Michael J. Perry specializes in three areas: (1) United States constitutional law and theory, with an emphasis on constitutional rights and on the courts' proper role--especially SCOTUS's proper role--in protecting constitutional rights; (2) law, morality, and religion, with an emphasis on the proper role of religiously based morality in the lasw and politics of liberal democracy; and (3) human rights theory, with an emphasis on the morality and law of international human rights. Perry is the author of twelve books and over seventy-five articles and essays. His books include Love and Power: The Role of Religion and Morality in American Politics (Oxford, 1991), The Idea of Human Rights (Oxford, 1998), We the People: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Supreme Court (Cambridge, 2003), Toward a Theory of Human Rights: Religion, Law, Courts (Cambridge, 2007); Constitutional Rights, Moral Controversy, and the Supreme Court (Cambridge 2009); and The Political Morality of Liberal Democracy (Cambridge 2010). Perry is presently writing two books: one on the morality and law of international human rights, the other on the "constitutional morality" of the United States of America. Since 2003, Perry has held a Robert W. Woodruff Chair at Emory University, where he teaches in the law school. A Woodruff Chair is the highest academic honor Emory bestows on its faculty. Before coming to Emory, Perry was the inaugural occupant of the Howard J. Trienens Chair in Law at Northwestern University (1990-1997), where he taught for fifteen years (1982-97). He then held the University Distinguished Chair in Law at Wake Forest University, where he taught for six years (1997-2003). Perry began his teaching career at the Ohio State University College of Law (1075-82) and has taught as a visiting professor at several law schools, including Yale (1978-79), Tulane (1987), New York Law School (1990), the University of Tokyo (1991), the University of Alabama (2005), and the University of Western Ontario, Canada (2009). During the 2009-10, 2010-11, and 2011-12 academic years, Perry is splitting his time between Emory University and the University of San Diego, where, as the University Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law and Peace Studies, during fall semesters, he teaches a course on the morality and law of international human rights both to law students and graduate students at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies. Perry was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. He did his undergraduate work at Georgetown University, where he majored in philosophy and minored in religion (A.B. 1968), and studied law at Columbia University (J.D. 1973). He served as law clerk to U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein (1973-74) and, a year later, to U.S. Circuit Judge Shirley M. Hufstedler (1974-75). In 1999, Perry was awarded an LL.D. (honoris causa) by St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota. Perry is married to Sarah Anne O'Leary, a public health specialist with the U.S. Centers for Disease (CDC) in Atlanta. Michael and Sarah have two sons: Daniel (b. 1989) and Gabriel (b. 1991).
Publications relating to human rights: Perry, Michael J. 2006. Toward a Theory of Human Rights: Religion, Law, Courts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Perry, Michael J. 1998. The Idea of Human Rights: Four Inquiries. New York: Oxford University Press. Perry, Michael J. (forthcoming). The Morality of Law and International Human Rights. Routledge. |
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