Patrick McKinley Brennan

Professor of Law
John F. Scarpa Chair in Catholic Legal Studies

Biography

Patrick McKinley Brennan came to Villanova in 2004 as the inaugural holder of the John F. Scarpa Chair in Catholic Legal Studies and later also served as associate dean for academic affairs. Previously, he was professor of law and vice dean at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University, where he taught for eight years.   

Brennan has published five books: Christian Legal Thought: Materials and Cases (Foundation Press, 2017) (with Brewbaker), By Nature Equal: The Anatomy of a Western Insight (Princeton University Press, 1999) (with Coons); Civilizing Authority: Society, State, and Church (Lexington, 2007); The Vocation of the Child (Eerdmans, 2008); Legal Affinities: Explorations in the Legal Form of Thought (Carolina Academic Press, 2014) (with Powell and Sammons).

Brennan has also published more than eighty articles, essays, and book chapters, some of which have appeared in Michigan Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Boston College Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Emory Law Journal, Law and Philosophy, Review of Metaphysics, Journal of Law and Religion, and American Journal of Jurisprudence.

Brennan’s scholarship currently focuses on common-good constitutionalism, equality, political friendship, and forgiveness.

Brennan has regularly taught constitutional law, administrative law, federal courts, criminal law, and a wide range of courses in jurisprudence, law and religion, Christian legal thought, and political theory. 

At Villanova, Brennan organizes the annual "John F. Scarpa Conference on Law, Politics and Culture." The dozens of distinguished speakers at the annual conference have included Justice Antonin Scalia, Judge John T. Noonan Jr., Judge Stephanos Bibas, Martha Nussbaum, Joseph Vining, Jeremy Waldron, Geoff Stone, Lee Bollinger, Roderick Hills, Jane Schacter, Paul Kahn, Kristin Hickman, John Manning, Gillian Metzger, Adrian Vermeule, H. Jefferson Powell, Henry Paul Monaghan, James Gordley, Kathryn Tanner, William Eskridge, John Finnis, Peter Steinfels, Nomi Stolzenberg, Candace Vogler, Irene Joe, Cecelia Klingele and Matthew B. Crawford. Among the ecclesiastical dignitaries who have spoken at the conference are William Cardinal Levada, Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. and Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM, Cap. 

In 2014, Brennan was awarded the degree D. Litt. (honoris causa) by the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology (Berkeley), where he serves as a fellow. Brennan has served as an elected member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Jurisprudence and as an elected member of the executive council of the American Catholic Philosophical Association.

Brennan majored in philosophy at Yale, earned an M.A. in philosophy at the University of Toronto, and then graduated Berkeley Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif.  Following law school, Brennan clerked for the Honorable John T. Noonan Jr., on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, after which he was associated with major law firms in San Francisco and Washington, DC. He is a native of California.  

Practice Experience

• Professor of Law, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.
• Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Research, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.
• Vice Dean, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.
• Judicial Clerk for Honorable John T. Noonan, Jr., on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco.