University of St. Thomas

J.D., with high honors, Emory Law School

M.Div., Candler School of Theology, Emory University

B.A., summa cum laude, Abilene Christian University

Professor Nichols' Curriculum Vitae

Joel Nichols is Associate Professor of Law at the University of St. Thomas (Minneapolis) and a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. His expertise centers upon the relationship of theology and religion to constitutional law, human rights, family law, and legal history. He recently convened a project of nineteen leading scholars from the U.S., Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom to consider the future of marriage and divorce jurisdiction. That project will culminate in a major anthology in 2010 to be published by Cambridge University Press, titled Marriage and Divorce in a Multi-Cultural Society: Multi-Tiered Marriage and the Boundaries of Civil Law and Religion. Professor Nichols is also a co-author (with John Witte, Jr., Emory Law School) of Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment, 3d ed. (Westview, 2010). He has also written a dozen articles, which have appeared in NYU Law Review, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Journal of Law and Religion, and others. His current research involves the engagement of evangelical Christians in human rights.

Professor Nichols is a graduate of Emory University’s Law and Religion Program, where he was a Robert W. Woodruff Fellow in Law and a participant in the M.Div. Honors Program. At graduation, he was awarded Order of the Coif at the law school and the Award for Academic Excellence at the theology school. He subsequently served as a law clerk for Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Jacksonville, Florida and then practiced complex civil litigation in Washington, D.C. at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale).

Professor Nichols previously taught at Pepperdine Law School, where he was Assistant Professor from 2003-2006, and Associate Professor and Rick J. Caruso Research Fellow in Law in 2006-2007. He has served on the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Family and Juvenile Law and the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Law and Religion, and he serves as a reviewer for the Journal of Law and Religion and Aspen Publishers.

Professor Nichols is also heavily invested in human rights, especially through Viva North America. (Viva is a Christian international human rights organization headquartered in Oxford, England, with regional centers in South America, India, Asia, and Africa; Viva is passionately concerned about providing care to vulnerable children world-wide.) He serves as Secretary of the Board of Directors for Viva North America; assists the International Center in Oxford with organizational strategic planning (for both program and governance); and has provided human rights and leadership training to Viva’s partners in Nairobi, Kenya.

Professor Nichols coordinates the faculty colloquia series for the School of Law and serves as the faculty advisor to student organizations including International Justice Mission and Collaborative Law Society. He will be teaching Contracts, Family Law, and Religious Liberty in 2009-2010.

Representative Scholarship　

Courses Taught

Contracts

Family Law

Religious Liberty

Mailing Address

MSL 400

1000 LaSalle Avenue

Minneapolis, Minnesota 55403-2015