Profile

John Lawrence Hill

R. Bruce Townsend Professor of Law
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy

Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law
Lawrence W. Inlow Hall, Room 301
530 W. New York Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3225

Phone: (317) 278-9036
Fax: (317) 278-7563
E-Mail: johnhill@iu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Education

B.A., 1982, M.A., 1985, Northern Illinois University
J.D., 1988, Ph.D., 1989, Georgetown University

Courses

Constitutional Law, Civil Procedure, Torts, Jurisprudence, Ethical and Legal Issues at the End of Life, Religion and the Constitution, Philosophical Foundations of Modern Liberalism and Conservatism, Philosophical Issues in the Criminal Law

Bio

Professor Hill holds a J.D. and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown University.  He teaches several classes in the first-year curriculum including Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law and Torts.  His upper-level courses include Jurisprudence, Ethical and Legal Issues at the End of Life, Religion and the Constitution and a seminar on progressivism and the Constitution.

 Professor Hill has written several books including The Prophet of Modern Constitutional Liberalism: John Stuart Mill and the Supreme Court (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and After the Natural Law: How the Classical Worldview Supports Our Modern Moral and Political Values (Ignatius Press, 2016.)  He is the faculty advisor for Law Students for Life, the Federalist Society and the Christian Legal Society. 

Publications

Books and Chapters

• The Prophet of Modern Constitutional Liberalism: John Stuart Mill and the Supreme Court (Cambridge University Press, 2020.)
• After the Natural Law: How the Classical Worldview Supports Our Modern Moral and Political Values (Ignatius Press, 2016, translated Nach dem Naturrecht (2018).
• The Political Centrist, Vanderbilt University Press, Fall, 2009.
• The Case for Vegetarianism (Rowman and Littlefield, 1996).
• In Defense of Surrogate Parenting Arrangements (UMI, 1991.)
• The Enlightened Society (Theosophical Publishing House, 1987).

Law Review and Journal Articles

• The Father of Modern Constitutional Liberalism, 27 William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal 431 (2018).
• Theism, Naturalism and Liberalism: John Stuart Mill and the “Final Inexplicability” of the Self, 39 Pepperdine Law Review 1401 (2013)(invited piece for Symposium on Law and Religion.)
• The Constitutional Status of Morals Legislation, 98 Kentucky Law Journal No. 1 (2009)
• The Five Faces of Liberty in American Political and Constitutional Thought, 45 Boston College Law Review 499-594 (2004).
• A Third Theory of Liberty: The Evolution of Our Conception of Freedom in American Constitutional Thought, 29 Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 115-184 (2002).
• A Theory of Merit, 1 Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy 15-75 (2002).
• A Utilitarian Theory of Duress, 84 Iowa Law Review 275-338 (1999).
• Moralized Theories of Coercion: A Critical Analysis, 74 Denver Law Review 907 (1997) (by invitation for a symposium on "Exploitation and Coercion")
• Law and the Concept of the Core Self: Toward a Reconciliation of Naturalism and Humanism, 80 Marquette Law Review 289-390 (1997).
• Mill, Freud, and Skinner: The Concept of the Self and the Moral Psychology of Liberty, 26 Seton Hall Law Review 92-182 (1995).
• Exploitation, 79 Cornell Law Review 631-699 (1994).
• What Does it Mean to be a Parent?: The Claims of Biology as the Basis for Parental Rights, 66 New York University Law Review 353-420 (1991) (quoted and analysis adopted by the Supreme Court of California in Johnson v. Calvert, 851 P. 2d 776, 781-82 (Cal. 1993)).
• Note, Freedom, Determinism and the Externalization of Responsibility in the Law: A Philosophical Analysis, 76 Georgetown Law Journal 2045-2073 (1988).
• Chapter: "The Zone of Privacy and the Right to Use Drugs," in Drug Legalization: For and Against (Evans and Berent eds. 1992.)"