Professor of Law
Associate, Marine & Environmental Law Institute

Professor McConnell is also an advisor to the MBA Programme in Shipping and Logistics at Copenhagen Business School and is affiliated with the Mediterranean Programme for International Environmental Law and Negotiation at the MIEPELAN CENTRE, Panteion University, Athens.  She was the first Director of the Marine & Environmental Law Institute (2004-2007).  Dr. McConnell has also been the Co-director of Dalhousie University's Marine Affairs Program and is a former Executive Director of the Law Reform Commission of Nova Scotia.

Professor McConnell is currently a Special Advisor to the Director, International Standards Department, International Labour Organization (ILO) in connection with the economic impact of international labour standards as well as assisting with the development of the recently adopted Maritime Labour Convention, 2006.  She has also undertaken a number of international projects including acting as Lead Consultant and Coordinator for a six country Legislative Review Project under the GEF/UNDP/IMO Global Ballast Water Management Programme, while on secondment to the UN affiliated World Maritime University (between June 2000 and June 2002).  She also participated, as a researcher, in the European Commission project – ECOPORTS (2001-2003) and is currently involved in a number of projects with the MEL Institute.

She is the Leader of the International Ocean Governance Working Group the Ocean Management Research Network (OMRN) and is a member of a number of organizations including the IUCN, Commission on Environmental Law (CEL), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ - Canada, Canadian Council), Canadian Council on International Law, the Americal Society of International Law and the Canadian Maritime Law Association.

Dr. McConnell’s current teaching and research interests are in the fields of public and private international law and domestic law including; shipping, law of the sea, ocean governance, international labour law, international environmental law, contract law and public law. She also has an interest in trade and the environment, business and environmental law/management, public and corporate governance, regulatory design and dispute resolution processes. She is a Co-editor of the international interdisciplinary Ocean Yearbook (1998-) and an Associate Editor of the Yearbook of International Environmental Law (2006-) and has published widely in the fields of international law, law of the sea, governance systems, corporate governance, administrative and constitutional law, environmental law, maritime law and policy, social justice and human rights.

Selected Publications

Invasive seaweeds:  global and regional law and policy responses (2007)

The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 Consolidates Seafarers' Labour Instruments (2006)