Faculty & Administration View All

Mary Ellen O’Connell

Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law

Office Number: 345 Law School
Telephone: 574.631.7953
Fax: 574.631.4197
Email: MaryEllenOConnell@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Andy Mason

Mary Ellen O’Connell joined the faculty as the Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law in 2005. Prior to joining the Notre Dame faculty, Professor O’Connell was the William B. Saxbe Designated Professor of Law at the Moritz College of Law of Ohio State University. She earned her B.A. in History, with highest honors, from Northwestern University in 1980. She was awarded a Marshall Scholarship for study in Britain. She received an MSc. in International Relations from the London School of Economics in 1981, and an LL.B., with first class honors, from Cambridge University in 1982. She earned her J.D. from Columbia University in 1985, where she was a Stone Scholar and book review editor for the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. After graduation, she practiced with Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. She then taught at Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington; at The Bologna Center of The Johns Hopkins University, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Bologna, Italy; and the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany; and the University of Cincinnati College of Law.

The author of three casebooks, four edited collections, and more than sixty articles and book chapters, Professor O’Connell has been active in the American Society of International Law, the German Society of International Law, the International Institute for Humanitarian Law, the International Law Association, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

She teaches contracts as well as a number of courses in the area of international law. Professor O’Connell’s primary research focuses on international legal regulation of the use of force and conflict and dispute resolution, especially peaceful resolution of disputes prior to an escalation to armed conflict.

In conjunction with research on these issues, she continues to examine the processes by which international law is made, applied, and enforced and is particularly interested in the enforcement of international law and the question of whether it is time for a classical revival in international law.

About the Robert and Marion Short Chair in Law

The Robert and Marion Short Chair in Law was a gift from the late Robert E. Short and his wife, Marion, of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Bob received his bachelor’s degree from the College of Saint Thomas and earned his law degree from Georgetown University. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, from 1942 to 1946. Enlisting as an ensign, he resigned with the rank of commander.

After practicing law for several years, he bought an interest in a small truck line and proceeded to build it into a major freight carrier known as Admiral Merchants Motor Freight. He later expanded into real estate and the hotel business.

Bob’s business ventures brought him some attention, but he was mostly known for his love of sports and politics. At one time, he was the owner of basketball’s Los Angeles Lakers and baseball’s Washington Senators. Entering politics in 1946, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress. He also served as treasurer of the Democratic National Committee during Hubert Humphrey’s presidential campaign but was best known for the fiery, losing battle he waged for a U.S. Senate seat in 1978.

Bob was a longtime supporter of Notre Dame and served as a member of the Law School Advisory Council from 1974 until his death in 1982. Following his death, Marion succeeded her husband as president and chief executive officer of the Short business concerns. For nine years she served on the board of trustees of the University of Saint Thomas. The Shorts have seven children, five of whom have earned a total of 10 Notre Dame degrees. Their son, Brian, is currently a member of the University’s Law School Advisory Council.

LAW70401, International Law

LAW70431, International Environmental Law

LAW73402, International Art Law

LAW73428, International Law and the Use of Force

LAW75718, International Dispute Resolution

Faculty Expertise Areas

  • Armed conflict
  • Art law
  • Human rights law
  • International dispute resolution
  • International courts
  • International law

Articles

Preserving the Peace: The Continuing Ban On War Between States, 38 California Western International Law Journal 41-62 (2007).

The Ban on the Bomb – and Bombing: Iran, the U.S., and the International Law of Self-Defense, 57 Syracuse L. Rev. 497 (2007).

Limiting Self-Defense To Preserve the Peace and Protect Human Rights-Remarks for the Wallenberg Symposium, Toronto, January 18, 2007.

The ASIL Centennial Annual Meeting Adopts a Resolution on the Use of Armed Force and the Treatment of Detainees, The American Society of International Law Insight, Vol. 10, Issue 12, May 19, 2006

The Counter-Reformation of the Security Council, Journal of International Law and Relations, Vol. 1, 2006

When is a War Not a War? The Myth of the Global War on Terror, ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2005

The United Nations Security Council and the Authorization of Force: Renewing the Council Through Law Reform, in The Security Council and the Use of Force 47-63 (N.M. Blokker & N.J. Schrijver eds., 2005)

Affirming the Ban on Coercive Interrogation, 66 OHIO STATE L. J. (2005).

Enhancing the Status of Non-State Actors Through a Global War on Terror, 43 COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF TRANSNATIONAL LAW 435 (2005).

Books

International Law and the Use of Force, Cases and Materials (Foundation Press 2005).

International Dispute Resolution, Cases and Materials (Carolina Academic Press, forthcoming 2005).

Book Chapters

Rethinking the Remedy of Return in International Art Law, with Maria Alevras-Chen, in The Acquisition and Exhibition of Classical Antiquities 95-113 (Robin F. Rhodes ed., University of Notre Dame Press 2007).

The Nicaragua Case: Preserving World Peace and the World Court, in International Law Stories 339-70 (John E. Noyes et al. eds., 2007).

Crying War, in International Law and International Relations 93-110 (Thomas J. Biersteker et.al. eds., 2007).