The Catholic University of America

Marin R. Scordato

Professor of Law

scordato@law.edu

Professor Scordato came to the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America in 2002, having previously been a faculty member at law schools in Los Angeles, Boston and Tallahassee, Florida.  He was most recently a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law.  He currently teaches courses on Tort Law, Advanced Torts and Agency Law, and has previously taught Corporations, Corporate Finance, Mass Media Law and Entertainment Law.
 
Professor Scordato was voted by the students at the law school as the Outstanding Professor of First Year Classes in 2008.  He was also named the Evening Division Professor of the Year in 2003 and again in 2005.  He has served as a member and the Chair of the Faculty Admissions and Recruitment Committee, the Chair of the University Academic Dishonesty Appeal Board, a member of the Faculty Budget Committee, and a member of the Academic Policy Committee. He is currently a member of the University Graduate Board and the University Committee on Appointments and Promotions.  He has also previously served as the Director of the Institute for Communications Law Studies.
 
Professor Scordato received his B.A. with a double major in philosophy and psychology from Haverford College, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.  Before starting his career as a law professor, he worked as an associate at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City.
 
Professor Scordato has published 11 law review articles and two book reviews, all in journals sponsored by a law school currently ranked in the top 100 by U.S. News and World Report.  Nine of these articles have appeared in journals sponsored by a law school currently ranked among the top 50 by U.S. News, and three of them have been published in journals sponsored by a law school currently ranked in the top 25.  Professor Scordato is also the co-author of a recently published casebook, teacher's manual and supplement on Theater Law, the first publication of its kind covering this area of the law.
 
In the course of his career as a law professor, Professor Scordato has been honored with awards for the quality of his teaching ten separate times at five different law schools.  He has in fact received a formal award for his teaching from every law school at which he has been a faculty member.  He received the student selected Professor of the Year award at the University of Maryland School of Law two years in a row, becoming the first visiting professor to receive that recognition.
 
Professor Scordato has been quoted in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and in other newspapers and on numerous radio and television stations.  He is licensed to practice law in Washington DC, New York, and Florida.
 

Publications 
 

Theater Law: Cases and Materials
(co-author)(Carolina Academic Press, 2004)
with accompanying Teacher's Manual and 2005 Supplement

Book Review: Prof. Brian Tamanaha's "Beyond the Formalist-Realist Divide: The Role of Politics in Judging" (Princeton Univ. Press 2011) in 46 University of Richmond Law Review 659 (2012).

Innocent Threats, Concealed Consent and the Necessary Presence of Strict Liability in Traditional Fault-Based Tort Law
37 Pepperdine Law Review 205-245 (2010)
 
Reflections on the Nature of Legal Scholarship in the Post-Realist Era
48 Santa Clara Law Review 353-440 (2008)
 
Understanding the Absence of a Duty to Reasonably Rescue in American Tort Law
82 Tulane Law Review 1447-1503 (2008)
 
The International Legal Environment for Serious Political Reporting has Fundamentally Changed:
Understanding the Revolutionary New Era of English Defamation Law
40 Connecticut Law Review 165-207 (2007)
 
Post-Realist Blues: Formalism, Instrumentalism and the Hybrid Nature of
Common Law Jurisprudence
7 Nevada Law Journal 263-300 (2007)
 
Evidentiary Surrogacy and Risk Allocation: Understanding Imputed Knowledge
and Notice in Modern Agency Law
10 Fordham Journal of Corporate and Financial Law 129-166 (2004)
 
Free Speech Rationales After September 11th: The First Amendment in
Post World Trade Center America
13 Stanford Law & Policy Review 185-203 (2002) (with Paula Monopoli),
republished in Swanson & Castle, First Amendment Law Handbook 2002-2003
 
Federal Preemption of State Tort Claims
35 U.C. Davis Law Review 1-32 (2001)
 
The Elusive Paradigm of the Press
72 Boston University Law Review 673 (1992) (Book Review)
 
The Dualist Model of Legal Teaching and Scholarship
40 American University Law Review 367-417 (1990)
 
Distinction Without A Difference: A Reappraisal of the Doctrine of Prior Restraint
68 North Carolina Law Review 1-35 (1989)
 
Legal Theory and Linguistic Reality: A Critical Examination of Modern Legal Scholarship
2 Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues 257 (1989)

  

Awards and Honors 

 

Outstanding Professor of First Year Classes, 2007-2008
The Catholic University of America School of Law
 
Evening Division Professor of the Year, 2004-2005
The Catholic University of America School of Law
 
Evening Division Professor of the Year, 2002-2003
The Catholic University of America School of Law
 
Professor of the Year, 2001-2002
University of Maryland School of Law
 
Professor of the Year, 1999 – 2000
University of Maryland School of Law
 
Irwin R. Buchalter Distinguished Professor of Law, 1996-1997
Southwestern University School of Law
 
Professor of the Year, 1995-1996
Southwestern University School of Law
 
Professor of the Year, 1993-1994
Southwestern University School of Law
 
Cornelius J. Moynihan Award for Teaching Excellence, 1989-1990
Suffolk University School of Law
 
The Municipal Code Professor of the Year, 1985-1986
Florida State University College of Law