CUA Cover Winter 2005 final (Page 2) - Columbus School of Law

I N N O V A T I O N I N L E G A L E D U C A T I O NNot RequiredBy Tom HaederleThe Center for Law, Philosophyand CultureCurrent lectures with such titles as “God in an EvolutionaryWorld,” “Orestes Brownson’s The American Republic: A EuropeanPoint of View,” or “On the Question of Nomos, Prayer, andLove: An Anti-Antinomean Approach” might sound like an elegantevening lecture series sponsored by the Smithsonian.This nourishing intellectual buffet, however, is regular fareat Catholic University’s law school, whose students are treated tothese and similar programs at least once each semester.Under its director, Professor William J. Wagner, the Centerfor Law, Philosophy and Culture “exists to promote inquiry intothe role of law in relation to culture and culture’s orientation tothe human good.” In theoretical terms, the speakers and programsoffered by the center aim to contribute to the academicfields of jurisprudence, the philosophy of law and Christian politicaland social ethics. At the same time, the initiative seeks to fosterthe renewal and transformation of contemporary culturethrough law and law reform. The center has sponsored symposiaand conferences on such topics as the death penalty, stem cellresearch, American exceptionalism and the role of religion indemocratic debate.The work begins, in the view of Professor Wagner, with theunderstanding that the laws of any society can be interpreted ascultural phenomena. Church teaching asserts that by studyingthe cultural form of laws and legal institutions, one learns moreabout a culture’s relation to basic human values. Further, by critiquingculture in relation to those values, one can contribute toits renewal and transformation. In pursuit of its goals, the centercoordinates academic conversation between legal scholars andscholars in such adjunct disciplines as philosophy, theology, history,literature, the arts and politics. Originally the theoreticalbranch of the law school’s 25-year-old Law and ReligionProgram, the Center for Law, Philosophy and Culture wasalready clearing its own intellectual path long before it wasformally recognized in 2002 and received its separate standingThe student executive board for the Journal of Law, Philosophyand Culture at the reception honoring its inaugural issue. L-R:Emily Khoury, executive editor; Andrew Wichmann, book revieweditor; Professor William Wagner, faculty editor; Adam Weaver,editor-in-chief; and Michael Pepson, managing editor.and status as a university-level center of excellence in 2005. As farback as 1999, Professor Wagner was demonstrating his professionaland academic interest in such topics as “Death, Dying andBurial: Approaches in Rabbinical and Canonical Law andPractice,” and “The Value of Free Speech and its ReasonedLimits in the Constitutional Systems of the United States ofAmerica and the Federal Republic of Germany.”Today, the Center for Law, Philosophy and Culture is a recognizedcenter of excellence by The Catholic University ofAmerica. In 2007, it launched the Journal of Law, Philosophy andCulture, a publication that, in the words of faculty editor Wagner,“is premised on the idea that the study of law and legal institutionscan reveal underlying truths about human nature and conduct,and contribute to the transformation and renewal of bothlaw and culture.” The inaugural issue published works fromsome of the nation’s best-known scholars in jurisprudence,Fall–Winter 2007 / C UALAWYER 23