On Tuesday, March 18th, CIT Director J. Joel Alicea was officially installed as the inaugural St. Robert Bellarmine Chair at the Columbus School of Law. The day began with Prof. Alicea delivering his Chair Lecture, Constitutional Theory at a Catholic University, to an audience of students, faculty, and members of the public.
His friend and former CIT Co-Director Prof. Kevin Walsh introduced him, concluding that, “this inaugural lecture for the St. Robert Bellarmine Professor of Law at the Catholic University of America is a beginning of sorts, but it is fundamentally the continuation of an upward trajectory for Professor Alicea and the Columbus School of Law.”
In his lecture, Prof. Alicea explored three fundamental questions relating to the study of constitutional theory at a Catholic University:
- In what ways does constitutional theory benefit from the intellectual disposition of a Catholic university?
- What might be the potential drawbacks or risks involved in studying constitutional theory at a Catholic university?
- How can one gain the benefits of engaging in constitutional theory at a Catholic university while avoiding any potential risks that attend that setting?
Read the text of Prof. Alicea’s lecture or watch the full video below or on CIT’s YouTube.
Following the lecture, a Mass marking the installation was celebrated in the St. Vincent de Paul Chapel here on Catholic University’s campus. And in the evening, the installment ceremony and a private dinner were held at Heritage Hall. You can watch the ceremony below, featuring remarks from Catholic Law Dean Stephen C. Payne, Prof. Alicea, Catholic University’s Provost Aaron Dominquez and President Peter Kilpatrick, and Leonard Leo.