FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP AND RESEARCH
Thomas Berg | JAMES L. OBERSTAR PROFESSOR OF LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY Thomas Berg focuses his scholarship on religious liberty and, secondarily, intellectual property. He is co-editor of the leading religious liberty casebook and has written books, numerous articles and numerous briefs in the Supreme Court and lower courts on the subject. Berg founded and directs St. Thomas Law’s Religious Liberty Appellate Clinic, one of the nation’s first and few legal clinics for religious liberty. Recently, his amicus briefs, written with Douglas Laycock of the University of Virginia, served as roadmaps for Supreme Court majority opinions in Tanzin v. Tanvir and Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission . He is a leading national advocate for LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections with substantial religious exemptions. He also has pioneered Christian and other religious analyses of intellectual property and social-justice issues.
state probate codes. His current research addresses the enforceability of contracts between couples regarding rights to preserved genetic material. Teresa Stanton Collett | PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR OF THE PROLIFE CENTER Teresa Stanton Collett’s scholarship regarding parental rights and abortion, as well as her article on fetal pain legislation, has resulted in nine invitations to testify before Congressional committees, as well as numerous state legislative committees. It has also led to requests for representation defending abortion- related laws by state attorneys general in Kansas, New Hampshire and Oklahoma, and consultations with several others. Collett was appointed by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in 2009 and Pope Francis in 2016 as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Family, largely based on her articles regarding the nature and legal definition of marriage. Her early writing on legal ethics in estate planning is regularly cited by scholars and the authors of the most widely used Wills and Trusts casebook. Mariana H.C. Gonstead | PROFESSOR, IDRR NETWORK EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND DEPUTY TO THE DEAN FOR INTERNATIONAL LEGAL STUDIES Mariana H.C. Gonstead’s scholarship impacts collective innovation through participation. Participation increases engagement and channels discontent. Participation is the key to unlock the power of the whole in our families, businesses and communities. She said that without participation, it is impossible to build a world in which each of us, as children of God, can develop our full potential. It is a tragedy if we die unable to contribute our unique, entrusted gifts. We are created uniquely for a reason, so either God has committed as many errors as persons have existed, or we don’t get it yet. To address this, Gonstead’s work conceptualizes methods to develop capacities to co-create, increase cultural understanding, and enhance systems for conflict management and shared decision-making to reach higher levels of unity. Mitchell Gordon | ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR Mitchell Gordon’s scholarship focuses on connections between written constitutionalism, history and human rights. He views the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence not as a collection of
Teresa Stanton Collett
Benjamin Carpenter | ASSISTANT PROFESSOR Benjamin Carpenter’s primary research has focused on the effect of assisted reproduction on trust and estate law and, specifically, the interests of children conceived after the death of a parent through cryopreservation. His first article provided the first 50-state survey on this topic and was referenced at oral argument by Justice Stephen Breyer. Carpenter’s articles on the topic have been cited by the Michigan Supreme Court and Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and recommendations from his articles have been adopted in the Uniform Probate Code and a number of
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