Fionnuala Ní Aoláin
Fionnuala Ní Aoláin (Irish pronunciation: [ˈfʲɪn̪ˠuəl̪ˠə nʲiː ˈiːl̪ˠaːnʲ]; born Galway, 1967) is an Irish academic lawyer specialising in human rights law. She is concurrently Professor of Law at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland - where she teaches international law and international human rights law, and is the founder and Director of the Transitional Justice Institute - and the Dorsey and Whitney Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School. She is married to Oren Gross, Irving Younger Professor of Law at University of Minnesota Law School; they have three children.
Education
A graduate of Queen's University, Belfast (LLB 1990, PhD 1998), and Columbia Law School (LLM 1996).
Career in Brief
- Visiting Fellow of Harvard Law School, Human Rights Program (1994)
- Associate-in-Law, Columbia Law School (1994–96)
- Visiting Professor, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University (1996–2000)
- Associate Professor of Law, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel (1997–99)
- Visiting Fellow, Princeton University (2001–02)
- Visiting Professor, University of Minnesota Law School (2003–04)
- Visiting Professor Harvard Law School 2012-2013
Books
Ní Aoláin & Gross, Exceptional Courts and Military Commissions in Comparative Perspective (2013)(Cambridge University Press) Ní Aoláin & Weissbrodt, Development of International Human Rights Law (2013) (Ashgate) Ni Aoláin, Fionnuala, Hayes & Cahn, On the Frontlines: Women, War and the Post-Conflict Process (2011) (Oxford University Press) Weissbrodt, Ní Aoláin, Fitzpartick, and Nueman, International Human Rights: Law, Policy and Process (2009) (Lexis Pub, 4th ed.) (2009). Ní Aoláin, Weissbrodt, Rumsey & Others, Selected International Human Rights Instruments and Bibliography for Research on International Human Rights (LexisNexis, 4th ed.) (2009) Ní Aoláin & Gross Oren, Law in Times of Crisis – Emergency Powers in Theory and Practice (Cambridge University Press) (2006)(Awarded the ASIL Certificate of Merit for its contribution to creative scholarship) Ní Aoláin, The Politics of Force – Conflict Management and State Violence in Northern Ireland (The Blackstaff Press) (2000)
Memberships and Honours
- Various prizes and scholarships, including: Fulbright Scholarship, Alon Prize, Robert Schumann Scholarship, Lawlor Fellowship.
- Appointed by the Irish government in December 2000 as a member of the Irish Human Rights Commission whose creation was mandated by the Good Friday Agreement
- Consultant, UN Women and OHCHR Study on Reparations for Conflict Related Sexual VIolence 2011-2012
- Chair, IWP Program Board, Open Society
- Co-Chair Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law 2014 (with Hathaway and Johnson)
- Executive member, American Society of International Law 2009-2012
- Executive member, Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), Northern Ireland.
- Member, Irish Council for Civil Liberties
- Appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as Special Expert on promoting gender equality in times of conflict and peace-making (2003).
- Nominated by the Irish government to the European Court of Human Rights, the first woman and the first academic lawyer to be thus nominated (2004).