As she prepares for her July 1, 2026 appointment as chair of Notre Dame’s political science Department, Emilia Justyna Powell has occasion to reflect on her career at Notre Dame and the longstanding family tradition from which she came that ignited her academic interest in legal traditions.
Powell is a professor of political science and concurrent professor of law. Additionally, she is a faculty fellow with the Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government (CCCG), and is affiliated with numerous different centers and institutes on campus, such as the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights, and the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion.
Powell was born and raised in Grudziądz, Poland, and pursued a Master’s degree in law at the University of Nicholas Copernicus in Toruń. During her time in law school, she also received a diploma in British common law from the University of Cambridge and a diploma in European law from the Jean Monnet Center for European Studies. Upon moving to the United States, Powell continued her education, earning both her master's and Ph.D. in political science from Florida State University.
Growing up in a long family tradition of lawyers, Powell describes herself as extraordinarily drawn to questions and concepts of legal tradition from an early age, particularly in comparative law and international law.
“I always loved the history of law and how the different legal traditions breathe, how they operate. It’s just fascinating to me,” she said. “I came to the United States and completed my Ph.D. in political science, and always gravitated towards questions of law. Even though my professors did not specialize in international law or domestic legal traditions, I just always wrote my papers about it.”
After Florida State University, Powell went on to become an assistant professor of political science at Georgia Southern University, then at University of Alabama, before coming to Notre Dame in 2011.
When choosing to come to Notre Dame, Powell noted the interdisciplinary research appeal that Notre Dame fostered, providing her with an optimal environment to combine both her passion for political science, as well as law with her concurrent appointment with the law school.
Beyond its interdisciplinary opportunities, it was the University's values and dedication to its mission that attracted her. Powell noted the “wonderful atmosphere” consisting of both “exceptional undergraduate and graduate students,” coupled with the University’s serious academic pursuit. What most drew her most was its distinct emphasis on human flourishing.
“Notre Dame is a very unique environment, not only for students but for professors. It has a long tradition of caring for the human being and for holistic human development, not only knowledge but also faith and human flourishing,” she said.
Powell’s current academic research encompasses peaceful resolution of disputes, the Islamic legal tradition, and modern constitutionalism. Much of her work has focused on how countries resolve their disputes peacefully according to international law, noting that this “scholarship bridges the study of international law and international relations, which is really important to the study of global peace.”
Her work has been widely recognized among the international law academic community. Her book, The Peaceful Resolution of Territorial and Maritime Dispute (2023, Oxford University Press), won the 2025 Best Book Award from the International Law Section of the International Studies Association and she also received two awards in 2022 from the International Studies Association, International Law Section, and the Religion and International Relations Section for her book Islamic Law and International Law: Peaceful Resolution of Disputes (2020, Oxford University Press).
In her most recent work, Powell’s research has focused on the emerging questions in law and global governance. She completed her forthcoming edited volume, Global Order in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (Oxford University Press), co-edited with Jarek Nabrzysk, the Notre Dame Associate Vice President for Research for Special Initiatives who is also a concurrent professor of computer science and engineering. Powell is also working on a book with Christina Bambrick, the Filip Family Assistant Professor of Political Science and faculty fellow with the CCCG, that examines competing legal authorities in constitutions around the world.
This book centers around the competing authorities of state law, local customary law, and international law.
“The contribution of the book is that it focuses on legal pluralistic constitutions and conceptualizes competition in constitutions as competition between different legal traditions or legal authorities,” she said. “So this is a project in which we’re using cutting-edge methodology to address questions of fundamental importance to the study of comparative constitutionalism.”
As she continued to reflect on her time at Notre Dame, Powell cited her annual summer study abroad course in Poland as one of the most meaningful aspects of her tenure.
“The highlight of my tenure here at Notre Dame is to lead a study abroad, international law and the politics of genocide in Poland every summer," she said. "I have done it multiple years, and this is a deep personal experience for students that's life-changing for them."
Originally published by at constudies.nd.edu on April 16, 2026.
