Patrick Keenan
Albert J. Harno Professor of Law
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About
About
Patrick Keenan is the Albert J. Harno Professor of Law at the College of Law. He is also a Professor with the Center for Global Studies, Center for African Studies, and the Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies. An expert in human rights and international law, he has published articles and book chapters on the U.S. drone program, international criminal law and conflict minerals, human trafficking and tourism, China’s role in Africa, the human rights potential of sovereign wealth funds, the International Finance Corporation’s investments in Africa and the Caribbean, and many other issues. His work has appeared in leading law reviews, including the Michigan Journal of International Law, the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, the Vanderbilt Journal of International Law, and the University of Chicago Journal of International Law, among many others. His scholarship has been cited in the United States Supreme Court and other federal courts. He is also the co-author of The International Criminal Court in a Nutshell. He has been interviewed on or for the Atlantic Monthly, the International Herald Tribune, NBC News, the Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera, and many other outlets.
At the College of Law, Professor Keenan has taught courses on international human rights, international criminal law, public international law, counterterrorism law, and the ethical responsibilities of lawyers. He also created, and for 10 years directed, the Human Rights Law Clinic, in which University of Illinois law students worked directly with lawyers and advocates in Africa and the Caribbean on important human rights cases.
Professor Keenan currently serves as co-chair of the International Criminal Court Committee of the American Branch of the International Law Association. He also served for many years as the co-convenor of the ICC Scholars Forum, bringing together legal scholars from around the world and judges, prosecutors, and defense lawyers from the International Criminal Court for an annual invitation-only seminar.
He is one of the creators of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy Peer-to-Peer Writing Project, which matches law students in Kyiv with US-based law students and lawyers for one-on-one legal mentorship and training. He also co-created, and for 18 years has led, the annual Why Lawyers Matter program, a partnership with the Federal Defender of the Central District of Illinois, which brings together legal scholars and practitioners to provide free training to lawyers representing indigent criminal defendants in federal court.
In addition to teaching at the University of Illinois, he served as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Law School, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, and lectured at Chuo University School of Law in Tokyo.
Before coming to the University of Illinois, Professor Keenan defended indigent criminal defendants facing the death penalty in Georgia and Alabama at trial, on appeal, and in habeas proceedings as an attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights.
Professor Keenan received his J.D. from Yale Law School and his B.A., magna cum laude, from Tufts University. He clerked for Judge Myron H. Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, and served in the Peace Corps in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Education
JD Yale University
BA Tufts University
Areas of Expertise
Areas of Expertise
Human Rights
International and Comparative Law
International Criminal Law
Professional Ethics
Publications
Selected Publications
Drones and Civilians: Emerging Evidence of the Terrorizing Effects of the U.S. Drone Program, 20 Santa Clara Journal of International Law 1 (2021)
Moving from Policies to Performance: Complexities and Evidence, 49 Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law 337 (2021)
Doctrinal Innovation in International Criminal Law: Harms, Victims, and the Evolution of Law, 42 University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law 407 (2020).
The Changing Face of Terrorism and the Designation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, 95 Indiana Law Journal 789 (2020).
United States Law and Conflict Minerals, in Human Rights in the Extractive Industries: Transparency, Participation, Resistance (Feichtner & Krajewski, eds. 2019).
International Criminal Law and Climate Change, 37 Boston University International Law Journal 89 (2019).
The Creation of a Climate Change Court of Tribunal, (with Ku & Scott) in Climate Change and the UN Security Council (Scott & Ku, eds., 2018).
The Problem of Purpose in International Criminal Law, 37 Michigan Journal of International Law 421 (2016).
Evidence-Based Stakeholder Engagement: The Promise of Randomized Control Trials for Business and Human Rights, 3 Indiana Journal of Law & Social Equality 29 (2015).
Conflict Minerals and the Law of Pillage, 14 Chicago Journal of International Law 524 (2014).
Business, Human Rights, and Communities: The Problem of Community Consent in Economic Development, 37 Fordham International Law Journal Online 44 (2014).
International Institutions and the Resource Curse, 3 Penn State Journal of Law and International Affairs 216 (2014).
The Future of the Guiding Principles, 105 Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law 301 (2011).
Regulating Information Flows, Regulating Conflict: An Analysis of United States Conflict Minerals Legislation, 3 Goettingen Journal of International Law 129 (2011). (Co-author, with Christiana Ochoa).
The IFC’s New Africa, Latin America, and Caribbean Fund: Its Worrisome Start, and How to Fix It, 30 Journal of Financial Transformation 127 (2010).
The Human Rights Potential of Sovereign Wealth Funds, 40 Georgetown Journal of International Law 1151 (2009). (Co-author, with Christiana Ochoa).
Sovereign Wealth Funds and Social Arrears: Should Debts to Citizens be Treated Differently Than Debts to Other Creditors? 49 Virginia Journal of International Law 431 (2009).
Curse or Cure? China, Africa, and the Effects of Unconditioned Wealth, 27 Berkeley Journal of International Law 83 (2009).
Financial Globalization and Human Rights, 46 Columbia Journal of Transnational Law 509 (2008).
Do Norms Still Matter? The Corrosive Effects of Globalization on the Vitality of Norms, 41 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 327 (2008).
The New Deterrence: Crime and Policy in the Age of Globalization, 91 Iowa Law Review 505 (2006).
Judges and the Politics of Death: Deciding Between the Bill of Rights and the Next Election in Capital Cases, 75 Boston University Law Review 3 (1995). (Co-author, with Stephen B. Bright).
See All PublicationsCourses
Courses
Counterterrorism Law & Policy
Public International Law
International Criminal Law
Professional Responsibility in the Criminal Law Context
Business & Human Rights