School of Law: Jeffrey Schmitt

Professor Schmitt's research focuses on federalism and legal history. He has written on the extraterritorial reach of state power, the Property Clause, Full Faith and Credit Clause, and Fugitive Slave Clause. His work has appeared in numerous journals, including the William & Mary Law Review, George Mason Law Review, and Law & History Review.

Professor Schmitt joined the faculty at the University of Dayton School of Law in 2016 and served as Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs from January 2020 to May 2025. As Assistant Dean, he helped to develop international relationships for the School of Law and to oversee its LL.M., M.S.L., and certificate programs. He primarily teaches Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, and Contracts.

Professor Schmitt clerked for Judge Susan H. Black of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and Judge Timothy J. Corrigan of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. He also worked as an associate at Jones Day in Cleveland, Ohio.

Professor Schmitt graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as an essay editor on the Virginia Law Review. He received his bachelor's degree from Miami University.

Constitutional Law
Contracts
Criminal Procedure
Civil Procedure
Transactional Drafting
Race and Racism in American Law

J.D., University of Virginia School of Law
B.A., Miami University

Constitutional Law
Legal History

Scholarship available on SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=885306

Rethinking the Scope of State Power: Territorial Jurisdiction, Popular Sovereignty, and Extraterritorial Legislation, William & Mary Law Review (forthcoming 2026)

Slavery and the History of Congress’s Enumerated Powers, 74 Arkansas Law Review 641 (2022)

Limiting the Property Clause, 20 Nevada Law Journal 145 (2019)

Courts, Backlash, and Social Change: Learning from the History of Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 123 Penn State Law Review (2018) 

A Historical Reassessment of Congress’s “Power to Dispose of” the Public Lands, 42 Harvard Environmental Law Review 453 (2018) 

In Defense of Shelby County’s Principle of Equal State Sovereignty, 68 Oklahoma Law Review 209 (2016)

Rethinking the State Sovereignty Interest in Personal Jurisdiction, 66 Case Western Reserve Law Review 769 (2016)

Making Sense of Extraterritoriality: Why California’s Progressive Global Warming and Animal Welfare Legislation does not Violate the Dormant Commerce Clause, 39 Harvard Environmental Law Review 423 (2015)

The Federal Right to Recover Fugitive Slaves: An Absolute but Self-Defeating Property Right, 2 Savannah Law Review 21 (2015) (invited contribution)

Constitutional Limitations on Extraterritorial State Power: State Regulation, Choice of Law, and Slavery, 83 Mississippi Law Journal 59 (2014)

Immigration Enforcement Reform: Learning from the History of Fugitive Slave Rendition, 103 Georgetown Law Journal Online 1 (2014)

A Historical Reassessment of Full Faith and Credit, 20 George Mason Law Review 485 (2013)

The Antislavery Judge Reconsidered, 29 Law & History Review 797 (2011) (peer-reviewed)

Note, Rethinking Ableman v. Booth and States’ Rights in Wisconsin, 93 Virginia Law Review 1315 (2007)