ONU Law is pleased to announce that Professor Bruce Frohnen has been appointed to the Ella A. & Ernest H. Fisher Chair in Law.
Established in 1984 through the estate of Ella A. and Ernest H. Fisher, this distinguished chair represents one of the highest honors at the College of Law. It is awarded by faculty colleagues in recognition of sustained excellence in scholarship and teaching, as well as meaningful contributions to the academic community.
Professor Frohnen’s appointment reflects the respect of his peers and acknowledges his significant achievements in both the classroom and in his scholarly work. This recognition is well deserved.
As part of his work as Chair, Professor Frohnen will begin work on a new book, The Character of Politics and the Politics of Character. In this project, he will explore the development of political and legal thought from classical to modern perspectives, with a focus on the concept of virtue as understood in the Western tradition. His research will consider how virtue is formed, what it means for individual freedom, and the extent to which government can or should play a role in cultivating moral character. At a time when our constitutional structures are under constant attack as illegitimate and there is increasing disagreement about what constitutes a good person, his work will also examine whether enduring traditions, and law in particular, can inform contemporary debates about ethics, citizenship, and public life.
Professor Frohnen joined the ONU faculty in 2008. Previously, he served as Legislative Aide to a United States Senator, Visiting Scholar at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Secretary and Director of Program at the Earhart Foundation.
He publishes extensively in the areas of public law and constitutionalism. He has authored or co-authored five books, including Constitutional Morality and the Rise of Quasi-Law (Harvard University Press, 2016, with George W. Carey). He has edited or co-edited eight books, two of which were named “Outstanding Academic Titles” by Choice, the journal of the Association of University and Research Libraries, and one of which, American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia, was the subject of a front-page article in "The New York Times." He has published several hundred articles, essays, chapters and reviews in journals including the “George Washington Law Review,” and “Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy”. He has served as Charles Evans Hughes Visiting Professor of Jurisprudence at Colgate University, and Thomas Bahnson and Anne Bassett Stanley Visiting Professor of Ethics and Integrity at the Virginia Military Institute. He has delivered lectures at the Alexander Hamilton Institute, Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy, and numerous other universities and institutes as well as debating scholars on legal and constitutional issues on university campuses nationwide.