Professor Fionnuala Ni Aoláin
Associate Director, Transitional Justice Institute
Professor of Law
Room 21D70, Dalriada House
University of Ulster
Jordanstown
Co.Antrim
BT37 0QB
Ph: +44 (0)28 9036 8883
Email: f.niaolain@ulster.ac.uk
Fionnuala is Professor of Law and Associate Director at the University of Ulster’s Transitional Justice Institute in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She received her LLB and PhD in law at the Queen’s University Law Faculty in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She also holds an LLM degree from Columbia Law School. Professor Ní Aoláin concurrently holds the Dorsey and Whitney Chair in Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. She has previously been Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School (1993-94); Associate-in-Law at Columbia Law School (1994-96); Visiting Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University (1996-2000); Associate Professor of Law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel (1997-99) and Visiting Fellow at Princeton University (2001-02). Professor Ní Aoláin is the recipient of numerous academic awards including a Fulbright scholarship, the Alon Prize, the Robert Schumann Scholarship, a European Commission award, and the Lawlor fellowship. She was a representative of the Prosecutor at the ICTY at domestic war crimes trials in Bosnia (1996-97). In 2003, she was appointed by the U.N. Secretary-General as Special Expert on promoting gender equality in times of conflict and peace-making. In 2004, she was nominated by the Irish government as judge to the European Court of Human Rights. She was appointed by the Irish Minister of Justice to the Irish Human Rights Commission in 2000, and is a member of the Joint Committee of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the Irish Commission for Human Rights.
Research Interests
Professor Ni Aoláin researches in the fields of emergency powers, conflict regulation, transitional justice and sex based violence in times of war. Her first book The Politics of Force (Blackstaff Press, 2000) examined the use of force by state agents during the conflict in Northern Ireland and contained a unique empirically based analysis of all conflict related deaths in the jurisdiction by state agents. The theoretical and policy focus of the research was located in an examination of the relationship between international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Professor Ni Aoláin’s work has continued to focus on the inter-section between human rights and humanitarian norms. Her book 'Law in Times of Crisis' (CUP 2006) examines from a theoretical and systems analysis the manner in which legal systems (broadly defined) respond to crisis (both internal and external). The book proposes three models for understanding the exercise of emergency powers across jurisdictions and legal systems. It was awarded the American Society of International Law's preeminent prize for research - the Certificate of Merit for Creative Scholarship in 2007. Her forthcoming book On the Frontlines: Gender, War and the Post-Conflict Process (OUP 2011) explores the experiences of women in post-conflict societies across multiple case studies. A second book Exceptional Courts and Military Commissions in Comparative and Policy Perspective (CUP) (2011), examines the use of exceptional courts across numerous jurisdictions, with particular emphasis on post-9/11 developments. She also continues writes extensively on theoretical aspects of transition.