Ursula Connolly

Ursula Connolly is a graduate of the University of Galway (then University College Galway) and theKatholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, where she was awarded a masters degree specialising in European and International law in 1998. Following the completion of her masters she taught Labour Law at the University of Limerick (1999 2001). She has been a lecturer at the School of Law, University of Galwaysince September 2001 where she teaches primarily in the area of Tort Law. Ursulas research interests focus on the application of traditional tort principles to emerging legal areas, in particular liability for mental injury and liability for internet wrongs. She has developed a postgraduate module on Internet Torts.She is also interested in damages in personal injuries actions and discrimination in employment. Her research is comparative in nature and she is or has been involved in a number of European projects in the areas of Disability Discrimination and European Private Law. She has also acted as a visiting lecturer at the University of Brescia, Italy on the topics of liability for mental injury and damages in personal injuries actions. She is currently a contributor to the Common Core on Private Law project on damages. She has previously contributed to previous Common Core projects on the subject of causation and on mass harms.Ursula is currently completing a PhD on a part-time basis at the University of Bristol on the Regulation of Workplace Bullying in Ireland.She has acted as an external examiner for the Dublin Institute of Technology and the now Atlantic Technological University. She is currently an external examiner for Munster Technological University. She was a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley during September 2009 and spent two months at the University of Otago, New Zealand during October and November 2009 researching New Zealands Accident Compensation Corporation scheme. She is also an occasional reviewer of journal articlesfor the International Journal of Workplace Health.Selected Public - No restrictionations Connolly, U., Tort Law: Nutshell 2nd ed., (Dublin, Thomson Round Hall, 2009) (Book). Connolly amp; Quinlivan, Tort Cases and Materials (Thomson Round Hall, Dublin, 2006) (Book). Connolly, U., Paternity Fraud and the Tort of Deceit, (2008) QRTL 24 (Article).

Ursulas research interests focus on liability in Tort Law and the application of tortious principles to modern legal problems. Much of her research is comparative in nature, drawing primarily from the experiences of other common law jurisdictions. Recent research has focused on the challenges facing the courts in compensating mental injury and she has published comparatively on the topic of stress related injury and liability for suicide. Other research interests include damages in personal injuries actions and she has acted as the Irish contributor to the Common Core on European Private Law project since 2005 on the topic of damages. She is also interested in legal protection against discrimination, including disability discrimination. From 2004-2006 she acted as a project consultant in the area of disability discrimination with the European Disability Discrimination Project. She is also an Adjunct Member of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at NUI, Galway.  In her research she has maintained links with the Health Service Executive (HSE) Mental Health Services. She organised a conference on the Law and Mental Health in 2006 primarily aimed at service providers in the HSE. She has also provided training on tortious liability and involuntary admissions to the HSE West Mental Health Services during 2010-11.

Ursula currently teaches Tort Law, Introduction to Lawand is responsible for the delivery of Mooting modules within the Law School. This includes delivery of the undergraduate Moot Court module and the postgraduate Vis Moot module.In the past she has taught Health and Safety Law, Labour Law, and Internet Torts. She has been nominated for the Presidents Award for Teaching Excellence on three occasions (2019-20, 20-21, and 21-22) winning a Presidents Award for Teaching Excellence in 2021-22. She has also been nominated on several occasions for the CBPPL Deans Award for Inclusive Teaching, winning this award in 2021.