BACKGROUND

Professor Kohler writes extensively about domestic and comparative labor and employment law issues; mediating institutions; and theories of civil society and personhood. He teaches a variety of labor and employment law courses as well as Foundations of Western Law. In 1995-96 he was at the J.W. Goethe Universitat in Frankfurt. Among his most recent publications is "Decentralizing Industrial Relations: The American Situation and its Significance in Comparative Perspective" in Decentraling Industrial Relations and the Role of Labour Unions and Employee Representatives, edited by Roger Blanpain (Kluwer Law International, 2007.)

EDUCATION

B.A., Michigan State University; J.D., Wayne State University; LL.M., Yale University.

RECENT ACTIVITIES

Work in Progress: 
"A Rock on Which One Can Build." In After Authority, edited by Patrick McKinley Brennan. Roman & Littlefield (forthcoming)

Presentations: “The Relevance of Laborem Exercens for Workers,” Catholic Social Teaching and Human Work: 25th Anniversary of Laborem Exercens, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, in September 2006. "What’s Wrong with an International Labor Market?" at the New England Legal Foundation 2004 CEO Forum, Boston, in December 2004. "The Notion of Solidarity and the Secret History of American Labor Law," a faculty colloquium at the University of Texas School of Law, Austin, Texas, in February 2005.

Appointments: Named to deliver the 29th Kenneth M. Piper Memorial Lecture in Labor Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Named concurrent professor of law and philosophy in October 2004. Appointed visiting professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law.

Activities: Participant and commentator, Study Group on a Restatement of European Labour Law, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, in May. Participant, Labor Law Group Biennial Meeting, Saratoga Springs, NY, in June 2006.

Other: "Kündigungsschutz in Deutschland und den USA," an article, coauthored with Michael Kittner, was reviewed in the April 2000 edition of Handelsblatt, a German financial newspaper.

COURSES

Fall '09: Foundations/Western Law
Spring '10: Labor Law; Employment Law

PUBLICATIONS

• "Modern Man." America  201, issue 4 (August 17, 2009): 22-25.
• "The Fragile Relevance of Laborem Exercens." Journal of Catholic Social Thought 6, no.1 (Winter 2009): 185-207.
• "Restatement - Technique and Tradition in the United States." International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations 24, issue 4 (2008): 469-493.
• "Body and Soul." Boston College Magazine 67, no.4 (Fall 2007): 34-43.
• "Religion in the Workplace: Faith, Action, and the Religious Foundations of American Employment Law." (The Kenneth M. Piper Lectureship Series, 2007) Chicago-Kent Law Review 83 (2008): 975-991.
• "Labor Law: 'Making Life More Human' -- Work and the Social Question." In Recovering Self-Evident Truths: Catholic Perspectives on American Law, edited by Michael A. Scaperlanda and Teresa Stanton Collett, 163-190.  Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2007.
• "Decentralizing Industrial Relations: The American Situation and its Significance in Comparative Perspective." In Decentralizing Industrial Relations and the Role of Labour Unions and Employee Representatives, Roger Blanpain, editor, 103-124.  The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2007.

• With Julius G. Getman. "The Story of NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co.: The High Cost of Solidarity." In Labor Law Stories, edited by Laura J. Cooper and Catherine L. Fisk, 13-53. New York: Foundation Press, 2005.
• “Lost Foundations: The Religious Voice and Employee Participation in the United States and Germany.” In Arbeitnehmermitwirkung in einer sich globalisierenden Arbeitswelt=Employee Involvement in a Globalising World: Liber Amicorum Manfred Weiss, edited by Armin Höland et al, 527-537. Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2005.
• "The Notion of Solidarity and the Secret History of American Labor Law." Buffalo Law Review 53 (2005): 883-924
• “Comments On Weiss' ‘Trade Unions, Worker's Participation, and Collective Bargaining in Germany and in The EU.’” In The Future of Labor Unions: Organized Labor in the 21st Century, edited by Julius G. Getman and Ray Marshall, 229-235. Austin, TX: Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, 2004.
• “National Labor Relations Act.” In Major Acts of Congress, edited by Brian K. Landsberg, vol 3, 37-42. New York: MacMillan Reference USA, 2004.
• “Comparative Labor Law: Some Reflections on the Way Ahead.” Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal 25, no. 1 (2003): 87-96.
• "Comparative Advantages? The Protection of the Employment Bond in German and American Law." Published as JILL Forum Special Series 18. Tokyo: Japan International Labour Law Forum, 2003.
• "Employee Representation, the Notion of Solidarity and the Secret History of American Labor Law." Published as JILL Forum Special Series 17. Tokyo: Japan International Labour Law Forum, 2003.
• "Major-League-Baseball-Streik 1994-1995." Arbeit und Recht 49 (October 2001) (Wissenschaft und Praxis: Festheft für Michael Kittner): 398-401.
• With Michael Kittner. "Conditioning Expectations: The Protection of the Employment Bond in German and American Law." Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal 21 (Winter 2000): 263-330.
• "Autonomy and Personhood: The Implications for Labor and Employment Law." In Zur Autonomie des Individuums: Liber Amicorum Spiros Simitis, hrsg. von Dieter Simon und Manfred Weiss, 163-170. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 2000.
• "The Integrity of Unrestricted Desire: Community, Values,and the Problem of Personhood." In Autonomy and Order: A Communitarian Anthology, edited by Edward W. Lehman, 57-70. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.
• With Michael Kittner. "Kündigungsschutz in Deutschland und den USA." Betriebs Berater 13: Beilage 4 (March 3, 2000): 1-30 [insert].
• "The Employment Relations and Their Ordering at Century's End: Reflections on Trends in the United States Since 1990." [In Japanese] Monthly Journal of the Japan Institute of Labor [Nihon Rodo Kenkyu Zasshi] 41 (February/March 1999): 70-81. (Also appears as "The Employment Relation and Its Ordering at Century's End: Reflections on Emerging Trends in the United States." Boston College Law Review 41 (December 1999:): 103-123.)
• "Betriebliche Interessenvertretung in den Vereinigten Staaten: Ein Überblick." Arbeit + Recht 46 (November 1998): 434-437.
• With Matthew Finkin. "Bonding and Flexibility: Employment Ordering in a Relationless Age." American Journal of Comparative Law 46 (supplement) (1998): 379-402.
• "The Disintegration of Labor Law: Some Notes for a Comparative Study of Legal Transformation." Notre Dame Law Review 73 (May 1998): 1311-1331.
• "Labor Law and Labor Relations: Comparative and Historical Perspectives." In The Future of Labour and Labour in the Future: Proceedings, Second Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, 20-23 March 1996, 305-330. Vatican City: The Academy, 1998.
• "Do We Own Ourselves?" Institute for American Values Working Paper No. 62. New York: Available upon request from the Institute for American Values, 1998.
• Review of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in Germany, by Manfred Weiss. Comparative Labor Law Journal 18 (Spring 1997): 483-486.
• "The Waning Habits of the American Heart." Interview by William Bole. Our Sunday Visitor (August 31, 1997): 10-11.
• "Labour Law and Labour Relations: Comparative and Historical Perspectives." International Journal of Comparative Labor Law and Industrial Relations 12 (1996): 213-234.
• Remarks (as Panelist) in Krise des Flächentarifvertrages? Dokumentation eines Gesprächs der Otto Brenner Stiftung (Frankfurt am Main, 8. Dezember 1995), edited by Michael Kittner, 142-144. Köln: Bund-Verlag, 1996.
• "Civic Virtue at Work: Unions as Seedbeds of the Civic Virtues." In Seedbeds of Virtue: Sources of Competence, Character and Citizenship in American Society, edited by Mary Ann Glendon and David Blankenhorn, 131-162. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1995. (A shorter version appears in Boston College Law Review 36 (March 1995): 279-304.)
• "The Overlooked Middle." Symposium on the Legal Future of Employee Representation. Chicago-Kent Law Review 69 (1993): 229-247. [Also appears in The Legal Future of Employee Representation, edited by Matthew Finkin, 224-242. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University ILR Press, 1994.]
• "In Praise of Little Platoons." In Building the Free Society: Democracy, Capitalism, and Catholic Social Teaching, edited by George Weigel and Robert Royal, 31-50. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993.
• "Individualism and Communitarianism at Work." Brigham Young University Law Review 1993: 727-741.
• "Lessons From The Social Charter: State, Corporation, and the Meaning of Subsidiarity." University of Toronto Law Journal 43 (1993) 607-628.
• "Quadragesimo Anno." In A Century of Catholic Social Thought: Essays on Rerum Novarum and Nine Other Key Documents, edited by George Weigel and Robert Royal, 27-43. Washington, D.C.: Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1991.
• Review of Reshaping the U.S. Left: Popular Struggles in the 1980's, edited by Mike Davis and Michael Sprinker. Journal of Labor Research 12 (Spring 1991): 201-203.
• "Setting the Conditions for Self-Rule: Unions, Associations, Our First Amendment Discourse and the problem of DeBartolo." Wisconsin Law Review 1 (1990): 149-211.
• "In Praise of Unions: Collective Bargaining Does Promote the Common Good." Crisis: A Journal of Lay Catholic Opinion 7, no. 9 (October 1989): 35-38.
• Commentary on "The Regulation of Union Economic Power," by Walter E. Oberer. In American Labor Policy: A Critical Appraisal of the National Labor Relations Act, edited by Charles J. Morris, 318-334. Washington, D.C.: BNA Books, 1987.
• "Models of Worker Participation: The Uncertain Significance of Section 8(a)(2)." Boston College Law Review 27 (May 1986): 499-551.
• With Julius G. Getman. "The Common Law, Labor Law, and Reality: A Response to Professor Epstein." Yale Law Journal 92 (July 1983): 1415-1434.
• "Forum: Distinctions without Differences: Effects Bargaining in Light of First National Maintenance." Industrial Relations Law Journal 5 (1983): 402-425.
• With Julius G. Getman. "Mécanismes de Participation des Travailleurs aux Etats-Unis." Journées de la Societé de Legislation Comparée, 1983, 55-102.
• "Casenote: Employment Discrimination - Title VII - Unlawful to Use Conviction Records as an Absolute Bar to Employment." Wayne Law Review 22 (July 1976): 1251-1262.