BACKGROUND

Vincent D. Rougeau became Dean of Boston College Law School on July 1, 2011. He previously served as a professor of law at Notre Dame, and served as their Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 1999-2002. He received his A.B. magna cum laude from Brown University in 1985, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1988, where he served as articles editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal.

An expert in Catholic social thought, Dean Rougeau’s most recent book, Christians in the American Empire: Faith and Citizenship in the New World Order, was released in 2008 by Oxford University Press. Using Catholic social teaching and its secular philosophical antecedents as his point of departure, Dean Rougeau explores how key assumptions underlying Catholic thinking diverge from many of the ideas animating American law and public policy in areas like poverty relief, immigration, and redress for racial discrimination. He also develops an understanding of Christianity as a natural partner for international human rights and a foundation for a legal cosmopolitanism that transcends nation-state boundaries.

His current research and writing consider the relationship between religious identity and notions of democratic citizenship and membership in an increasingly mobile global order, one that is marked in certain regions by high levels of economic inequality and political instability. He is currently the leader of a research group on global migration and cosmopolitanism as part of the Contending Modernities project sponsored by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame. Over the next two to three years, the group will sponsor an international conference and publish a book.

Dean Rougeau’s teaching interests are in contract and real estate law, as well as in law and religion. He has taught first year contracts, real estate transactions, and seminars in Catholic social teaching and immigration and multiculturalism. He is a member of the bar in Maryland and the District of Columbia. Before entering the academy, he practiced law at the Washington, DC office of Morrison & Foerster from 1988-1991.

Prior to his arrival at Boston College, Dean Rougeau was a Senior Fellow at the Contextual Theology Center (“CTC”) in London and co-founded an effort called “Just Communities: Christian Witness in a Pluralist Society.” Just Communities was a partnership among Notre Dame, the CTC, and Magdalen College, Oxford University that explored the role of religious communities in community organizing and the formation of democratic citizens in the multi-cultural neighborhoods of East London. He also served as the director of the Notre Dame Law School’s Center for Law and Government and supervised the Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy while a member of the faculty.

Dean Rougeau blogs regularly for Contending Modernities.

EDUCATION
A.B., Brown University; J.D., Harvard University.

RECENT ACTIVITIES

Works in Progress:

"Steven Shiffin: The Religious Left and Church-State Relations," Journal of Law, Philosophy, and Culture, Vol. IV, No. 1 (forthcoming).

Appointments and Honors:
Elected to the American Law Institute in 2011.

Other:
Book Review, Martha Nussbaum's Creating Capabilities, America Magazine, May 2011.


COURSES

Fall '11: No courses taught
Spring '12: No courses taught

PUBLICATIONS

“David Hollenbach, S.J., The Common Good and Christian Ethics.” Journal of Christian Legal Thought 1, no.1 (Spring 2011): 33.

“Just Contracts and Catholic Social Teaching: A Perspective from American Law,” in The True Wealth of Nations, edited by Daniel K. Finn, 118-141. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. 

“Reforming the Legal Profession through Faith-Based Service Learning for Law Students: Notre Dame’s ‘Just Communities’ Project.” Journal of College and Character 10, no.7 (November 2009). 

“Catholic Social Teaching and Global Migration: Bridging the Paradox of Universal Human Rights and Territorial Self-Determination.” Seattle University Law Review 32, no.2 (Winter 2009): 343-360. 

“No Bonds but Those Freely Chosen: An Obituary for the Principle of Forced Heirship in American Law.” Civil Law Commentaries 1, no.3 (Winter 2008). 

Christians in the American Empire: Faith and Citizenship in the New World Order, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. 

“Catholic Social Thought and the New Urbanism -- A Shared Vision to Confront the Problem of Urban Sprawl?” in Recovering Self-Evident Truths: Catholic Perspectives on American Law, edited by Michael A. Scaperlanda and Theresa Stanton Collett, 205-219. Washington, DC: Catholic University Press, 2007. 

“Pilgrim Law: Overcoming False Consciousness through the Witness of London’s Economic Migrants.” Journal of Law and Religion 22, no.2 (2006-2007): 489-502. 

“Enter the Poor: American Welfare Reform, Solidarity and the Capability of Human Flourishing,” in Transforming Unjust Structures: The Capability Approach, edited by Séverine Deneulin, Mathias Nebel, and Nicholas Sagovsky, 161-176. Dordrecht: Springer, 2006. 

Review of Peter H. Schuck’s Diversity in America: Keeping the Government at a Safe Distance. Journal of College and University Law 31, no.2 (2005): 471-480. 

“Justice, Community, and Solidarity: Rethinking Affirmative Action through the Lens of Catholic Social Thought.” Journal of Catholic Social Thought 1, no.2 (Summer 2004): 335-360. 

“A Crisis of Caring: A Catholic Critique of American Welfare Reform.” Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 27, no.1 (Fall 2003): 101-120. 

With Keith N. Hylton. “The Community Reinvestment Act: Questionable Premises and Perverse Incentives.” Annual Review of Banking Law 18 (1999): 163-196. 

“Rediscovering Usury: An Argument for Legal Controls on Credit Card Interest Rates.” University of Colorado Law Review 67, no.1 (1996): 1-46.

With Keith N. Hylton. “Lending Discrimination: Economic Theory, Econometric Evidence and the Community Reinvestment Act.” Georgetown Law Journal 85, no.2 (December 1996): 237-294.