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Michael J. Perry Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law constitutional law, law and religion, law and morality, and human rights
Michael J. Perry is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law, the highest honor Emory can bestow on a faculty member. Perry, one of the nation's leading authorities on the relationship of morality to law, comes to Emory from Wake Forest University, where he held the University Distinguished Chair in Law. Perry's work has focused on three areas: American constitutional law, the proper role of religiously grounded morality in American law and politics, and the morality of human rights. The author of nine books, published by Oxford, Cambridge and Yale university presses, Perry has written on a broad range of the most contentious issues of American law and politics. He first came to national attention in American legal circles with his 1982 book, "The Constitution, the Courts and Human Rights: An Inquiry into the Legitimacy of Constitutional Policymaking by the Judiciary." Perry's ideas on constitutional interpretation and his defense of judicial activism by the courts were often cited by those opposed to President Ronald Reagan's ultimately failed nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court. Perry's exploration of judicial activism led him to turn his attention to moral philosophy and its relation to law. He explored this theme in "Morality, Politics and Law" (1988), while "Love and Power" (1991) addressed the relationship between religion, law and public discourse, which he continued in "Religion in Politics: Constitutional and Moral Perspectives" (1997). In "We the People: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Supreme Court" (1999), Perry examined whether the court has usurped the political process on issues ranging from affirmative action to homosexuality and abortion. In "The Idea of Human Rights" (1998), he asked whether there are fundamental human rights that are universal and criticizes several versions of so-called "moral relativism." His forthcoming book, "Under God? Religious Faith and Liberal Democracy," argues that political reliance on religious faith violates neither the Constitution's establishment clause nor the morality of liberal democracy. The book also addresses three issues at the center of American public life: school vouchers, same-sex marriage and abortion. Prior to joining the law faculty at Wake Forest, Perry was the Howard J. Trienens Professor of Law at Northwestern University from 1990-1997. He also has taught as a visiting professor and guest scholar at Yale Law School, the University of Tokyo School of Law, and at Trinity College (Dublin) School of Law. Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law. AB, Georgetown, 1968; JD, Columbia, 1973; LLD (honoris causa), St. John's University (Minnesota), 1999. |
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