Full Name
Michael Kelly
Job Title
Professor
Company
Creighton School of Law
Speaker Bio
Professor
An authority on cyber law, climate change, international law, and national security law, Professor Kelly coordinates the International and Comparative Law Program at Creighton University School of Law, including its nationally-ranked summer school on international criminal law and the Holocaust in Germany: The Howard Kaiman From Nuremberg to The Hague Program, and is founding Director of Creighton’s Samuel & Ida Kaiman Center for International Criminal Justice & Holocaust Studies.
Professor Kelly serves on several governing boards including the Board of Directors of L’Association International du Droit Pénal, a Paris-based society of international criminal law scholars, judges and attorneys founded in 1924 that enjoys consultative status with the United Nations, the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Natural Resources & Energy Law based in Denver, the Board of Directors of the International Scientific & Professional Council of the United Nations Crime Prevention & Criminal Justice Programme based in Milan, and the Board of Advisors of the Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice & Human Rights based in Sicily.
Cyber Policy
As co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Internet Governance with David Satola, Lead Counsel for Technology & Innovation at the World Bank, Professor Kelly is a prominent figure on international governance issues for AI and the Internet. Together, they are publishing a new matrix tracking the migration of human rights from physical space to digital space extending their prior work at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Illinois that will be published as a book with Chris Watson by Oxford University Press in 2026.
Ukraine Policy
Standing firmly against Russian aggression in Ukraine, Professor Kelly has traveled to Poland and Ukraine lecturing on the seizure of frozen Russian corporate assets, training Ukrainian prosecutors on how to bring environmental crimes cases against Russian commanders, and teaching remotely at Ukrainian law schools in Odessa, Kyiv, and Lviv. His scholarly work appears at the University of Texas, Case Western, and Emory University, on West Point’s Lieber Institute Articles of War Blog, and he continues to advocate for robust international legal responses on behalf of Ukraine – most recently on the Just Security Blog.
Cuba Policy
In the wake of Fidel Castro’s demise, American foreign policy with respect to Cuba has been in flux. Professor Kelly has been on the front lines of that change as an expert on the international law of expropriations. Professor Kelly wrote the grant awarded by the federal government to the School of Law calling for creation of a Cuba/U.S. bilateral property claims settlement tribunal to be used to settle the claims of companies and citizens whose property was confiscated by the Castro regime when it came to power in 1959. Professor Kelly and the team of six law and political science faculty tasked with building this model reported their recommendations as a book on The Resolution of Outstanding Property Claims between Cuba & the United States (Creighton University Press 2007). He testified in Congress in 2010 on this issue as it relates to lifting the embargo on Cuba.
Professor Kelly and Creighton faculty have taken many interviews on this subject following up on a larger article in the Boston Globe, including those from Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, the Miami Herald, Globe & Mail, Washington Post and Associated Press. Their supplemental work in the area produced another book, the Cuba-U.S. Bilateral Relationship: New Pathways & Policy Choices (Oxford University Press 2019), that Professor Kelly had the opportunity to present to Pope Francis at a meeting in the Vatican in appreciation for his role in re-opening U.S.-Cuba relations in 2014.
Research
An award-winning author and researcher, Professor Kelly is the author/editor of eight books and over 50 journal articles influencing the development of legal theory in key areas such as cyber governance, international criminal justice, and corporate liability – including incorporation of ESG into board governance strategy. Follow the link below to explore more publications.
An authority on cyber law, climate change, international law, and national security law, Professor Kelly coordinates the International and Comparative Law Program at Creighton University School of Law, including its nationally-ranked summer school on international criminal law and the Holocaust in Germany: The Howard Kaiman From Nuremberg to The Hague Program, and is founding Director of Creighton’s Samuel & Ida Kaiman Center for International Criminal Justice & Holocaust Studies.
Professor Kelly serves on several governing boards including the Board of Directors of L’Association International du Droit Pénal, a Paris-based society of international criminal law scholars, judges and attorneys founded in 1924 that enjoys consultative status with the United Nations, the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for Natural Resources & Energy Law based in Denver, the Board of Directors of the International Scientific & Professional Council of the United Nations Crime Prevention & Criminal Justice Programme based in Milan, and the Board of Advisors of the Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice & Human Rights based in Sicily.
Cyber Policy
As co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Internet Governance with David Satola, Lead Counsel for Technology & Innovation at the World Bank, Professor Kelly is a prominent figure on international governance issues for AI and the Internet. Together, they are publishing a new matrix tracking the migration of human rights from physical space to digital space extending their prior work at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Illinois that will be published as a book with Chris Watson by Oxford University Press in 2026.
Ukraine Policy
Standing firmly against Russian aggression in Ukraine, Professor Kelly has traveled to Poland and Ukraine lecturing on the seizure of frozen Russian corporate assets, training Ukrainian prosecutors on how to bring environmental crimes cases against Russian commanders, and teaching remotely at Ukrainian law schools in Odessa, Kyiv, and Lviv. His scholarly work appears at the University of Texas, Case Western, and Emory University, on West Point’s Lieber Institute Articles of War Blog, and he continues to advocate for robust international legal responses on behalf of Ukraine – most recently on the Just Security Blog.
Cuba Policy
In the wake of Fidel Castro’s demise, American foreign policy with respect to Cuba has been in flux. Professor Kelly has been on the front lines of that change as an expert on the international law of expropriations. Professor Kelly wrote the grant awarded by the federal government to the School of Law calling for creation of a Cuba/U.S. bilateral property claims settlement tribunal to be used to settle the claims of companies and citizens whose property was confiscated by the Castro regime when it came to power in 1959. Professor Kelly and the team of six law and political science faculty tasked with building this model reported their recommendations as a book on The Resolution of Outstanding Property Claims between Cuba & the United States (Creighton University Press 2007). He testified in Congress in 2010 on this issue as it relates to lifting the embargo on Cuba.
Professor Kelly and Creighton faculty have taken many interviews on this subject following up on a larger article in the Boston Globe, including those from Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, the Miami Herald, Globe & Mail, Washington Post and Associated Press. Their supplemental work in the area produced another book, the Cuba-U.S. Bilateral Relationship: New Pathways & Policy Choices (Oxford University Press 2019), that Professor Kelly had the opportunity to present to Pope Francis at a meeting in the Vatican in appreciation for his role in re-opening U.S.-Cuba relations in 2014.
Research
An award-winning author and researcher, Professor Kelly is the author/editor of eight books and over 50 journal articles influencing the development of legal theory in key areas such as cyber governance, international criminal justice, and corporate liability – including incorporation of ESG into board governance strategy. Follow the link below to explore more publications.
