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Law Professors Honored by USD for Academic Achievements

SAN DIEGO (January 31, 2011) – Three University of San Diego (USD) School of Law professors have been honored by the University of San Diego for their outstanding achievements and contributions to their discipline. Awards will be formally bestowed at the Fall Convocation on September 2, 2011.

Professor Michael Ramsey has been awarded with one of only five 2011-2012 University Professorships. The University Professorship is the highest academic honor bestowed university-wide and is based on outstanding contributions at the University of San Diego in teaching and research. Only one professorship is awarded to the School of Law each year. The professorship provides funds that may be used flexibly for course reduction, salary supplement, travel or project needs.

Professor Laurence Claus was named the 2011-2012 Herzog Endowed Scholar. The award recognizes meritorious teaching and scholarly productivity and provides funds for professional development or for increased time for research or teaching for a one-year period to younger school of law faculty.

Professor Steven Smith was named the 2011-2012 Class of 1975 Endowed Professor. The award was established by the Class of 1975 at its 25-year reunion gift to the law school to recognize meritorious teaching, leadership and academic accomplishments of a professor in the School of Law.

Professor Ramsey teaches and writes in the areas of Constitutional Law, Foreign Relations Law and International Business Law. He is the author of The Constitution's Text in Foreign Affairs (Harvard Univ. Press, 2007) and of numerous articles in leading scholarly journals, including "Textualism and War Powers" (Chicago Law Review, 2002) and "The Executive Power over Foreign Affairs" (with Professor Saikrishna Prakash) (Yale Law Journal, 2001). Ramsey received the 1998 Thorsnes Prize for excellence in teaching, and the 2002 and 2007 Thorsnes Prizes for outstanding scholarship. He has taught as a visiting professor for the University of California, San Diego, Department of Political Science and for the University of Paris-Sorbonne, Department of Comparative Law.

Prior to joining the faculty in 2001, Laurence Claus clerked for distinguished jurists in his native Australia and for the Hon. Frank H. Easterbrook of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He also served for three years in the Office of Foreign Litigation, United States Department of Justice, based at the U.S. Embassy in London. His recent scholarship includes Montesquieu’s Mistakes and the True Meaning of Separation, The One Court that Congress Cannot Take Away: Singularity, Supremacy, and Article III, and The Empty Idea of Authority.

Professor Steven D. Smith is one of the nation's foremost scholars in the area of law and religion, and teaches in the areas of law and religion and constitutional law. Before joining the USD law faculty in 2002, he was the Robert and Marion Short professor of law at the University of Notre Dame Law School and was, previously, the Byron R. White Professor of Law at the University of Colorado School of Law. Among his many scholarly works are The Constitution and the Pride of Reason (Oxford University Press 1998) and Foreordained Failure: The Quest for a Constitutional Principle of Religious Freedom (Oxford University Press 1995). Smith's articles on law and religion and constitutional law have been published in the Michigan Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Virginia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and the Texas Law Review.

About the University of San Diego School of Law

The University of San Diego School of Law is a center of academic excellence focused on preparing its students for legal practice in the new century. One of the most selective law schools in the country, USD’s nationally recognized faculty create a demanding, yet welcoming environment that emphasizes individualized education. USD School of Law graduates consistently score higher than the state average on the California Bar Exam and go on to practice law throughout the country and abroad, forming an influential network of alumni. USD is one of only 81 law schools in the country to have a chapter of the Order of the Coif, the most distinguished rank of American law schools. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Founded in 1954, the law school is part of the University of San Diego, a private, nonprofit, independent, Roman Catholic university chartered in 1949.