skip to content
 

Events for...

M T W T F S S
1
 
2
 
3
 
4
 
5
 
6
 
7
 
8
 
9
 
10
 
11
 
12
 
13
 
14
 
15
 
16
 
17
 
18
 
19
 
20
 
21
 
22
 
23
 
24
 
25
 
26
 
27
 
28
 
29
 
30
 
31
 
 
 
 
 
Monday, 17 February 2014 - 5.30pm
Location: 
Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, Finley Library

Lecture Summaries: The prohibition on resort to military force may well be falling behind the advancement of other peremptory norms of international law such as the prohibitions of torture, slavery, and genocide. These Lectures take up this issue, aiming to reawaken commitment to preserving the peace through law. The approach will be through theory—not just dominant positivism but natural law, process theory, and aesthetic theory.

I. Understanding the Higher Norm against Aggression:

The lectures will begin by drawing on the work of Sir Hersch Lauterpacht to discuss how the current law against resort to military force is a natural law norm of jus cogens. This fact has significant implications for the advocates of diluting the prohibition on resort to force.

II. Revitalizing the Practice of International Dispute Resolution:

Process theory holds promise for reigniting interest in methods of dispute resolution as rational alternatives to the use of military force. Sir Elihu Lauterpacht’s writing, teaching, and practice will provide primary material for the discussion.

III. Attracting Law Compliance:

The final lecture will introduce aesthetic theory and the insights it provides into attraction—specifically into increasing the attraction to compliance with current and future law against resort to force. The lecture will draw on the aesthetic theories of Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, and Allott.

Professor Mary Ellen O'Connell is the Robert and Marion Short Professor of Law and is Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution—Kroc Institute for Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Her research is in the areas of international legal theory, international law on the use of force, and international dispute resolution. She is the author or editor of numerous books and articles on these subjects, including, What is War? An Investigation in the Wake of 9/11 (Martinus Nijhof/Brill, 2012) and The Power and Purpose of International Law, Insights from the Theory and Practice of Enforcement (Oxford 2008, paperback 2011). She will be a senior Templeton Foundation Fellow in Princeton in the 2014-2015 academic year. She chaired the ILA Committee on the Use of Force from 2005 to 2010. Professor O’Connell earned her LL.B. and Ph.D. in Cambridge.

A list of all recorded events and lectures at the Lauterpacht Centre can be viewed in on this website in Media/Audio recordings.

Events