Vincent D. Rougeau became Dean of Boston College Law School on July 1, 2011. He previously served as a professor of law at Notre Dame, and served as their Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 1999-2002. He received his A.B. magna cum laude from Brown University in 1985, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1988, where he served as articles editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal. An expert in Catholic social thought, Dean Rougeau’s most recent book, Christians in the American Empire: Faith and Citizenship in the New World Order, was released in 2008 by Oxford University Press. Using Catholic social teaching and its secular philosophical antecedents as his point of departure, Dean Rougeau explores how key assumptions underlying Catholic thinking diverge from many of the ideas animating American law and public policy in areas like poverty relief, immigration, and redress for racial discrimination. He also develops an understanding of Christianity as a natural partner for international human rights and a foundation for a legal cosmopolitanism that transcends nation-state boundaries.
Catholic Social Thought
Just Contracts and Catholic Social Teaching: A Perspective from American Law, The True Wealth of Nations (2010)
Reforming the Legal Profession through Faith-Based Service Learning for Law Students: Notre Dame's 'Just Communities' Project, Journal of College and Character (2009)
Major curricular reform is long overdue at many American law schools, and the current economic...
Catholic Social Teaching and Global Migration: Bridging the Paradox of Universal Human Rights and Territorial Self-Determination, Seattle University Law Review (2009)
In this essay, I will consider how law, religion, and democratic pluralism revolve around a...
Christians in the American Empire: Faith and Citizenship in the New World Order (2008)
What does it mean to be a Christian citizen of the United States today? This...
Consumer Protection
The Community Reinvestment Act: Questionable Premises and Perverse Incentives (with Keith N. Hylton), Annual Review of Banking Law (1999)
Having just passed the twentieth anniversary of the enactment of the Community Reinvestment Act ("CRA"...
Rediscovering Usury: An Argument for Legal Controls on Credit Card Interest Rates., University of Colorado Law Review (1996)
Civil Law
No Bonds but Those Freely Chosen: An Obituary for the Principle of Forced Heirship in American Law, Civil Law Commentaries (2008)
This article explains the history of forced heirship in Louisiana and describes the negative implications...
Social Welfare
Enter the Poor: American Welfare Reform, Solidarity and the Capability of Human Flourishing, Transforming Unjust Structures: The Capability Approach (2006)
Delivered Papers, Periodicals, Book Reviews
Quality of Life: A Review of Martha Nussbaum's Creating Capabilities (2011)
When societal progress is viewed primarily in terms of the overall increase in economic wealth,...
Soulful Pray-er: A Review of Charlene Smith and John Feister's Thea's Song: The Life of Thea Bowman (2010)
Works in Progress
Steven Shiffin: The Religious Left and Church-State Relations, Journal of Law, Philosophy, and Culture, Vol. IV, No.1 (2011)
Forthcoming in the Journal of Law, Philosophy, and Culture, Vol. IV, No. 1