ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mary Ellen O'Connell

Mary Ellen O'Connell is the Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law and Concurrent Professor of International Peace Studies in the Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame.

POSTS BY Mary Ellen O'Connell

16 September 2025

Killing For Show

On September 2 and 15, President Trump ordered the United States Navy to destroy small speed boats in the Caribbean. In both cases, all on board died. International lawyers have uniformly criticized the killings as unlawful. The President and his closest advisers have repeated that they simply do not care whether the killings violated the law. This may well be President Trump's most dangerous assault on the rule of law to date. And, yet, government officials in states long committed to the rule of law at home and abroad have remained largely silent. Continue reading >>

28 June 2025

Mary Ellen O'Connell

U.S. Attacks on Iran

Israel and the United States attacked Iran in mid-June 2025 with the aim of ending its nuclear program. Iran counter-attacked. While some world leaders justified what Israel and the U.S. were doing, they did so in line with political deterrence theory, not the plain terms of the United Nations Charter. The lawful use of force in self-defense depends on an armed attack occurring. Concerns over nuclear weapons are to be resolved through treaties and negotiations. Honoring deterrence theory over the law is undermining the surest path to peace. Continue reading >>