU and International Law and Policy at the House of Commons Library.
De Mars will provide analysis of legislation that will be discussed in Parliament as part of the ongoing Brexit debate.
De Mars will be employed to analyse legislation to be discussed in Parliament as part of the Brexit process
In correspondence with the Courier, she stated that the role will ‘give my research a practical dimension […] and will enable me to hone my research skills for very concrete purposes’.
As the issue of Brexit continues to become ever more important and divisive in Parliament, de Mars’ work will be crucial as her impartial analysis will ensure that both sides of the discussion have the available resources to be fully informed about Brexit’s legal framework.
De Mars said that it is important for policy makers to listen to experts because they need to be aware of all of the details pertaining to the issues that they make policy on.
With the complexity of Brexit, it is unlikely that MPs will have all of the relevant data on hand themselves. Therefore, experts like De Mars will be providing MPs with the information that will enable them to do their job well.
De Mars told the Courier that while she will ‘make the occasional trip to London for team meetings and briefings’, most of her work will be done from Newcastle, where she will continue to work for the university. She has even made ‘Do Not Disturb!’ signs for her office at Newcastle for when she is working for the House of Commons.
De Mars gained her PhD from Nottingham before coming to work at Newcastle University Law School, and said that her experiences at both of these institutions were instrumental in preparing her for working for the Commons. De Mars said, ‘having been an academic for the last 8 years has made me more prepared for answering MP questions and writing briefings for them that are both comprehensive and comprehensible’.
The importance of de Mars’ work will become increasingly apparent over the coming months and years as the issue of Brexit continues to dominate British politics.