Research output per year
Research output per year
Professor
Shore Road, Jordanstown Campus
BT37 0QB Newtownabbey
United Kingdom
Research activity per year
Rory O'Connell joined the Transitional Justice Institute (TJI) and School of Law in 2013 as Professor of Human Rights and Constitutional Law. He held the role of TJI Director from February 2014 to February 2020. In July 2017 he was appointed Research Director for Law.
Rory's research and teaching interests are in the areas of Human Rights and Equality, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory. He has published in the International Journal of Constitutional Law, European Law Journal, Legal Studies, European Human Rights Law Review and other journals. His books include Applying an International Human Rights Framework to State Budget Allocations (Routledge), Human Rights and Public Finance (Hart), Legal Theory in the Crucible of Constitutional Justice (Ashgate).
His latest book Law, Democracy and the European Court of Human Rights (Cambridge 2020) examines the role of democracy in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, exploring the potential to use the European Convention on Human Rights to argue for more deliberative, participatory and inclusive democratic practices. In 2021 he was awarded the Faculty Senior Distinguished Research Award.
Rory has been actively involved in supporting PhD researchers and is currently on 5 supervision panels. He has supervised 13 PhD researchers through to award of PhD and has examined 19 PhD theses as external or internal examiner.
Rory was a member of the project team on the ESRC project ‘Brexit and Northern Ireland: The Constitutional, Conflict Transformation, Human Rights and Equality Consequences’ #BrexitLawNI. He is also a member of the SAFEWATER project funded by the ESPRC and a member of the LSE-led GCRF Research Hub on Gender, Justice and Security. He is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College.
Rory is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. He currently teaches Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Dissertation Research Methods. In the past, he has taught Human Rights, Equality Law, Public Law & Constitutional Law, Comparative Law, EU Law, Torts, Jurisprudence.
Rory studied at Tarbert Comprehensive School and then studied law at University College Dublin (UCD). During his degree, he spent a year as an ERASMUS student at the Université de Rouen. In 1992, he graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Law (European Legal Studies) degree (First Class, Joint First Place) and received a UCD Open Postgraduate scholarship. He proceeded to write an LL.M. by thesis on The Irish Courts and Equality Before the Law, graduating in 1994, with First Class honours. He moved to the European University Institute (EUI), Florence to undertake a PhD on the theory of constitutional interpretation and graduated from the EUI in 1997, with Distinction. Rory's first lecturing post was in Comparative Law at Lancaster University Law School. From 2001 to 2013 he was a member of the Human Rights Centre, School of Law at Queen's University of Belfast.
Rory is on the committee of Scholars at Risk-Ireland (SAR-Ireland). Rory is on the Executive of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ). He was the editor of the RightsNI Blog. He has been actively involved in promoting international mobility in education: he served as one of the members of the UK team of Bologna Experts and was Director of the European Union Funded Intensive Programme (IP) on ‘The Borders of Europe’ 2009-2011.
Rory tweets @rjjoconnell and has a website at https://conlawfiles.org/.
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
PhD, Who's Afraid of Natural Law? , European University Institute, San Domenico di Fiesole
1 Sept 1993 → 31 Dec 1997
Award Date: 31 Jul 1997
Master, LLM Equality before the Law in the Irish Courts, University College Dublin
1 Sept 1992 → 1 Sept 1993
Award Date: 31 Dec 1993
Bachelor, Bachelor of Civil Law, (European Legal Studies), University College Dublin
1 Sept 1988 → 30 Jun 1992
Award Date: 30 Jun 1992
External Examiner, Sussex University
1 Sept 2019 → 1 Sept 2022
External Examiner, University College Dublin
1 Sept 2019 → 1 Sept 2022
Treasurer, Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ)
1 Sept 2017 → …
External Examiner, University of Nottingham
1 Sept 2014 → 1 Sept 2017
External Examiner, University of Strathclyde
1 Sept 2013 → 1 Sept 2017
External Examiner, Lancaster University
1 Sept 2012 → 1 Sept 2016
External Examiner, University College Cork
1 Sept 2012 → 1 Sept 2016
External Examiner, National University of Ireland, Galway
1 Sept 2009 → 1 Sept 2012
Research output: Book/Report › Book › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Book/Report › Book › peer-review
Research output: Book/Report › Anthology › peer-review
O'Connell, Rory (Recipient), 2021
Prize: Honorary award
Rory O'Connell (Participant)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Participating in a conference, workshop, ...
Rory O'Connell (Participant) & Michelle Rouse (Participant)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Participating in a conference, workshop, ...
Rory O'Connell (Participant)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Participating in a conference, workshop, ...
Mark Simpson (Organiser), Ciara Fitzpatrick (Organiser), Grainne McKeever (Chair) & Rory O'Connell (Chair)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Organising a conference, workshop, ...
Rory O'Connell (Participant)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Organising a conference, workshop, ...
22/06/22
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
7/05/19
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment