The biggest irony of it all is that Ave Maria grads become like the rest of us lawyers: hung up on nuance and occasionally doing good works. I suspect that in a few years people will even forget that it is Catholic, and only one or two professors will concentrate on Catholic theology, and this large army of anti-abortion lawyers won’t materialize.

Of course, the idea of a Catholic law school is nothing new, and there are many, much older law schools at Catholic universities. In a few years AM will probably look like them.

LArry, at 8:47 am EDT on July 8, 2005

Can you tell me why this is so. You basically just denied what I said, but you really didn’t tell me why.

Look, I went to a school with “Catholic origins.” I am not Catholic. There were priests on the faculty, and priests at the parent institution. If you wanted, you could take courses in catholic theology or canon law. I didn’t. (I think a couple grads became priests afterwards.)

Alumni and faculty have argued on both sides of the abortion debate and death penalty debate.

So what is the difference?

I have to admit that I am not too familiar with Canon law, but I don’t think that real Catholic law takes too much of a position on, say, IAC, or the scope of the 4th. But, perhaps you could tell me how say, a Fed. Cts. class differs (if at all) at your school.

Larry, at 12:06 pm EDT on July 8, 2005

The current generation of faculty and administrators at Ave Maria School of Law are dedicated to providing for an education that is technically superior and at the same time gives more than lip service to Catholic social teaching. This is a good. The fact that Ave Maria may eventually go the way of other Catholic schools is hardly a remarkable observation. It certainly doesn’t discredit the institution today.

As far as creating an ‘army of anti-abortion lawyers’, this isn’t Ave Maria’s goal; nor should it be. Simply placing thougtful, Catholic lawyers into the work-force where they’ll discuss, say, the ’scope of the 4th’ should suffice.

JG

JG, at 6:50 am EDT on July 11, 2005

What is Catholic about Ave Maria...

Well, to start off, I am a current 2L at Ave Maria School of Law, and I am not Catholic. I decided to attend Ave Maria because I want to learn how to be an ethical lawyer, not just some quick ethical answers, but the full understanding of what it means to be ethical.

Each class includes a large portion of reading from great Catholic scholars on topics related to the course’s objectives. For instance, in Contracts, we studied the essence of truth, and what it means to lie.

Now the catholic definition, championed by Thomas Acquinas, is quite different from what I was once accustomed to. Acquinas believed that a lie was deception in your heart. Meaning: if you try to decieve, you are lying, regardless of whether you say the empirically correct/truthful statement.

This has a profound effect on the way I operate. For instance, I no longer only evaluate the empirical truth of something I say, but additionally consider whether I am trying to deceive my audience. I believe that this truly makes a diference.

In contracts, the intention of the parties governs the content of the contract. A lawyer with a good understanding of truth can point to the constraints that encapsulate the meaning of a contract, by way of the truth. The clues that lead a good lawyer to interpretting and arguing for an interpretation of a contract in court may be difficult to see. So, what you are tuned into, may govern what you find. Thus good morals, and a good moral compass are essential.

In the end law is based on morals. Would you rather your interpreted contract be based on the empirical truth, or the truth of the heart.

Definitions:

Truth of the Heart: That state of the human heart, mind, and soul, which equals the actions and language of the actor.

Empirical Truth: That state of the world, which equals the actions and language of the actor.

The difference here is that the actor can account more accurately for the state of his own heart, mind, and soul, than he can for the state of the world.

This is obvious to me. By concentrating the meaning of the contract on a truth, which can be determined, and which has true meaning to the parties of the contract, the contract becomes more a vessel of truth in fair dealings than a vessel for interpretation of what the meanings of the labels we put on the world are.

Brian P. Johnson, Student at Ave Maria School of law, at 8:40 am EDT on July 24, 2005

Ave Maria

Ave Maria is the best thing ever that happened to law school education.

Stanislaus Pulle, Dean at SoCAInstitute of Law@ Santa Barbara, at 4:10 am EST on March 24, 2006