Assistant Professor of Law
Education
Ph.D. Cand. (Religious Studies/Ethics), University of Virginia (expected 2010)
Ph.D. (History), University of Pennsylvania (2007)
J.D., University of Virginia School of Law (2005)
M.A. (History), The Johns Hopkins University (1997)
B.A., The Johns Hopkins University (1997)
Recent Courses
Ethical Issues in Law and Business
UCC II: Secured Transactions
Torture: Legal and Ethical Perspectives
Property Law
Comparative Theological Jurisprudence: Law in Christianity, Judaism and Islam
Research Interests
Law, Religion and Ethics
U.S. Legal History
Jurisprudence
Human Rights and International Law
Business and Economic Ethics
Comparative Law and Religion
Constructive Theological Jurisprudence
Scholarly Works
“The Courageous Catholic Liberal”: Ethics and Economic Justice in the Social Thought of John A. Ryan, 1900-1940 (book manuscript in progress)
Adam Smith and the Descralization of Jurisprudence (work in progress)
After Torture: Violence, Law and Forgiveness (work in progress)
Catholic Social Thought, Political Liberalism, and the Idea of Human Rights (work in progress)
Torture, Necessity and Supreme Emergency, Forthcoming (2009) in VAL. U. L. REV.
Book Review, Forthcoming, J. of Church and State (2009) (reviewing John Witte, JR. and Frank S. Alexander, The Teaching of Modern Protestantism on Law, Politics and Human Nature (2007)).
The Evangelical Embrace of Human Rights, Forthcoming (2009) in Is The Good Book Good Enough? (David Ryden, ed.)
Cosmos and Nomos: Law, Religion, and the Moral Ordering of Modernity (book manuscript in progress)
“True Economic Liberalism” and the Development of American Catholic Social Thought, 1920-1940 5 J. Cath. Soc. Thought 285 (2008)
“Natural Law in American Catholic Social Ethics” (Paper presented at University of Notre Dame, Center for Ethics and Culture, 2007)
Exporting Religious Freedom: Human Rights and the Globalization of Church-State Law in Church-State Issues in America Today (Ann W. Duncan and Steven L. Jones eds., Praeger Press, 2007)
“True Economic Liberalism: John A. Ryan and the Development of American Catholic Social Thought,” (Paper presented at Villanova University School of Law, 2007)
“The Accomodationist Impulse in American Catholic Social Thought,” (Paper presented at University of St. Thomas Law School, 2006)
“The Indispensable Basis of Democracy”: American Catholicism, the Church-State Debate, and the Soul of American Liberalism, 1900-1920, 91 Virginia Law Review 1037 (2005)
“The Catholic Human Rights Revolution” (Paper presented at Cumberland School of Law, Samford University, 2004)
“John Augustine Ryan,” “The Catholic Worker Movement,” “NCWC,” in Historical Encyclopedia of Christian Politics, 1789-Present (Roy Domenico & Mark Hanley eds., 2004)
Book Review, 38 Fides et. Historia 129 (2006) (reviewing Patrick Carey, American Catholics: A History (2004) & Peter D’Agostino, Rome in America (2004)).
“Business and the Development of Human Personality” (Paper presented at Universidad de Deusto, Bilbao, Spain, 2003)
“Rerum Novarum,” “National Catholic War/Welfare Conference,” “Dorothy Day,” “Catholic Worker Movement,” “John A. Ryan,” “Economic Justice for All,” in Encyclopedia of American Religion and Politics (Paul A. Djupe & Laura R. Olson eds.,2003)
The End of Poverty and the Poverty of Ends: Economic Prosperity and the Cultural Dilemmas of Free Enterprise, in Does Free Enterprise Help the Poor? 20 (Lynn D. Robinson ed., 2002).
Book Review, 89 Cath. Hist. Rev. 569 (2003) (reviewing Robert G. Kennecy et. al eds., Religion and Public Life: The Legacy of Monsignor John A. Ryan (2001)).
Book Review, 32 Fides et Historia 165 (2000) (reviewing Edward J. Larson, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion (1998))
Book Review, Beliefnet.com (2000) (reviewing Nancy Lusignan Schultz, Fire and Roses: The Burning of the Charlestown Convent, 1834 (2000)).
Book Review, 2 J. Markets & Morality 146 (1999) (reviewing, Thomas Bokenkotter, Church and Revolution: Catholics in the Struggle for Democracy and Social Justice (1998)).
The Kingdom of Man in America: Economic Freedom and Prosperity in Moral and Theological Perspective, in Ethics and Economics 7 (1998).
From Poor Relief to the Poorhouse: The Response to Poverty in Prince George’s County, Maryland, 1710-1770, 93 Maryland Historical Magazine 393 (1998)
Distinctions & Awards
Jay Fellowship, Grant for Research in International Law (2005)
Virginia Law Review, Editorial Board (2005)
Kirk Center, Research Fellowship (2001)
Civitas Fellow (2000)
Research Grant, Cushwa Center, University of Notre Dame (1999)
Erasmus Institute Summer Seminar (1999)
Tertio Millenium Institute (1998)
Pew Younger Scholar (1998)
Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania (1997-2002)
Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, United States Department of Education (1997-2001)
Previous Professional Experience
Associate Attorney, Buckley Kolar, LLP, Washington, DC (2005-2006)
United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Summer Honors Attorney (2004)
Visiting Fellow, The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC (2001)
Visiting Fellow, The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Washington, DC (2001)
Research Fellow, Institute for Humane Studies, Arlington, VA (2001)