Mary Ellen O'Connell

October 30, 2025

Mary Ellen O'Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who specializes in international law and conflict resolution, said in comments shared with OSV News, "Israel's decision to bomb is an unjustified breach of its commitment to the ceasefire. There have been issues but nothing serious enough to justify this violation."

October 21, 2025

Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who specializes in international law and conflict resolution, told OSV News, “From the first reports of the United States Navy destroying small boats in the Caribbean, I have had the gravest of concerns. The use of military force in such circumstances simply cannot be justified under international human rights law or the law of armed conflict,” she said. “Among the many reasons why the attacks are unlawful, the U.S. does not have sufficient facts about who is on the boats. Reports that a fisherman from Colombia has been killed underscores that major issue.” As his country’s president, O’Connell said, Petro “has a duty to protect his citizens by protesting their unlawful killing.”

October 08, 2025

Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who specializes in international law and conflict resolution, told OSV News, “Any movement toward peace, release of the Israeli hostages, and emergency aid for Gazans is welcome.”

August 19, 2025

Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who specializes in international law and conflict resolution, said, “Europe understands both the moral importance of upholding law as fundamental as the prohibition on the use of force, and the danger of emboldening someone like Putin.” 

July 23, 2025

Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who specializes in international law and conflict resolution, expressed concern about the decision. “Leaving UNESCO will deal another blow to the reputation of the United States as a world leader in what matters–peace, human rights, health, the environment, and now culture,” she told OSV News.

June 23, 2025

“If diplomacy is possible, war is unlawful,” Mary Ellen O’Connell, professor of law and international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame, told OSV News. “Diplomacy is needed now more than ever to end the senseless bloodshed throughout the Middle East. While Iran is correct that it is the victim of a grave breach of international law, it has no right to retaliate merely for the sake of revenge.”

June 16, 2025

Mary Ellen O'Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who specializes in international law and conflict resolution, told OSV News that "times of transition such as this -- for the church, for states, for technology -- offer both risk and opportunity."

April 25, 2025

“I have had concerns over the years about State Department activities that promoted idiosyncratic American policies on democracy, human rights — including religious liberty and war — policies not in line with international law,” Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who specializes in international law and conflict resolution, told OSV News.

July 29, 2024

Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who specializes in international law and conflict resolution, told OSV News that in navigating foreign policy, “we are fortunate as Catholics to have the wisdom and insights of Pope Francis on major issues of the day.” Daniel Philpott, professor of political science at Notre Dame, told OSV News Harris would likely “continue the foreign policy of the Biden administration and would prompt the same combination of convergence and contradiction with the social teachings of the Catholic Church that Biden’s policy created.”

April 17, 2024

Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who specializes in international law and conflict resolution, told OSV News that “the clear success in countering Iran’s missile and drone strikes on Israel is a dramatic demonstration of the true legal and moral meaning of ‘self-defense.'”

January 04, 2024

The question is being asked: Can Israel’s conflict conduct be considered a “just war” under the Catholic understanding of the concept? Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law and international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, told OSV News that’s the wrong question.

November 15, 2023

“We need to beef up our State Department. We need skills for diplomacy,” said Mary Ellen O’Connell, a law professor and professor of international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute. “

September 13, 2023

Mary Ellen O'Connell, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who specializes in international law and conflict resolution, told OSV News that "the Catholic Church is in full support of the total ban on cluster munitions" due to its effects on civilians, including long after the conflict.