Faculty & Administration View All
Vincent D. Rougeau
Associate Professor of Law
Office Number: 3116 Eck Hall of Law
Telephone: 574.631.8610
Fax: 574.631.4197
Email: Vincent.D.Rougeau.1@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Gloria Krull
Vincent D. Rougeau joined the Notre Dame Law School faculty as a visiting associate professor in 1997 and became a tenured associate professor in 1998, after teaching as both assistant and associate professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. He served as 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.
Prof. Rougeau’s most recent work explores the role of religion in the law and public policy of pluralist, democratic societies. His book, Christians in the American Empire: Faith and Citizenship in the New World Order, was released in 2008 by Oxford University Press, and in it he argues that orthodox Christianity, properly understood in its intellectual and historical context, is much more supportive than is generally understood of many of the political and legal ideas championed by “progressives” in American politics. Using Catholic social teaching and its secular philosophical antecedents as his point of departure, Prof. 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 transcend nation-state boundaries.
His current research and writing consider the relationship between religious identity and notions of democratic citizenship and membership in an increasingly mobile global order, one that is marked in certain regions by high levels of economic inequality and political instability. During the 2008-2009 academic year, Prof. Rougeau began work on a second manuscript as a Senior Fellow of the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago in which he hopes to explore the intersections between cosmopolitan philosophy and Catholic social teaching as a way to reconsider the role of religion in multi-faith, pluralist democracies. His Senior Fellow’s Symposium at the Marty Center, “Religious Citizens, Pluralist Democracy, and Legal Cosmopolitanism,” was delivered on February 26, 2009.
Professor Rougeau’s teaching interests are in contract and real estate law, as well as in law and religion. He teaches first year contracts, real estate transactions, and seminars in Catholic social teaching and immigration and multiculturalism. He is a member of the bar in Maryland and the District of Columbia. Before entering the academy, he practiced law at the Washington, DC office of Morrison & Foerster from 1988-1991.
Professor Rougeau is a Senior Fellow at the Contextual Theology Center (“CTC”) in London and co-founded an effort called “Just Communities: Christian Witness in a Pluralist Society.” Just Communities is a partnership among Notre Dame, the CTC, and Magdalen College, Oxford University that explores the role of religious communities in community organizing and the formation of democratic citizens in the multi-cultural neighborhoods of East London. He is the director of the Notre Dame Law School’s Center for Law and Government and supervises the Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy.
During the 2009-2010 academic year, Prof. Rougeau will teach in the London Law Programme in the fall. He will be on sabbatical leave in the spring.
In the News
- ND law professors to discuss Catholic voting on life issues – ND Newswire – October 05, 2008
- Featured Faculty – NDLS Home Page – April 7, 2008
- 3 faculty members to speak at Vatican conference – ND Newswire – September 09, 2001
- May 23, 2000 – Newswire Release – ND Newswire – May 23, 2000
- May 16, 2000 – Newswire Release – ND Newswire – May 16, 2000
LAW60105, Contracts
LAW70111, Real Estate Transactions
LAW70835, Catholic Social Thought
LAW75741, Journal of Law, Ethics, and Pub. Policy
London: Terrorism, Immigration & Multiculturalism
Faculty Expertise Areas
- Banking law
- Contracts
- Real estate law/development
Working Papers
EMPIRE OF PERSONAL DESIRE: AMERICAN LAW AND THE DESTRUCTION OF COMMUNAL FORMS OF MEANING
CATHOLIC SOCIAL THOUGHT AND THE NEW URBANISM: A SHARED VISION TO CONFRONT THE PROBLEM OF URBAN SPRAWL?
JUSTICE, COMMUNITY AND SOLIDARITY: RETHINKING AFFIRMATIVE ACTION THROUGH THE LENS OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL THOUGHT
Articles
Pilgrim Law: Overcoming False Consciousness through the Witness of London’s Economic Migrants, 22 Journal of Law and Religion 489-501 (2007).
A CRISIS OF CARING: A CATHOLIC CRITIQUE OF AMERICAN WELFARE REFORM , 27 Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy 100 (2003).
The Community Reinvestment Act: Questionable Premises and Perverse Incentives, 18 The Annual Review of Banking Law 163 (1999).
Rediscovering Usury: An Argument for Legal Controls on Credit Card Interest Rates, 67 University of Colorado Law Review 1 (1996).
Lending Discrimination: Economic Theory, Econometric Evidence and the Community Reinvestment Act, 85 Georgetown Law Journal 237 (1996).
Society’s Ill-Fated Trade-Off, The New York Times (Viewpoint), 3 September 1995, sec. 3, p. 11.
Books
Christians in the American Empire Faith and Citizenship in the New World Order (Oxford University Press, 2008).
