Santa Clara Law Professor Kenneth A. Manaster has been named the Presidential Professor of Ethics and the Common Good by SCU President Michael Engh, S.J. The Presidential Professorship is a three-year appointment that includes a stipend to support research during that period. In his letter to Professor Manaster announcing the appointment, Santa Clara President Engh wrote “You have distinguished yourself as a teaching scholar who fosters the highest ideals of a Catholic, Jesuit education. You embody the qualities that we seek: creative scholarship with teaching, collegiality and collaboration with faculty and students, and incorporation of intellectual foundations for ethics and justice.”
Kenneth Manaster, who earned his A.B. from Harvard University and his L.L.B from Harvard Law School, has worked in the area of environmental law and policy for four decades. He studied in Peru on a Fulbright Fellowship, served as a law clerk for Judge Bernard M. Decker of the U.S. District Court in Chicago, and was in private practice in Chicago. In 1969, he worked with Chicago attorney and (later Supreme Court Justice) John Paul Stevens on an investigation of corruption in the Illinois Supreme Court. Manaster later published a book about the case, Illinois Justice: The Scandal of 1969 and the Rise of John Paul Stevens (University of Chicago Press, 2001), which featured a foreword by Stevens.
In 1970, Manaster became assistant attorney general of Illinois, where he headed the Chicago office of the Environmental Control Division. He was a member of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Hearing Board from 1973 to 1990 and chaired the board from 1978 to 1989. He was also chair of the Public Advisory Committee to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s study of toxic pollutants in the Santa Clara Valley. He began teaching at Santa Clara in 1972. He is the author of many book chapters and law review articles as well as several books including Environmental Protection and Justice: Readings on the Practice and Purposes of Environmental Law (3rd ed. LexisNexis, 2007).
Manaster’s current research includes an article, to be published in the Pace University Environmental Law Review, that explores the responsibility and the ethics of environmental law practice in a variety of contexts. He is also working on a longer piece that explores the application of legal reasoning and decision making methods to help individual citizens understand public issues.
In addition, Manaster will be part of the Santa Clara University delegation to the October 2010 conference, “Sustainability and Environmental Justice on Jesuit Campuses.” Part of the annual Western Conversations series, the conference gathers delegations from Gonzaga University, Loyola Marymount University, Santa Clara University, Seattle University, Regis University, and the University of San Francisco to discuss the mission of Jesuit education and how faculty can contribute to and support that mission, as well as explore key questions regarding the schools’ identity in today’s changing culture.
“Professor Ken Manaster is an outstanding teacher and scholar,” said Santa Clara Law Dean Donald J. Polden. “His important research, teaching, and scholarship in the areas of environmental law and policy will materially assist Santa Clara University and the community in advancing sustainability and clean technology policies.”
For more information about Kenneth A. Manaster, visit his faculty page.
For more information on Western Conversations conferences, see:
www.scu.edu/ignatiancenter/events/conferences/westcon/
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Santa Clara University School of Law, founded in 1911 on the site of California’s oldest operating higher-education institution, is dedicated to educating lawyers who lead with a commitment to excellence, ethics, and social justice. One of the nation’s most diverse law schools, Santa Clara Law offers its 1,000 students an academically rigorous program, including graduate degrees in international law and intellectual property law; combined J.D./MBA and J.D./MSIS degrees; and certificates in intellectual property law, international law, and public interest and social justice law. Santa Clara Law is located in the world-class business center of Silicon Valley, and is distinguished nationally for its top-ranked program in intellectual property. For more information, see lawscuedustage.wpengine.com.
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Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California’s Silicon Valley, offers its more than 8,600 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, theology, and engineering, plus master’s and law degrees, and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master’s universities, California’s oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more information, see www.scu.edu.
