more on law reviews at Catholic law schools

This is a discussion of great personal interest because among other reasons I am one of the faculty advisors to our law review here at Ave Maria. I think law reviews at Catholic schools can make an enormous contribution, especially if they focus on the distinctive mission of the schools that support them. I think if the law reviews at Catholic law schools try to imitate their secular rivals that they will have wasted an opportunity to contribute to the scholarly debate on issues that are of particular concern to these schools and to the individual faculty members who teach at these schools.

Here is one example. In the mid-1990s, when the debate on same-sex marriage was heating up after events in Hawaii, a group of scholars (from places such as BYU, Catholic U, Creighton, and later Ave Maria) got together to try to ensure that the scholarly literature on the conflicts of laws issues reflected a diverse range of views. Prior to this time, most of the literature on the conflicts issues was very one-sided and not particularly well done. This literature was mainly written by activists who didn't know much about conflicts. There followed a series of law review conferences addressing these issues. Papers from these conferences have been published in the Creighton Law Review (twice, in volumes 32 and 38) and most recently in the Ave Maria Law Review (in volume 3:summer 2005). These law review issues have reflected a variety of views and I think the articles have been and will be cited as among the best articles on these topics. The two longest articles in the Ave Maria issue are by William Reppy from Duke and Lynn Wardle from BYU and they offer very different perspectives on the conflicts issues presented.  I think this effort has been very successful. The conferences and law review issues have been of high quality and have reflected a range of views on these topics. Due in large part to the distinctive missions of the schools involved and the people on their faculties, this effort has resulted in encouraging prominent conflicts scholars to think about and publish on the important issues at stake. The literature on the conflicts issues is far better and far more balanced than it was before this effort began.    

There is a lot more that could be said about this general topic but I will stop here at this point.   

Richard