Milner S. Ball

Harmon W. Caldwell Chair in Constitutional Law

A.B., Princeton University
S.T.B., Harvard University
J.D., University of Georgia


Courses

Law and Religion
Race and Law
Constitutional Law
Jurisprudence


Biographical Information

After almost 30 years of teaching at Georgia Law, Caldwell Professor in Constitutional Law Milner S. Ball retired in 2007.

Ball led courses in such fields as constitutional law, law and theology, Native American law, and jurisprudence. He was a proponent of the practice of public interest law and founded the school's Public Interest Practicum in 1992. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Ball first came to Athens as a campus minister in 1966 and graduated from Georgia Law in 1971, where he was editor in chief of the Georgia Law Review and graduated first in his class. He then taught at Rutgers-Camden before returning to Athens in 1978.

He is the author of numerous articles and books, including Called by Stories: Biblical Sagas and Their Challenge for Law (2000), The Word and The Law (1993) and Lying Down Together (1985). His articles have appeared in a variety of journals including the Stanford Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the Texas Law Review, the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, Studies in Law and Literature and the Cardozo Law Review. Ball was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Tubigen and a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Iceland. 

He holds degrees from Princeton (1958, bachelor's), Harvard (1961, divinity) and Georgia (1971, law). He is married to the artist June Ball.


Publications & Activities

ARTICLES

Why Law, Why Religion? - A Conversation Between a Lawyer and a Theologian, 24 Journal of Law and Religion 367 (2009).

The Failure and Beginnings Again, 26 Cardozo L. Rev. 2263 (2005).

Beyond Tolerance, 24 Cardozo L. Rev. 1621 (2003).

Classics Revisited: Budding Translation, 99 Mich. L. Rev. 1265 (2001).

The Supreme Court, La Ley (Argentina, 2001).

Reparations and Repentance: A Response to Professor Cook, 68 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1015 (2000).

Just Stories, 12 Cardozo Stud. L. & Literature 37 (2000).

John Marshall and Indian Nations in the Beginning and Now, 33 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1183 (2000).

Lawyers in Context: Moses, Brandeis and the ABA, 14 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol'y 321 (2000).

Tribal Sovereignty, Church & Soc'y, March/April 2000 at 7.

All the Law's a Stage, 11Cardozo Stud. L. & Literature 215 (1999).

Comment (Foreword to general responses to interfaith conference on the role of religion and the practice of law), 66 Fordham L. Rev. 1329 (1998).

A Little Mistrust Now and Then, 66 U. Cinn. L. Rev. 877 (1998).

Introduction (A commemorative volume for Robert M. Cover), 8 Cardozo Stud. L. & Literature i (1996).

Dialogue: A Conversation Between Milner Ball and James Boyd White, 8 Yale J.L. & Human. 465 (1996).

Jurisprudence from Below: First Notes, 61 Tenn. L. Rev. 747 (1994).

Introduction (Symposium: Native American Law), 28 Ga. L. Rev. 299 (1994).

Stanley Streamers, 44 Mercer L. Rev. 757 (1993).

Afterthoughts (Symposium: Individual Rights and the Powers of Government), 27 Ga. L. Rev. 473 (1993).

"Stand in the Place Where You Are," 52 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 785 (1991).

Soifer's Vision and Three Questions About Image, 48 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 429 (1991).

The Unfree Exercise of Religion, 20 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 39 (1991).

Normal Religion in America, 4 Notre Dame J. L. Ethics & Pub. Pol'y 397 (1990).

The Colin Raugh Thomas O'Fallon Memorial Lecture on Law and American Culture: Death and Life in American Law, 69 Or. L. Rev. 779 (1990).

The Legal Academy and Minority Scholars,103 Harv. L. Rev. 1855 (1990).

Confessions, 1 Cardozo Stud. in L. & Literature 185 (1989).

Stories of Origin and Constitutional Possibilities (Legal Storytelling), 87 Mich. L. Rev. 2280 (1989).

Fundamental Disorders: Martial Clergy, Native Americans, Constitutional Communities, and Ships of State, 21 Conn. L. Rev. 943 (1989).

Michael Perry and the Sign of Better Times Ahead, 3 Tul. L. Rev. 1283 (1989).

Law and Prophets, Bridges and Judges, 7 J. L. & Religion 1 (1989).

Moral Pluralism, the TARDIS, and Rattlesnakes, 56 Tenn. L. Rev. 13 (1988).

Stories and the Violence of Law, Church & Soc'y, Sept./Oct.1988, at 39.

The City of Unger, 81 Nw U. L. Rev. 625 (1987).

Constitution, Court, Indian Tribes, 1987 Am. B. Found. Res. J. 1.

Introduction (A Bicentennial Symposium - the Constitution and Human Values: The Unfinished Agenda), 20 Ga. L. Rev. 811 (1986).

Law Natural: Its Family of Metaphors and Its Theology, 3 J. L. & Religion 140 (1985).

Diversity in a Peaceable Kingdom: A Future for American Law and American Indian Tribes, Church & Society, Jan./Feb. 1985, at 33.

A Letter to Professor Burt, 42 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 27 (1985).

Obligation: Not to the Law But to the Neighbor, 18 Ga. L. Rev. 911 (1984).

Right Diagnosis, Wrong Cure: A Law Professor's Answer to Bok, 9 B. Leader 23 (1984).

Environment, Natural Resources, and Land Use (Annual Survey of Georgia Law), 35 Mercer L. Rev. 147 (1983).

Wrong Experiment, Wrong Result: An Appreciatively Critical Response to Schwartz, 1983 Am. B. Found. Res. J. 565.

Nuclear War: The End of Law, 7 Nova L. Rev. 53 (1982).

Legal Advocacy, Performance, and Affection, 16 Ga. L. Rev. 853 (1982) (with D. Robert Lohn).

Of Rocks and Dams, PVC and Poetry: Conceptual Metaphors for Law, Ga. Rev., Spring 1982, at 7.

Law of the Sea: Expression of Solidarity, 19 San Diego L. Rev. 461 (1982).

Good Old American Permits: Madisonian Federalism on the Territorial Sea and Continental Shelf, 12 Envtl L. 623 (1982).

Don't Die Don Quixote: A Response and Alternative to Tushnet, Bobbitt, and the Revised Texas Version of Constitutional Law, 59 Tex. L. Rev. 787 (1981).

Sea Changes and the American Republic, 9 Ga. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 1 (1979) (with Dean Rusk).

Authority and American Courts, 8 Rutgers-Cam. L.J. 563 (1977).

The Play's the Thing: An Unscientific Reflection on Courts Under the Rubric of Theater, 28 Stan. L. Rev. 81 (1975).

Judicial Protection of Powerless Minorities, 59 Iowa L. Rev. 1059 (1974).

The Exercise of Power and Accountability, The Bulletin, Vol. 54, No.4 at 6 (1974) (reprinted in The Neighborhood Studies Institute).

Developing Citizen Participation in International Environmental Affairs, 1973 Int'l L. Papers 83.

International Environmental Action: Nature, Politics, Hope, Christian Century, May 24, 1972, at 597.

Recent Decision, 4 Ga. L. Rev. 897 (1970).

Recent Decision, 4 Ga. L. Rev. 193 (1970).

Note, The Politics of God in the Maturation of the Law, 4 Ga. L. Rev. 555 (1970).

BOOK REVIEWS

Reflections on Constitutional Law, 57 J. Legal Educ. 615 (2007).

Emblems of Pluralism: Cultural Differences and the State, 23 L. & Hist. Rev. 228 (2005).

Minding the Law, 25 Just. Sys. J. 315 (2004).

A Voting Rights Odyssey: Black Enfranchisement in Georgia, 10 Ga. B.J. 72 (August 2004).

Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought, 59 Theology Today 518 (October 2002).

Listening for God: Religion and Moral Discernment, 16 J.L. & Religion 725 (2001).

Classics Revisited: Budding Translation, 99 Mich. L. Rev. 1265 (2001)(Black Elk Speaks).

Love's Labor Lost,  Jurist: Books-on-Law (2000),

All the Company of Heaven (From Newton's Sleep), 94 Mich. L. Rev. 2016 (1996).

Power From the People (Rebellious Lawyering: One Chicano's Vision of Progressive Law Practice), 92 Mich. L. Rev. 1725 (1994).

Poethics, Christians, Jews, Law (Poethics: and Other Strategies of Law and Literature by Richard Weisberg), 15 Cardozo L. Rev. 1069 (1994).

Out of the West Rides an Unmasked Stranger . . . (American Lawyers and Their Communities), 10 J.L. & Religion 339 (1993/94)

Whose World and How? (Rethinking the American Race Problem), 90 Mich. L. Rev. 1338 (1992).

Tribal Diversities and American Response, Rev. Am. Hist., March 1989 at 51.

Constitutional Faith, 87 Mich. L. Rev. 1438 (1989).

The Authoritative and the Authoritarian, 35 UCLA L. Rev. 547 (1988).

International Law and the Grotian Heritage: a Commemorative Colloquium, 82 Am. J. Int'l L. 183 (1988).

Treason against God: A History of the Offense of Blasphemy, 35 Stan. L. Rev. 1007 (1983).

The Politics of Law: A Progressive Critique, 51 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 309 (1983).

The Legal Imagination, 44 U. Chi. L. Rev. 681 (1977).

Cases and Materials on Equitable Remedies and Restitution, 8 Ga. L. Rev. 187 (1973).

BOOKS

Called by Stories: Biblical Sagas and Their Challenge for Law. (Duke University Press, 2000)

The Word and the Law. (University of Chicago Press, 1993).

Lying Down Together: Law, Metaphor, and Theology. (University of Wisconsin Press, 1985).

The Promise of American Law: A Theological, Humanistic View of Legal Process. (University of Georgia Press, 1981).

Marine and Coastal Law: International, Federal and Local: Course Materials. (School of Law, University of Georgia, 1980).

The Law of the Sea, Federal-State Relations and the Extension of the Territorial Sea: Prolegomena to an Experimental Politics. (Dean Rusk Center for International & Comparative Law, 1978).

CHAPTERS

"Dietrich Bonhoeffer" in The Teachings of Modern Protestantism: Law, Politics, and Human Nature, Vol.1 (Columbia University Press, 2006).

"Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Texts Selected and Edited by Milner Ball", in The Teachings of Modern Protestantism: Law, Politics, and Human Nature, Vol.2 (Columbia University Press, 2006).

"Doing Time and Doing it in Style" in Law and Popular Culture (Oxford University Press 2005).

"Common Good in Performance" in In Search of the Common Good (T&T Clark, 2005).

"A Southern Recipe for Scholarship and Politics" in Loving God with our Minds: The Pastor As Theologian (Festschrift for Wallace M. Alson)(Eerdmans Publishing, 2004).

"A Meditation on Vocation" in Radical Christian and Exemplary Lawyer. (Eerdmans Publishing, 1995).

"Nuclear War: An End to Law" in Nuclear Weapons and Law. (Greenwood Press, 1984).

"The Jurisdictional Framework for Petroleum Development" in Georges Bank 522. (MIT Press, 1986)(with others).

"The Play's the Thing: An Unscientific Reflection on Courts Under the Rubric of Theater" in Introduction to Law and Legal Reasoning. (West Pub. Co., 1977).

VIDEOS

The Eighth Fire (Upstream Films, 1992).

The Peyote Road (Kifaru Productions, Inc., 1993).

OTHER

The New Morality and Organ Transplantation. Studies written for and adopted by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church U.S.

Stockholm and Beyond. Report of the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (1972)(staff author Chapter 6).

Contact Information

University of Georgia
School of Law
313A Rusk Hall
Athens, GA 30602

Phone: (706) 542-5236
Fax: (706) 542-5556
Email: mball@uga.edu


Administrative Support

Nancy Watkins
Phone: (706) 542-5213
Email: nwatkins@uga.edu


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