Law Commons^™

Persons And The Point Of The Law, Richard W. Garnett

Journal of Catholic Legal Studies

(Excerpt)

I interviewed for a law-teaching position at Notre Dame Law School in the Fall of 1997. So far as I know, that visit to Our Lady’s university and to lovely, cosmopolitan South Bend, Indiana, was my first. I had never attended a Catholic school at any level and was not much of a Fighting Irish fan. The circumstances and conversations that resulted in my being on campus for that interview were both unpredicted and unpredictable, although I know now they were providential.

In any event, what struck me most forcefully over that weekend—besides the freezing rain that persisted throughout …

There Are No Ordinary People: Christian Humanism And Christian Legal Thought, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

This short essay is a contribution to a volume celebrating a new casebook, "Christian Legal Thought: Materials and Cases", edited by Profs. Patrick McKinley Brennan and William S. Brewbaker.

Ignatian Spirituality And The Life Of The Lawyer: Finding God In All Things – Even In The Ordinary Practice Of The Law, Gregory A. Kalscheur S.J.

Gregory A. Kalscheur, S.J.

All of us know lawyers who seem unhappy, unfree, directionless, and dis-integrated, who seem to be following paths they haven’t consciously chosen, leading them to places they would never have chosen to go, seemingly locked in lives they haven’t freely chosen to live. Some would characterize this reality as a manifestation of a spiritual crisis, a crisis of meaning and value in the law, rooted in the difficulty lawyers have integrating the practice of the law into the whole of their lives. This article argues that the spirituality flowing from the life of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the …

Law School As A Culture Of Conversation: Re-Imagining Legal Education As A Process Of Conversion To The Demands Of Authentic Conversation, Gregory A. Kalscheur S.J.

Gregory A. Kalscheur, S.J.

Conventional wisdom holds that the principal task of a law school is to teach law students to "think like lawyers." However, law school can be experienced as a form of narrow training that diminishes something central to the human person: the fundamental drive to question and to follow those questions wherever they lead. This Article will explore the ways in which the thought of two scholars, Bernard Lonergan and James Boyd White, can usefully inform our understanding of this crisis of meaning and value within the context of a conception of law as a social and cultural activity. First, this …

John Paul Ii, John Courtney Murray, And The Relationship Between Civil Law And Moral Law: A Constructive Proposal For Contemporary American Pluralism, Gregory A. Kalscheur S.J.

Gregory A. Kalscheur, S.J.

In his 1995 encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II outlined a jurisprudential vision which includes the “doctrine on the necessary conformity of civil law with moral law.” The Pope’s jurisprudential reflections prompt the question I consider in this Article: How should we understand the doctrine on the necessary conformity of civil law with moral law in a religiously pluralistic democratic society like that of the United States today? My objective is to articulate a vision of the relationship between moral values and civil law that is grounded in the tradition of Catholic social thought and that can allow the …

Catholics In Public Life: Judges, Legislators, And Voters, Gregory A. Kalscheur S.J.

Gregory A. Kalscheur, S.J.

Does the desire to avoid culpable cooperation in moral evil make the conscientious Catholic judge unfit for judicial service in a constitutional system that will inevitably bring before the judge cases that implicate a host of issues as to which the Church offers moral teaching? Confused answers to this question reflect a larger confusion which often accompanies contemporary discussion of questions related to Catholic participation in public life. The confusion stems in large part from a failure to recognize that Catholics participate in public life in different ways that give them different sorts of public roles. This Essay tries to …

Conscience And Citizenship: The Primacy Of Conscience For Catholics In Public Life, Gregory A. Kalscheur S.J.

Gregory A. Kalscheur, S.J.

In their statement, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the U.S. Catholic bishops acknowledge that “the responsibility to make choices in political life rests with each individual in the light of a properly formed conscience.” This essay argues that, in light of this responsibility, it is important to affirm a commitment to the primacy of conscience as that idea has been understood in the Catholic tradition. If we really expect voters and public officials to make responsible, conscientious decisions about matters of public policy, we should not speak in ways that suggest that the proper formation of conscience is simply a …

Multicultural Modernity In Montréal, Vincent Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

No abstract provided.

Just Contracts And Catholic Social Teaching: A Perspective From American Law, Vincent Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

No abstract provided.

Reforming The Legal Profession Through Faith-Based Service Learning For Law Students: Notre Dame's 'Just Communities' Project, Vincent D. Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

Major curricular reform is long overdue at many American law schools, and the current economic crisis presents a unique opportunity for change. This article argues for a greater emphasis on service learning in the law school curriculum so that students can acquire a wider range of practical skills essential to lawyers and gain a deeper sense of engagement with issues of justice. At Notre Dame’s London Law Centre, the “Just Communities” project offers a compelling example of how this can be accomplished. Through participation in faith-based community organizing, law students not only gain valuable skills essential to the lawyer’s craft, …

Employee Participation In Corporate Governance: An Ethical Analysis, Michael Lp Lower

Michael LP Lower

This paper outlines why CST has called for employees to be involved in the governance of the firms that they work for and a share in ownership. It points out the economic issues involved as part of its broader ethical analysis. The John Lewis Partnership is pointed to as a good working model. The possible use of ESOPs to bring about desirable changes is considered. The case for mandatory codetermination is outlined.

Catholic Social Teaching And Global Migration: Bridging The Paradox Of Universal Human Rights And Territorial Self-Determination, Vincent D. Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

In this essay, I will consider how law, religion, and democratic pluralism revolve around a particular issue: global migration. I use the term "global migration" to encompass a number of related issues that are often collapsed under the term "immigration." In nations that have constructed their identities around waves of settlers or migrants-places like the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand-immigration involves the formal reception of foreigners into the host country as potential new citizens.' This is just one part of the migration of peoples around the globe. Migration also encompasses emigration, asylum, economic migration, and undocumented or irregular …

The Chicago School Virus, Spencer Weber Waller

Spencer Weber Waller

The Chicago School of Law and Economics is a leading example of a highly successful legal ideology. As one recent commentator has noted: "[T]he basic characteristic of the Chicago School is the belief that free markets and the price mechanism are the most effective and desirable ways for a society to organize production and economic life in general." The Chicago School of Law and Economics applies these insights to legal questions and views the creation and enforcement of legal rules primarily in terms of how legal rules and institutions promote allocative efficiency and wealth maximization.

While much ink has been …

John Paul Ii And Employee Participation In Corporate Governance, Michael Lp Lower

Michael LP Lower

Catholic Social Thought ("CST") has called for employees to be active participants in the governance of the enterprises for which they work. This article looks at what CST has to say about employee participation. It shows that John Paul II's distinctive contribution was to lay bare the theological and philosophical justifications for CST's approach to this issue.

Christians In The American Empire: Faith And Citizenship In The New World Order, Vincent Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

What does it mean to be a Christian citizen of the United States today? This book challenges the argument that the United States is a Christian nation, and that the American founding and the American Constitution can be linked to a Christian understanding of the state and society. Vincent Rougeau argues that the United States has become an economic empire of consumer citizens, led by elites who seek to secure American political and economic dominance around the world. Freedom and democracy for the oppressed are the public themes put forward to justify this dominance, but the driving force behind American …

Trying To Vote In Good Conscience, Elizabeth F. Brown

Elizabeth F Brown

This Article analyses the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ statement, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States, and how it addresses the economic and environmental issues raised during the 2008 Presidential election.

"In All Things Love" Immigration, Policy-Making And The Development Of Preferential Options For The Poor, Michele R. Pistone, John J. Hoeffner

Michele R. Pistone

The invitation to write for this symposium stated that the preferential option for the poor “asks us to define what law and public policy would look like if consideration for the poor was at the heart of our conception of the common good.” Inquiries of this kind are useful and necessary—to a point. They also can become counter-productive. The issue of immigration, which we discuss here to illustrate our larger point about the general appropriateness of claiming that a specific policy prescription is demanded by the preferential option for the poor, presents the complications of the matter in particularly stark …

Catholic Social Thought And The New Urbanism -- A Shared Vision To Confront The Problem Of Urban Sprawl, Vincent Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

No abstract provided.

Pilgrim Law: Overcoming False Consciousness Through The Witness Of London’S Economic Migrants., Vincent D. Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

No abstract provided.

Subsidiarity, Federalism, And Federal Prosecution Of Street Crime, John F. Stinneford

John F. Stinneford

No abstract provided.

Justice, Community, And Solidarity: Rethinking Affirmative Action Through The Lens Of Catholic Social Thought, Vincent Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

No abstract provided.

A Crisis Of Caring: A Catholic Critique Of American Welfare Reform, Vincent D. Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

The current deterioration of the American economy is bringing new attention to the problem of poverty in the United States. After falling over the last few years, the number of Americans living in poverty has begun to rise once again. Notwithstanding the achievements of recent "welfare reforms," the American poor continue to be numerous by any measure. Unfortunately, decades of affluence have exacerbated American tendencies to view liberal concepts such as freedom, autonomy, tolerance, and choice in ways that accentuate personal autonomy over community integration. These liberal values have been increasingly unhinged from strong countervailing principles like duty and responsibility, …