Thomas M. McDonnell

Professor Thomas M. McDonnell is an expert in international law, and the author of The United States, International Law and the Struggle against Terrorism (Routledge, hard copy 2009; revised paperback ed. 2011). His book discusses the critical legal issues raised by the U.S. responses to the terrorist threat, analyzing the actions taken by the Bush and Obama administrations during the so-called "War on Terrorism" and their compliance with international law. Professor McDonnell highlights specific topics of legal interest including torture, extra-judicial detentions, targeted-killing-drone strikes, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and examines them against the backdrop of terrorist movements that have plagued Britain and Russia. The book extrapolates from the actions of the U.S., going on to look at the difficulties all modern democracies face in trying to combat international terrorism. Listen to Professor McDonnell talk about his book.

Professor McDonnell has written scholarly articles on international law, international human rights law, international refugee law, lawyering, and legal writing and research. He was the principal author of an amicus curiae brief to the New York Court of Appeals on a right to counsel issue. Professor McDonnell teaches International Law, International Human Rights Law, Immigration Law, and Criminal Law, and helps coach the Jessup International Moot Court Team.

Before joining the Pace faculty, Professor McDonnell was Director of the Department of Legal Research and Writing and Appellate Advocacy at the University of Florida College of Law. Prior to that, he was Acting Director of the Legal Skills Program at California Western School of Law. He has also taught legal research and writing, as well as pretrial and appellate advocacy, at University of Puget Sound School of Law. Admitted in New York and California, Professor McDonnell has worked in Legal Services, representing the indigent, and in private practice. For Legal Services, he practiced consumer, immigration, and housing law. As a private practitioner, he focused on consumer law, immigration law, social security law, and criminal appeals.

Professor McDonnell is the Chair-Elect of the International Human Rights Law Section of the American Association of Law Schools (“AALS”) and is a member of the AALS International Law Section’s Executive Committee. He has previously chaired the AALS International Law Section and the AALS Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research. He also previously served as the Co-Chair of the Teaching International Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law (ASIL).

• BA, Fordham University
• JD, Fordham University School of Law

• International Law LAW 698
• International Human Rights Seminar LAW 669
• Constitutional Law Law 646
• Criminal Law Law 621

View all of Professor McDonnell’s publications on SSRN, Digital Commons or download his CV (PDF).

Book

• The United States, International Law, and the Struggle Against Terrorism (revised paperback edition, Routledge 2011).
  Read chapter 1, The West's Colonization of Muslim Land and the Rise of Islamic Fundamentalism. The United States, International Law and the Struggle against Terrorism (Routledge 2009).

Articles

• Work in Progress: Unsafe Anywhere, at Any Speed: “Safe” Third Country Agreements – Offshoring International Responsibilities Owed to Refugees and Asylum-Seekers.
• (Thomas M. McDonnell, lead author; with Vanessa Merton) Enter at Your Own Risk: Criminalizing Asylum-Seekers, 51 Colum. Int’l Hum. Rights L. Rev. 1 (November 2019). Named, “Immigration Law Article of the Day,” Immigration Prof Blog, Nov. 22, 2019.
• Commentary on Corrigendum of the “Decision on the Confirmation of Charges”, Prosecutor v. Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamu, International Criminal Court, Pre-Trial Chamber, 7 March 2011 in 52 Annotated Leading Cases of International Criminal Tribunals 113 (Cambridge: Intersentia 2018).
• Rule of Law in the Age of the Drone: Requiring Transparency and Disqualifying Clandestine Actors: The CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command, 72 U. Miami L. Rev. 34 (Fall 2017).
• The Egyptian Coup, United States, and a Call to Strengthen the Rule of Law and Diplomacy rather than Military Counter-Terrorism. 41 N. Car. J. Int’l L. 325 (2016).
• Sow What You Reap?: Using Predator and Reaper Drones to Target and Kill Suspected Islamic Terrorists, 44 Geo. Wash. Int’l L. Rev. 243 (2012).
• The Death Penalty: An Obstacle to the ‘War on Terrorism?’, 37 Vand. J. Transnat'l L. 353 (2004).
• Targeting the Foreign Born by Race and Nationality: Counterproductive in the 'War on Terrorism?', 16 Pace Int'l L. Rev. 19 (2004).
• Cluster Bombs over Kosovo: A Violation of International Law, 44 Ariz. L. Rev. 31 (2002).
• Playing Beyond the Rules: A Realist and Rhetoric-Based Approach to Researching the Law and Solving Legal Problems, 67 UMKC L. Rev. 286 (1998).
• Defensively Invoking Treaties in American Courts - Jurisdictional Challenges Under the U.N. Drug Trafficking Convention by Foreign Defendants Kidnapped Abroad by U.S. Agents, 37 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1401 (1996).
• Joining Hands and Smarts: Teaching Manual Legal Research Through Collaborative Learning Groups, 40 J. Legal Educ. 363 (1990).

Blog Postings

• United States, the Egyptian Coup, and the Threat of Terrorism, in INTERNATIONAL LAW PROF BLOG, Sept. 11, 2013.
• The Death Penalty and the Boston Bomber, in PACE CRIMINAL JUSTICE BLOG, Apr. 29, 2013.
• Expanding the Executive's Power to Kill: The US Justice Department's Memo in INTERNATIONAL LAW PROF BLOG, Feb. 12, 2013.
• Assassination/Targeted Killing of Suspected Terrorists -- A Violation of International Law?, Jus in Bello Blog, Dec. 2005.

Newsletters & Op-Eds

• U.S. Policy Toward Egypt, New York Times Letter to the Editor,May 6, 2014
• Respect for International Law, McCain’s Record is Mixed, Op-Ed, Nat'l L.J., April 28, 2008.
• Death Penalty Won’t Deter, Op-Ed, Nat'l L.J., May 15, 2006, at 15.
• Chair’s Column, Newsletter of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research, Fall 2004, at 2.
• Chair’s Column, Newsletter of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research, Spring 2004, at 2.
• The Invasion and Occupation of Iraq: A Violation of International Law?, Pace Alumni Magazine, Winter 2004, at 16.
• Editor, Newsletter of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research, Spring 2002.
• Editor, Newsletter of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research, Fall 2002
• Toward Teaching Editing: The Structured Self-Review Assignment, Newsletter of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research, Fall 1999.
• A Potentially Explosive Execution, Nat'l L.J., July 7, 1997, at A17 (arguing against executing Timothy McVeigh).

Amicus Brief

• Principal Author, Brief, Amicus Curiae, to the New York Court of Appeals in People v. Grant, dealing with right to counsel, on behalf of the New York Defenders Association, January 1998.