Mary Donnelly is a graduate of University College Dublin (BCL 1986), University College Cork (MA 1993), Trinity College Dublin (MLitt 1995), University of Wales, Cardiff (PhD 2007). 

She is the author of Healthcare Decision-Making and the Law: Autonomy, Capacity and the Limits of Liberalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010); The Law of Credit and Security (Round Hall, 2011; 2nd ed 2015; 3rd ed 2021) and she is co-author of End-of-Life Care: Ethics and Law (Cork University Press, 2011) and Consumer Law: Rights and Regulation (Round Hall, 2014; 2nd ed 2025).  She is joint-editor of Ethical and Legal Debates in Irish Healthcare: Confronting Complexities (Manchester University Press, 2016); The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 (HSE, 2021); Supporting Legal Capacity in Socio-Legal Context (Hart Publishing, 2022) and the Routledge Handbook of Mental Health Law (2023).  She is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry and a member of the editorial board of Medical Law International.

She has been PI/Co-I in projects funded by the European Commission, the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the National Children's Office, the Irish Hospice Foundation and the Medical Protection Society has acted as consultant for public agencies and legal firms. 

She is Chair of the National Research Ethics Committee CT-C; joint Chair of the Health Service Executive National Consent Advisory Group and of Children's Health Ireland Clinical Ethics Service and a member of the Human Rights Committee of the Mental Health Commission; the HSE ADM Transitional Oversight Group; and the Department of Health Protection of Liberty Safeguards Expert Advisory Group.  Other public service roles have included Chair of the Multidisciplinary Working Group on Advance Healthcare Directives (2016-2019); the Expert Technical Group on Codes of Practice for the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 (2017-2019); member of the the Expert Group to Review the Mental Health Act 2001 (2013-2015);  and the National Research Ethics Committee Covid-19 (2020).  

She has served as External Examiner at Dublin City University; National College of Ireland and University College Dublin. She has acted as PhD External Examiner at Universities in Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom.  She was a visiting fellow at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia (2002); the London School of Economics (2009); University College London (2016) and the Mason Institute, University of Edinburgh (2023).

She is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (elected 2025).

My primary research interests lie in the areas of health law, law and capacity, law and psychiatry, law and the dead, international and comparative capacity law reform and consumer protection.   

I am interested in the interplay between individual autonomy and state intervention/protection and in how law in this respect has evolved in the wake of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  I adopt a socio-legal and inter-disciplinary approach and draw on feminist theory to explore the relationships between legal frameworks and systems as they operate in practice.  I am especially interested in law reform models and how progress is measureed and in particular the impact of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015.  

I am also interested in the intersections between legal and medical systems and the consequences of legal involvement for medical practice.   My work in this respect has included a study (with Dr Claire Murray) of the impact of the Health (Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 on abortion care providers and current projects (with Dr Barry Lyons) include an evaluation of the impact of defensive practice in medicine and a socio-legal analysis of brain death.

The substantial focus of my work in consumer protection is in financial services, especially consumer credit and in the role of vulnerability, including disabilty, in consumer policy.  Working with my colleague Professor Fidelma White,  I have also had a long-term interest in the evolution of a domestic Irish consumer protection agenda and the ongoing intersection between Irish and EU consumer law.  

LW6592: Mental Capacity Law

LW3316: Financial Services (Law and Regulation)

LW6657: Law and Policy of the EU Digital Marketplace