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Institute for Law and Religion

The Institute for Law and Religion brings together noted experts in the field of law and religion and outstanding scholars of diverse religious and secular perspectives to address issues of great constitutional importance and public interest. The institute hosts conferences, speakers, debates and other scholarly events with an eye toward better understanding relationships between law and religion.

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Leadership

Executive Directors

Lawrence Alexander

Professor Lawrence Alexander is the Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the USD School of Law, where he teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, criminal law and jurisprudence. The author or co-author of more than 250 scholarly articles, Alexander is also the author or co-author of multiple books including of Reflections on Crime and Culpability: Problems and Puzzles (with Kimberly Ferzan) (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

Steven D. Smith

Professor Steven D. Smith is a Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, where he teaches and writes in the areas of law and religion, constitutional law, and torts. Smith has published multiple books including Fictions, Lies, and the Authority of Law (Notre Dame Press 2021) and The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom (Harvard University Press 2014).

Directors

Maimon Schwarzschild

Professor Schwarzschild teaches and writes in the areas of comparative law, constitutional law, public international law, civil procedure, criminal procedure and evidence. Schwarzschild served in the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. during the Carter administration. He has practiced law as a barrister in London and with the Chadbourne law firm in New York. He was an accredited journalist at the United Nations for five years and had White House press credentials during the Nixon administration.

Thomas Smith

Professor Thomas Smith teaches courses on jurisprudence and legal theory, intellectual property, contracts, bankruptcy, law and economics, and business and corporate law. He previously clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He taught law at the University of Colorado and the University of California, Davis before accepting a position as senior counsel and economist on President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisors.

Michael Devitt

Professor Michael Devitt is the supervisor of USD's Appellate Clinic, the Director of the Summer Law Programs Abroad, and the faculty advisor of USD's Moot Court Program. Professor Devitt was the managing partner of his former law firm where he practiced large-scale sophisticated civil trial work in various jurisdictions around the United States. He was lead counsel in several high-profile cases dealing with fraudulent financial reporting, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in combined recoveries.

Samuel C. Rickless

Department of Philosophy, UC San Diego

Professor Samuel C. Rickless is a professor of philosophy at the University of California, San Diego. His research interests include the history of European philosophy (with emphasis on Plato, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Shepherd), moral philosophy, legal philosophy (including issues of legal interpretation and problems related to the right to privacy), and the philosophy of language.

Fictions, Lies, and the Authority of Law

By Steven D. Smith

Fictions, Lies, and the Authority of Law discusses legal, political, and cultural difficulties that arise from the crisis of authority in the modern world. Steven D. Smith argues that these diverse problems are all a consequence of what Hannah Arendt described as the disappearance of authority in the modern world. In this perceptive study, Smith offers a diagnosis explaining how authority today is based in pervasive fictions and how this situation can amount to, as Arendt put it, "the loss of the groundwork of the world."

Programs

Conferences

The Institute for Law and Religion hosts conferences at which participants present original papers on a law and religion topic. The inaugural conference, which focused on the justifications, scope and implications of "The Freedom of the Church in the Modern Era," was held in 2012.

Public Lectures

Lectures put on by the Institute for Law and Religion feature a noted speaker on a law and religion topic and are open to the general public. Check out our events page for an up-to-date list of upcoming public lectures.

Public Debates

The Institute for Law and Religion regularly hosts debates between two or more prominent figures on a law and religion topic. Debates are open to the general public. Check out our events page for an up-to-date list of upcoming public lectures.

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