Invitation to June meeting of Conference on Catholic Legal Thought

Following up on our meeting last summer at Fordham, the Conference on Catholic Legal Thought will be meeting again on June 13, 14, and 15 at UST Law in Minneapolis.  We'll begin with a day of introduction to basics of Catholic social teachings, and then continue with two days of more in-depth workshops on the following topics:

• Corporations.  An examination of one of the most significant liturgical/doctrinal events in Catholic social teaching in the 20^th century -- the institution of the Feast of Christ the King and the encyclical establishing it - Quas Primas.  This encyclical provides the clear teaching and liturgical expression of the primary principle that Christ is the king of every person, family, society, corporation, partnership, city, state and country, which has significant ramifications for how to approach every area of law.  Case Study:  An ecumenical examination of how the teachings of Quas Primas relate to the ordering of the business world from both Catholic and Protestant perspectives.

• Feminism/Life Issues.  A roundtable discussion on the tensions between resort to arguments based on emerging scientific knowledge and resort to arguments based on theological principles, in developing CLT in some currently contested areas.  Topics under consideration include assisted reproduction, stem cell research, contraception, and the theology of the body.

• Legal Theory.  A discussion on the challenges that modern legal theories pose to traditional modes of conceptualizing law, such as natural law theories. The discussion proceeds from within political theology, which seeks to evaluate the particular forms of imagery embedded in political discourse (which includes legal theory) against Christian doctrines such as Trinity, Church and eschatology. The focus here will be on why and how modern legal theories offer an alternative to traditional Catholic understanding of law.

• Constitution/Public Life.  A book in progress, tentatively titled To Bind Up the Nation’s Wounds: Rekindling the Spirit of Our Living Constitution, will be the subject of a workshop.  CLT either overtly or covertly will provide the underlying structure for the book.

The conference is free, and, thanks to Our Sunday Visitor Foundation, we even have some limited funds available to cover travel expenses for those who would otherwise not be able to attend.  More details and registration forms are available here.  I'll post more details in a few weeks, when the speakers and the schedule are finalized.