The Center for Law and the Human Person presents its Inaugural Conference:

Rightly Ordered Law and the Flourishing of the Human Person


Tuesday, March 14, 2023

12:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law (Catholic Law) aims to achieve distinction in the Catholic intellectual tradition and to promote the dignity of each human person. That dignity is secured by respect for the inviolability of all human life, justice rooted in the common good, the recognition and protection of human rights as gifts of the Creator, care for the poor, the neglected, and the vulnerable, and the obligation of love for one another. The Center for Law and the Human Person serves as the Law School’s primary resource for considering how those core commitments should inform the study, teaching, and practice of law.

The Center for Law and the Human Person endeavors to gather an interdisciplinary community of students, scholars, and practitioners who aspire to explore law and the human person as ordered to virtue and supportive of each other in achieving that end. Our study involves inquiries into the nature of law, the human person, and the common good, all within the distinctive and rich Catholic intellectual tradition. Law is ultimately a light that comes from the Providence of God. Man, as the imago Dei, must receive that light and order his political and personal affairs by its illumination.

In furtherance of this mission, the Center’s inaugural conference, “Rightly Ordered Law and the Flourishing of the Human Person,” will convene leading Catholic law professors to engage this theme.

The conference is free and open to the public, but registration to attend the banquet has closed. 

Conference Schedule

  • 12:30 p.m. (Rev. William J. Byron S.J. Auditorium)
    Opening Remarks  
    Stephen C. Payne, Dean and Knights of Columbus Professor of Law, Catholic Law
    Elizabeth R. Kirk, Director of the Center for Law & the Human Person, Research Associate, and Lecturer, Catholic Law

  • 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. (Rev. William J. Byron S.J. Auditorium)
    Notes on a New Humanism in Legal Education
    Marc DeGirolami, Cary Fields Professor of Law Co-Director, Center for Law and Religion, St. John's University School of Law

  • 2:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. (Rev. William J. Byron S.J. Auditorium)
    It Is Expensive to End Slavery: The Need for Forced Labor Laws to Reflect the Value of Human Life
    Mary Graw Leary, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Professor of Law, Catholic Law

  • 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. (Rev. William J. Byron S.J. Auditorium)
    The Discordant Notions of Human Dignity Undermining the Aspirations of Disability Law
    Elizabeth Schiltz, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Herrick Professor of Law, Thomas J. Abood Research Scholar, University of St. Thomas

  • 5:10 p.m. (St. Vincent de Paul Chapel)
    Mass
    Rev. Aquinas Guilbeau, O.P., University Chaplain and Director of Campus Ministry, The Catholic University of America

  • 6:00 p.m. (Louise H. Keelty and James Keelty, Jr. Atrium)
    Reception, Banquet, and Keynote Lecture
    Anthropology: The Indispensable Tool for Grasping and Shaping Law
    Introduction by Dr. Peter Kilpatrick, President, The Catholic University of America
    Carter Snead, Professor of Law, Director, de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, Concurrent Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame

The conference is free and open to the public, but registration to attend the banquet has closed.