Christopher Roederer

Christopher Roederer serves as Interim Dean and is a Professor of Law at the University of Dayton School of Law.

Professor Roederer’s research and scholarship is concentrated on constitutional law and comparative law with a focus on the intersection between constitutional law, democracy, and private law, be it torts, contracts, property, or the law of remedies. 

Prior to joining the University of Dayton, Professor Roederer taught at Florida Coastal School of Law, the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, Goroka University in Papua New Guinea and the Anglo-American College in Prague. Professor Roederer was also a visiting professor at Seattle University and a Fulbright Fellow in South Africa.

During law school, Professor Roederer was the legal theory editor on the New York University Review of Law and Social Change.

Torts

Constitutional Law

Criminal Procedure

Remedies

Statutory Interpretation

International Law and Comparative Law

New York University School of Law, J.D., 1992

University of Texas at Austin, M.A., 1994

University of Kansas, B.A., 1989

Constitutional Law

Torts

Remedies

International and Comparative Law

Books

Constitutional Powers (ChartaCourse, 2015, revised 2025).

Constitutional Liberties (ChartaCourse, 2020-2025), (co-Author with Jeffrey Schmitt).

Mastering Constitutional Law (Carolina Academic Press, 2009, 2d. ed. 2015) (co-Author with John Knechtle).

Florida Statutory Interpretation (Vandeplas, 2010).

Jurisprudence (Juta & Co., 2004) (Co-Editor with Darrel Moellendorf).

An Introduction to the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination, Act No 4 of 2000 (Wits, 2001) (Co-Editor with Cathy Albertyn and Beth Goldblatt).

Law Review Articles

The Establishment Clause: An Empty Vessel Filled with Lemons? 47 U. Dayton. L. Rev 484-534 (2022).

What was Wrong with Tinker: Mind the Gap 45 U. Dayton L. Rev 229-260 (2020).

Free Speech on the Law School Campus: Is it the Hammer or Wrecking Ball that Speaks? 15 U. St. Thomas L. J. 26-94 (2019).

The Transformation of South African Private Law After Twenty Years of Democracy, 14 Nw. J. Hum. Rts. 1-29 (2016) [2018].

Remedies for Regulatory Takings (Constructive Expropriations), Deprivations, Expropriations or Custodianship in South Africa and the U.S., 2 Howard Hum. & Civ. Rts L. Rev. 87-132 (2017).

Remnants of Apartheid Common Law Justice: the Primacy of the Spirit, Purport and Objects of the Bills of Rights for Developing the Common Law and Bringing Horizontal Rights to Fruition, 29 S. Afr. J. Hum. Rts. 219-250 (2013).

McDougal-Lasswell Policy Science: Death and Transfiguration (with Jack van Doren), 11 Rich. J. Global L. & Bus. 125-157 (2012).

Working the Common Law Pure: Developing the South African Law of Delict (Torts) in Light of the Spirit, Purport and Objects of the South African Constitution's Bill of Rights, 26(2) Ariz.  J.  Int’l.  & Comp. L. 427-503 (2009).

The Noble Business of Incumbentocracy: A Reply to the Sordid Business of Democracy, 34(2) Ohio N.U. L. Rev. 373-391 (2008).

Democracy and Tort Law in America: The Counter Revolution, 110 W. Va. L.  Rev. 647-709 (2008).

The Transformation of South African Private Law after Ten Years of Democracy: The Role of Torts (Delict) in the Consolidation of Democracy, 37(2) Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 447 -521 (2006).

Another Case in Lochner’s Legacy, The Court’s Assault on New Property: The Right to the Mandatory Enforcement of a Restraining Order is “a Sham, Nullity and Cruel Deception”, 54(2) Drake L. Rev. 321-69 (2006).

The Constitutionally Inspired Approaches to Police Accountability for Violence Against Women in the U.S. and South Africa: Conservation versus Transformation, 13(1) Tulsa J. of Comp. & Int’l Law 91-140 (2005).

The Constitutionally Inspired Approach to Vicarious Liability in Cases of Intentional Wrongful Acts by the Police: One Small Step in Restoring the Public’s Trust in the South African Police Services, 21(4) S. Afr. J. Hum. Rts. 576 -606 (2005).

Kevin Hopkins & Christopher J. Roederer, Righting the Wrongs of Apartheid: Justice for Victims and Unjust Profiteers, 105 Theoria 129 (2004).

Negotiating the Jurisprudential Terrain: A Model Theoretic Approach to Legal Theory, 27Seattle U.L. Rev. 385 (2003).

Post-matrix Legal Reasoning: Horizontality and the Rule of Values in South African Law, 19 S. Afr. J. Hum. Rts. 57 (2003).

Wrongly Conceiving Wrongful Conception: Distributive versus Corrective Justice, 118 S. Afr. L. J. 347 (2001)

Ethics and Meaningful Political Action in the Postmodern Age, 19 S. Afr. J. Phil. 11 (2000).

Judicious Engagement: Theory, Attitude and Community, 15 S. Afr. J. Hum. Rts. 486 (2000)

Book Chapters

Victims’ Rights and Redress, Lavina Stan and Nadya Nedelsky eds The Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2d. Ed. 2023).

First Amendment Free Speech Rights Against Giant Media Platforms? Slim Chance: Why there is no Slippery Slope from New York’s Public Access Cable Stations to other Media Platforms (Even if I wished there was). In Russell Weaver & Steven I. Friedland eds. The Global Papers Series: Free Speech, Privacy, and Media 85-109 (Carolina Academic Press, 2019).

Obscenity from Fifty Shades of Gray to Virtually Free: Patently Offensive and Socially Valuable Materials that Appeal to Our Shameful and Morbid Interests in Sex, Russell Weaver & Steven I. Friedland eds. The Global Papers Series: The Intersection of Free Speech and the Criminal Law (Carolina Academic Press, 2017).

Now Trending: Loving the Internet Terrorist?, Russel Weaver and Clive Walker eds. Free Speech and the Internet (Carolina Academic Press, 2013).

Victims’ Rights and Redress, Lavina Stan and Nadya Nedelsky eds The Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Chapter 13, Founding Provisions, S. Woolman et al eds., Constitutional Law of South Africa (Juta & Co., 2006).

Book Reviews

Roman David, Communists and Their Victims: The Quest for Justice in the Czech Republic (PENN, 2018) 41 Hum. Rts. Quarterly 217-231 (2019).

Stanly is Not Doing His Job: Book Review/ Comment on Stanley Fish, Versions of Academic Freedom: From Professionalism to Revolution (U. Chicago Press 2014) 9 Fl.Int’l L. Rev. 67 (2014).

Steven Sheppard, I Do Solemnly Swear: The Moral Obligations of Legal Officials. (Cambridge University Press 2009). 51 Am. J. L. Hist. (2011).

Equality Law: Reflections from South Africa and Abroad (Saras Jagwanth & Evance Kalula eds.) (Juta & Co. 2001). 120 S. Afr. L. J. (2004).

P.J. Visser & J.M. Potgieter et. al. Visser & Potgieter’s Law of Damages (Juta & Co. 2d. ed. 2003)). 120 S. Afr. L. J. (2004).

Bringing Democracy to (Criminal) Justice, reviewing Restorative Justice and Civil Society (Heather Strang & John Braithwaite eds.) (Cambridge University Press 2001). 18 S. Afr. J. Hum. Rts. (2002).

Justice Gone Cosmo: Our Duties as Citizens of the World, reviewing Darrel Mollendorf, Cosmopolitan Justice (Routledge 2001)). 18 S. AFR. J. HUM. RTS. 298 (2002).

Raymond Wacks, Law, Morality and the Private Domain (Hong Kong U. Press 2000) 18 S. Afr.. J. Hum. Rts. (2002).

Notice: Buyer Beware, Negligent Misrepresentation Causing Pure Intellectual Loss, reviewing J. Neethling, et. al. Case Book on the Law of Delict (Juta & Co. 3d ed. 2000)). 118 S. Afr. L. J. (2001).

Dennis the Menace: Post Structuralist Dabbler or Constructive Interpreter, reviewing Dennis Davis, Democracy and Deliberation: Transformation and the South African Legal Order (Juta & Co.1999) 118 S. Afr. L.J. (2001).

John Dugard, International Law: A South African Perspective (Juta & Co. 2d ed.1999) 118 S. Afr. L. J. (2001).