Mary Ellen O'Connell
Robert & Marion Short Professor of Law
Professor of International Peace Studies—Kroc Institute
Office: 3104 Eck Hall of Law
Phone: 574-631-7953
Fax: 574-631-4197
Email: MaryEllenOConnell@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Beth Smith
Website: Wikipedia
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Mary Ellen O’Connell is the Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law and Professor of International Peace Studies—Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame. Her work is in the areas of international law on the use of force, international dispute resolution, and international legal theory. She is the author or editor of numerous books, including, most recently, The Art of Law in the International Community (Cambridge University Press, May 2019; paperback 2020) and Self-Defence Against Non-State Actors (with Tams and Tladi, Cambridge University Press, July 2019).
In 2020, Professor O’Connell was scheduled to be Distinguished Visiting Academic, University of St Andrews, Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research. In fall 2018, she was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Law School and in the spring was a Fulbright Fellow at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo. In April 2018, she presented the Fifth Annual Justice Stephen Breyer International Law Lecture at the Brookings Institution, titled, Autonomous Weapons and International Law. From 2010-2012, she was a vice president of the American Society of International Law and from 2005 to 2010 chaired the International Law Association Committee on the Use of Force. Professor O’Connell served as a Title X professional military educator for the U.S. Department of Defense in Germany and was also an associate attorney in private practice with the international law firm of Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. She holds an MSc from LSE, an LLB and PhD from Cambridge, and a JD from Columbia.
Courses Taught
LAW70431, International Environmental Law
LAW73402, Protection of Cultural Heritage: War, Markets and Museums
LAW73428, International Law and the Use of Force
LAW75718, International Dispute Resolution
Scholarship
Principal Books
THE ART OF LAW IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY (Cambridge University Press, paperback, 2020; hardback, 2019)
SELF-DEFENSE AGAINST NON-STATE ACTORS (with C. Tams & D. Tladi; A. Peters & C. Marxsen, eds., The Max Planck Trialogues on Peace and War Series, Cambridge University Press, 2019)
PEACE THROUGH LAW: REFLECTIONS ON PACEM IN TERRIS FROM PHILOSOPHY, THEOLOGY, LAW, AND POLITICAL SCIENCE (co-edited volume with H.-G. Justenhoven, Aschendorf/Bloomsbury/Nomos, 2016)
WHAT IS WAR? AN INVESTIGATION IN THE WAKE OF 9/11 (Martinus Nijhof/Brill, solo edited volume, 2012)
THE POWER AND PURPOSE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, INSIGHTS FROM THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ENFORCEMENT (Oxford University Press, paperback, 2011)(hardback published, 2008)
INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE “GLOBAL WAR ON TERRORISM”, LECTURES FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS II (Assas-Pantheon) (Editions-Pedone 2007)
REDEFINING SOVEREIGNTY, THE USE OF FORCE AFTER THE COLD WAR (edited volume with M. Bothe and N. Ronzitti eds., Transnational, 2005)
INTERNATIONAL DISPUTE SETTLEMENT, LIBRARY OF ESSAYS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW (Ashgate/Dartmouth, edited volume, 2003)
POLITICS, VALUES AND FUNCTIONS: INTERNATIONAL LAW IN THE 21ST CENTURY, ESSAYS IN HONOR OF PROF. LOUIS HENKIN (with J. Charney and D. Anton, eds., Kluwer Law International 1997)
Selected Articles and Book Chapters
The Illusory Standard of Imminence in the International Law of Self-Defense, The Killing of Qassim Soleimani (February 12, 2021) SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3784820 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3784820
Christianity and the Use of Force, Lex and Pax Christi, in CHRISTIANITY AND GLOBAL LAW (R. Dominguez and J. Witte, eds. Cambridge University Press, 2020), pp. 384-401
Attribution and Other Conditions of Lawful Countermeasures to Cyber Misconduct, 10 NOTRE DAME JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL & COMPARATIVE LAW (2020)
Transnational Legal Process and International Adjudication, MAX PLANCK ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PROCEDURAL LAW (with S. White; H. Ruiz Fabre, ed., 2020)
Re-Establishing the Rule of Law as National Security, in RE-IMAGINING THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE 154-168 (K. Greenberg, ed. Cambridge University Press, 2020)
The Popular but Unlawful Armed Reprisal, 44 OHIO NORTHERN LAW REVIEW 325 (2018)(Dean’s Lecture 2017)
The Crisis in Ukraine—2014, in THE USE OF FORCE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW, A CASE-BASED APPROACH 855 (T. Ruys and O. Corten eds., Oxford University Press, 2018)
The Presumption of Peace, Illegal War, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Law, in SEEKING ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE UNLAWFUL USE OF FORCE 526 (Leila Nadya Sadat ed., Cambridge University Press, 2018)
The Arc toward Justice and Peace, in ARCS OF GLOBAL JUSTICE: ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF WILLIAM A. SCHABAS 467 (D. Amann & M. de Guzman eds. Oxford University Press, 2018)
Sources and the Legality and Validity of International Law: Natural Law as Source of Extra-Positive Norms, in The Oxford Handbook on the Sources of International Law 562 (Samantha Besson & Jean D’Aspremont eds., Oxford University Press, 2017)(with Caleb M. Day)
Ending the Excessive Use of Force at Home and Abroad, 31 TEMPLE INT’L & COMPARATIVE L. J. 87 (2017)(contribution to a volume in honor of Henry Richardson)
The Limited Necessity of Resort to Force, in IMAGINING LAW: ESSAYS IN CONVERSATION WITH JUDITH GARDAM 37 (D. Stephans & P. Babie eds., University of Adelaide, 2017)
Peace through Law and the Security Council, in STRENGTHENING THE RULE OF LAW THROUGH THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL 255 (H. Charlesworth and J. Farrell, eds. Routledge, 2016)
Game of Drones, Review essay: CHAMAYOU, GREGOIRE. A THEORY OF THE DRONE (JANET LLYOD, TRANS.); SHAH, SIKANDER AHMED. INTERNATIONAL LAW AND DRONE STRIKES IN PAKISTAN: THE LEGAL AND SOCIOPOLITICAL ASPECTS; WOODS, CHRIS. SUDDEN JUSTICE: AMERICA’S SECRET DRONE WARS, 109 AM. J. INT’L L. 889 (2015, published 2016)
The Just War Tradition v. International Law: The Myth of Divergent Doctrines, 35 J. SOC’Y CHR. ETHICS 33 (Fall/Winter 2015)
International Law and Drone Attacks beyond Armed Conflict Zones, in DRONE WARFARE: ETHICAL, LEGAL, STRATEGIC, AND HUMAN RIGHTS IMPLICATIONS 63 (D. Cortright et al. eds., Chicago, 2015)
21st Century Arms Control Challenges: Drones, Cyber Weapons, Killer Robots, and WMDs, 13 WASH. U. GLOBAL STUD. L. REV. 515 (2015)
Banning Autonomous Killing, in THE AMERICAN WAY OF BOMBING, CHANGING ETHICAL AND LEGAL NORMS FROM FLYING FORTRESSES TO DRONES 224 (M. Evangelista and H. Shue eds. Cornell, 2014)
The History of International Adjudication, in THE HANDBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL ADJUDICATION 40 (K. Alter et al. eds., Oxford, 2014)(with L. VanderZee)
The Prohibition of Force, in THE RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT AND SECURITY LAW 89 (N. White & C. Henderson eds., Edward Elgar, 2013)
Good Law Against War, in DIMENSIONS OF GOODNESS (Vittorio Hösle ed. 2013)
Peace and War, in The HANDBOOK OF THE HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 272 (B. Fassbender and A. Peters, eds. Oxford, 2012)
Unlawful Killing with Combat Drones, in SHOOTING TO KILL: SOCIO-LEGAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE USE OF LETHAL FORCE 263 (S. Bronitt, et al eds., Hart Publishing, 2012)
Cyber Security without Cyber War, 17 J. OF CON. & SEC. L. 2012 187 (2012)
What is Aggression?: Comparing the Jus ad Bellum and the ICC Statute (with M. Niyazmatov) 10 J. INT’L CRIM. J. 189 (2012)
Jus Cogens, International Law’s Higher Ethical Norms, in THE ROLE OF ETHICS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW (D. E. Childress, III ed., Cambridge, 2011)(an earlier version of the article was published in JORNADAS DE DERECHO INTERNACIONAL (2010)
Seductive Drones: Learning from a Decade of Lethal Operations, 7 J. LAW, INFO. & SCI. 116 (2012)
The Choice of Law Against Terrorism, 4 J. NAT’L SEC. L. & POL’Y 343 (2010)
Arbitration and the Avoidance of War: The 19th Century American Vision in THE UNITED STATES AND INTERNATIONAL COURTS AND TRIBUNALS 30 (Cesare Romano ed. Cambridge, 2009)
Combatants and the Combat Zone, 43 U. of RICH. L. REV. 845 (2009)
Beyond Wealth: Stories of Art, War, and Greed, 59 ALA. L. REV. 1075 (2008)
Preserving the Peace: The Continuing Ban on War Between States, 38 CAL. WESTERN L. REV. 41 (2008)
The Nicaragua Case, Preserving World Peace and the World Court, in INTERNATIONAL LAW STORIES 339 (John Noyes, et al. eds. Foundation 2007)
The Ban on the Bomb—and Bombing, Iran, the U.S. and the International Law of Self-Defense, 57 SYRACUSE L. J. 497 (2007) (with Maria Alveras-Chen)
Affirming the Ban on Harsh Interrogation, 66 O. ST. L. J. 1231 (2005)
Occupation Failures and the Legality of Armed Conflict: The Case of Iraqi Cultural Property, 9 J. ART & ANTIQUITY LAW 323 (2004)
The Legal Case Against the Global War on Terrorism, 36 CASE W. RES. J. INT’L L. 349 (2004)
Ad Hoc War, in KRISENSICHERUNG UND HUMANITÄRER SCHUTZ—CRISIS MANAGEMENT AND HUMANITARIAN PROTECTION 399 (Horst Fischer et al eds., 2004)
Lawful Self-Defense to Terrorism, 63 U. OF PITTSBURGH L.R. 889 (2002)(excerpted in MARK JANIS & JOHN NOYES, INTERNATIONAL LAW (3d ed. 2006)
The Myth of Preemptive Self-Defense, ASIL Terrorism Task Force, Aug. 6, 2002, available at http://www.asil.org/taskforce/oconnell.pdf
Evidence of Terror, 7 J. OF CONFL. & SEC’Y L. 19 (2002)
Debating the Law of Sanctions, 13 EUR. J. INT’L L. 63 (2002)
Continuing Limits on UN Intervention in Civil War, 67 IND. L. J. 903 (1992)
Enforcing the Prohibition on the Use of Force: The U.N.'s Response to Iraq's Invasion of Kuwait, 5 SO. ILL. L.R. 453 (1991)
Areas of Expertise
- Armed Conflict
- Art Law
- Cyberlaw
- International Courts
- International Dispute Resolution
- International Law