Sunday, October 28, 2007

What is the "Mission" of a Catholic Law School?

Notre Dame law professor Rick Garnett, posting over at Vox Nova, asks the question "What is the "mission" of a Catholic Law School?":
... As a rule, we would say, among other things, that there are dozens of faculty and each would likely express and live out the “thing” in different ways. Fair enough. But, what else? Some affirmations of the importance of community, collegiality, social-justice, etc., were also appropriate, and regularly provided. We talked some about how a Catholic law school’s mission finds natural expression in indisciplinary work (that is, “interdisciplinarity” is not, on the Catholic understanding of a university’s work, a fad or an add-on; it’s a natural, necessary feature of the search for truth.) And, I emphasized, as I usually do in these conversations, my view that a Catholic law school should call its students and faculty to “integration.”

But . . . what else is needed? What else should be said? I’ve been teaching at a Catholic law school for nine years, blogging about “Catholic legal theory” for nearly five, and have talked to dozens and dozens of potential hires. I know — I just know – there’s more to the “mission” of an authentically, meaningfully Catholic law school than what I usually manage to articulate, and I feel like I’m not doing right by those who say, “that sounds interesting, even attractive . . . what does it mean?”
I like the one answer he's received so far:
Here is the rub. ‘Integration’, ‘interdisciplinarity’, and the ’search for truth’ are all good things, but there is nothing specifically ‘Catholic’ about them. Unless our mission statements also include the words ‘Christ’ and ‘Church’, the label ‘Catholic’ will seem inappropriate.

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1 Comments:

At 10/30/2007 9:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

A Catholic law school is to teach no less than how to be Jesus in and bring Jesus to the law. We Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the sacraments. Therefore, a life committed to the sacraments is integral to bringing the Real Presence of Christ to the making and practice of law. A commitment to the moral teachings which underly the sacramental practices and teachings of the Church is also integral to the practice of law for the Catholic lawyer.

What we get in most Catholic law schools are statements about Catholic “tradition” and “commitment to social justice” which are not in some cases any different from the mushy leftism of the secular campuses, though in many cases, people in the law school are courageously living out their faith. What would change the world would be the commitment of a Catholic law school faculty and staff to eucharistic adoration, prayer, and Vincentian good works.

Such a school does not have to exclude non-Catholics, but those who are completely committed to secular understandings of human behavior and law would probably be more comfortable elsewhere. That’s OK. There are more than 160 law schools in America. Christian humanism is our project.

http://burketokirk.blogspot.com/2007/10/what-is-catholic-law-school-for.html

 

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