Professor of LawCo-Director, Center for International and Comparative Law
J.D. Stanford Law SchoolB.A. American University
Peggy McGuinness researches and teaches in the areas of international law, international human rights law, international dispute resolution, and civil procedure. She has published widely on international human rights law, human rights diplomacy, international security, the resolution of armed conflict, and the role and influence of international law in the United States. Her current research examines U.S. diplomacy and its influence on international human rights governance. She co-edited (with David Stewart, Georgetown Law), the Research Handbook on Law and Diplomacy (Elgar 2022), which received the American Branch of the International Law Association book award in 2023. She is co-editor (with Ramses Wessel and Malcolm Jorgensen) of the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Law and Diplomacy (Elgar 2027).
Since 2024, Professor McGuinness has chaired the Council on International Affairs of the New York City Bar Association. She is an active member of the New York State Bar Association International Section, where she serves on the Executive Committee, the American Society of the International Law, where she has served on the Executive Council, and the International Law Association and its American Branch. She co-founded Opinio Juris, the leading international law blog.
Professor McGuinness graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School, where she was an articles editor for the Stanford Law Review and a graduate fellow at the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation. Afterwards, she clerked for Judge Colleen McMahon in the Southern District of New York and worked as a litigator for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Her career in the law follows an early career as a Foreign Service Officer with the State Department, which included service in Germany, Pakistan, and Canada, and as a Special Assistant to Secretary of State Warren Christopher.