Photograph: Gary Wayne Gilbert

Vincent D. Rougeau, a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, has been named the 11th dean of the Boston College Law School. A specialist on the role of moral and religious values in law and public policy, he is the author of Christians in the American Empire: Faith and Citizenship in the New World Order (2008). Rougeau, 47, earned a BA in international relations from Brown University and a law degree from Harvard Law School, where he helped found the Harvard Human Rights Journal. At Notre Dame, he taught courses in contracts, real estate law, and Catholic social thought for 12 years. During that time he also served as the law school’s dean for academic affairs and the director of the school’s Center for Law and Government. In announcing Rougeau’s appointment, University provost Cutberto Garza said Rougeau “understands the challenges the law profession is likely to face in the next 15 to 20 years. . . . New law graduates have to be prepared to understand the global nature of the world.” Rougeau will assume his post July 1, replacing John Garvey, who left to become president of the Catholic University of America.

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