Biography

Niamh Connolly LL.B. (ling. franc., Dub.), Ph.D. was elected a Scholar of the College in 1998 and graduated with a First Class Honors degree in Law & French in 2000, receiving the Law School Prize. She studied for a year at Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas as an undergraduate. She was subsequently awarded a Trinity Broad Curriculum Teaching Studentship and an IRCHSS Government of Ireland Scholarship to conduct her Ph.D. research. Her Ph.D. thesis, "Beyond Corporate Incapacity", examined the contractual capacity of corporations in the context of the diverse remedies available where contracts are void.

Dr Connolly’s principal research interests concern unjust enrichment law, restitution and equitable remedies. More broadly, Dr Connolly has teaching, supervision and research interests in private law, especially obligations and company law, and comparative law, including French public and private law and international contract law.

Dr Connolly is currently conducting research on unjust enrichment for a book on voidness and unjust enrichment in private and public law. This project has involved comparative research in Germany, Canada and England, thanks to visiting fellowships from the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, McGill University in Montréal and the Institute of European and Comparative Law at Oxford. This project is also supported by a research grant from the Arts and Social Sciences Benefactions Fund.
Dr Connolly has been Lecturer in Law and French since 2004 and is a College Tutor. She has previously been an Assistant Warden at Trinity Hall and the Law School’s Exchange Programme Co-ordinator. Dr Connolly teaches a number of subjects on the Law and French degree programme including French constitutional law, French civil Law and French legal methods. She also teaches an LL.M. module in advanced comparative law. She has been a visiting lecturer in unjust enrichment and equitable remedies at Université Paris V and in comparative contract law at Université Toulouse 1.

Dr Connolly holds a specialised language certificate in legal French from the Paris Chamber of Commerce and a Certificate in French at Superior level from the Institut Catholique de Paris. She is a recipient of a French language scholarship from the Fondation Irlandaise and won the French Government Prize for her performance in the language components of her undergraduate degree.

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Professional Qualifications

• LL.B. (ling. franc., Dub.), Ph.D. (Dub.)

 

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Representations

• Secretary of the Irish Society of Comparative Law (2012-2015)

• Member of Trinity College Law School’s corporate and private law research groups

• Founding Convenor of the Irish Law Student Colloquium in 2009 and 2010

• Formerly a member of the organising committee of the Franco-Irish Lawyers’ Association

• Honorary President of European Law Students’ Association, Trinity Branch

 

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Administrative Functions

• Law and Language Degrees Co-ordinator (2004-2011)

• Erasmus Co-ordinator (2004-2010)

• College Tutor since 2007

• Assistant Warden, Trinity Hall (2004-2007)

 

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Awards and Honours

• Visiting Fellowship, Institute of European and Comparative Law, University of Oxford, 2012
• Visiting Scholar at the Law Faculty of McGill University, 2012
• Visiting Fellowship, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, 2012
• Recipient of research travel grant from Trinity’s Arts and Social Sciences Benefactions Fund, 2011
• Nominated for Provost’s Teaching Award, 2010
• Fondation Irlandaise Bourse (French language scholarship)
• Trinity College Broad Curriculum Teaching Studentship
• Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship
• French Government Prize and Distinction for French components of Degree
• Law School Prize for First Place in Degree
• Entrance Exhibitioner and Scholar, Trinity College Dublin

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Education Details

Niamh Connolly undertook her undergraduate study, leading to the award of the LL.B. (ling. franc.) degree in Law and French, as well as her doctoral research, at Trinity College Dublin. She spent a year studying French law at Université Paris II Panthéon-Assas as part of her studies.

Dr Connolly also holds a specialised language certificate in legal French from the Paris Chamber of Commerce and a Certificate in French at Superior level from the Institut Catholique de Paris.

 

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Employment Details

current

• Assistant Professor, Lecturer in Law & French in Trinity College Dublin, 2004 –
• College Tutor, 2007 –
• Occasional consultancy work as a legal expert in Irish law (matters such as restitution and equitable remedies) and French law, 2004 –

past

• Law School Socrates and Exchange Co-ordinator, 2004 - 2010
• Assistant Warden, Trinity Hall, 2004 - 2007
• Part-time teaching positions in Trinity College Law School (Broad Curriculum Teaching Studentship, torts seminars and lectures in Advanced legal skills, French civilisation and French civil law), 2001 - 2004
• Occasional research in company law for Matheson Ormsby Prentice Solicitors, 1999 - 2002

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Memberships /Associations

Member of the Society of Legal Scholars and Irish Association of Law Teachers

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Publications

Upcoming publication of “Recovery of Overpaid Taxes in Ireland:‐ The Murphy Case and The Public Law Reason for Restitution”, in S Elliott, B Häcker & C Mitchell (eds), “Restitution of Overpaid Tax” (Hart, 2013).
Conference papers

• “Absence of basis: lessons from German and Canadian law” - abstract accepted for Society of Legal Scholars Conference, Bristol, September 2012
• "How an absence of basis approach can avoid the problem of proving a negative" – abstract accepted for Sixth Biennial Conference on the Law of Obligations, Western University, Ontario, July 2012
• “Unjust enrichment in the common law: time to take German lessons?” - Aktuelle Stunde, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Law, Hamburg, March 2012
• “Unjust enrichment in German and Irish law” – Irish Society of Comparative Law Conference, Cork, March 2012
• “Unlawful exactions by the state: the intersection of constitutional law and unjust enrichment” – Society of Legal Scholars Conference, Cambridge, September 2011
• “Legal education: assessing a collaborative method for a comparative law module on European legal systems”, Irish Society of Comparative Law Annual Conference, Dublin, April 2011
• “An Irish perspective on judicial review of the constitutionality of laws in France”, Irish Society of Comparative Law Annual Conference, Dublin, April 2011
• “The grounds for restitution of payments unlawfully exacted by the State: an Irish perspective on the rationale for recovery and defences” Irish Association of Law Teachers Annual Conference, Limerick, November 2010
• “Recovery of overpaid taxes in Ireland – from Murphy v AG to Harris v Quigley” Overpaid Taxes Conference, Merton College, Oxford, July 2010
• “The judicial review of the constitutionality of legislation in France” Tanzanian Appellate Courts’ Judicial Workshop, Dar es Salaam, June 2010

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Research

Research project for monograph on void measures and unjust enrichment:

Dr Connolly is conducting this research project with the assistance of visiting fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg and McGill University in Montréal, and a research grant from the Arts and Social Sciences Benefactions Fund. Her papers at the Sixth Biennial Conference on the Law of Obligations in Canada in 2012 and the 2011 and 2012 conferences of the Society of Legal Scholars present elements of this research.

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Postgraduate Research Students

Niamh Connolly is particularly interested in supervising student research in the following areas:

• restitution, unjust enrichment and equitable remedies
• the harmonisation of private law in Europe
• comparative law, with an emphasis on common law and civil law systems
• law of obligations, including contract, tort and unjust enrichment
• international contract law
• comparative public and constitutional law
• corporate law and theory

She welcomes approaches from prospective students (undergraduate, LL.M. or M.Litt./Ph.D.) with proposals to conduct original research in these fields.

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Links

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