Prof. Ronald J. Rychlak

Professor Ronald J. Rychlak is the Jamie L. Whitten Chair of Law and Government and Professor of Law. He has been on the faculty since 1987. He currently serves as the university’s Faculty Athletic Representative, and he is the former Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. He is a graduate of Wabash College (BA, cum laude) and Vanderbilt University (JD, Order of the Coif). Prior to joining the faculty, Prof. Rychlak practiced law with Jenner & Block in Chicago, and he served as a clerk to Hon. Harry W. Wellford of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Prof. Rychlak is an advisor to the Holy See’s delegation to the United Nations and a member of the Mississippi Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. He is on the committee appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court to revise the state’s criminal code, and he serves on the editorial board of The Gaming Law Review. He is also on Advisory Boards for the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Ave Maria School of Law, and the International Solidarity and Human Rights Institute. In 2006 the Society of Catholic Social Scientists awarded him the Blessed Frederic Ozanam Award for Social Action, and in 2007 he was an honoree at the U.S. Holocaust Museum for his work with on inter-faith dialogue.

Prof. Rychlak is the author or co-author of eight  books, including Real and Demonstrative Evidence: Applications and Theory (3rd ed., 2012). Lawyers Weekly USA called it a “very valuable resource for lawyers looking to stay on top of their changing world.” The Weekly Standard called his book, Hitler, the War, and the Pope(2nd ed., 2010), “the best and most careful of the recent works [on the church during World War II], an elegant tome of serious, critical scholarship.” His book Disinformation (WND Books, 2013) is co-authored with the highest ranking Soviet Bloc intelligence officer ever to defect. Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey called it a “remarkable book [that] will change the way you look at intelligence, foreign affairs, the press, and much else.” His latest book, The Persecution and Genocide of Christians in the Middle East: Prevention, Prohibition, & Prosecution was released in June 2017.

Prof. Rychlak has also contributed chapters to several books and entries to several encyclopedias. He has been published in the Mississippi Law Journal, UCLA Law Review, Boston College Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, The Stanford Environmental Law Journal, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other periodicals and journals.

J.D., Order of the Coif, Vanderbilt University School of Law, 1983
B.A. (Economics), Wabash College , 1980