This research was prompted by the paucity of specific code provisions regarding the design of short columns for shear. The purpose of this paper was to investigate whether the use of the normal shear design procedure of various codes may or may not be applied to reliably calculate the shear strength of short columns. Provisions of the codes American ACI 318M-08, Canadian CSA A23.3-04, Japanese AIJ Guidelines, New Zealand NZS 3101, European EN 1998 (EC8) parts 1 and 3, combined with EN 1992-1-1 (EC2), and draft fib Model Code 2010, as well as a strut-and-tie model are applied on short columns tested under cyclic loading that failed in shear. Actual shear resistances are compared to predictions, and the resulting shortcomings of the codes are identified. EN1998-3 appears to be the only code among those considered that may be reliably applied to estimate the shear resistance of short columns. Further, the proposed strut-and tie model can be a useful tool for the detailed design and assessment of short columns.