John B. Attanasio is Dean and the William Hawley Atwell Professor of Constitutional
Law at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. He is an expert in constitutional
law focusing on constitutional development in emerging democracies.
As dean, Dean Attanasio arranged a Supreme Court Summit on "Treaty
Supremacy vs. Constitutional Supremacy" between members of the European
Court of Justice, the Supreme Court of the United States and the Texas Supreme
Court, which was held at the SMU Dedman School of Law in April 2000. He inaugurated
the Distinguished Visiting Professor program. Justices Yvonne Mokgoro and
Pius Langa of the South African Constitutional Court and Sir Guenter Treitel
(former Vinerian Chair at Oxford) have served as Distinguished Visiting Professors.
He helped to organize a series of global conferences on the New International
Financial Architecture held in Dallas and throughout the world and featuring
prominent speakers from the financial, legal and international arenas.
A four-year merit scholar at the University of Virginia, Dean Attanasio
earned his Bachelor's degree in 1976 in social systems, an interdisciplinary
major of his own design drawing on the departments of history, economics,
sociology, and government and international relations. He received his Juris
Doctorate in 1979 from New York University School of Law. He received a Diploma
in Law from the University of Oxford, Oriel College, in 1982, before earning
his Master’s degree in law in 1985 from Yale University.
Dean Attanasio has taught at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law
and Notre Dame Law School where he also served as the John M. Regan, Jr. Director
of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies from 1991 to
1992. He was Dean of Saint Louis University School of Law from 1992 to 1998.
Dean Attanasio has received numerous awards, including the Alumni Education
Award from New York University School of Law, the Education Award from the
St. Louis Civic Italian American Organization, a Fulbright Award, and the
Outstanding Faculty Member Award for excellence in teaching at Notre Dame.
As a 1990 Fulbright Award recipient, Dean Attanasio delivered lectures on
American Constitutional Law at various institutes in Moscow and several other
cities in the former Soviet Union and spoke before members of the Supreme
Soviet of the U.S.S.R. and the Moscow Soviet. He has advised various legislative
and judicial officials in emerging democracies in the former Soviet Union
and Eastern Europe.
Dean Attanasio has arranged several meetings between justices of the Russian
Constitutional Court and justices of the U.S. Supreme Court including Chief
Justice William Rehnquist, and Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia,
Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. With Dean John Sexton
of the New York University School of Law and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor,
Dean Attanasio organized two summits on constitutional adjudication that featured
justices of the Russian Constitutional Court, the German Constitutional Court,
the Italian Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Dean Attanasio is the co-author with Norman Redlich, Joel Goldstein, and
the late Bernard Schwartz of Constitutional Law and Understanding
Constitutional Law. He is the author of numerous articles in legal journals
including the New York University Law Review, the Virginia Law Review,
the University of Chicago Law Review, the Georgetown Law Review and
the American Journal of Comparative Law (Berkeley).
Dean Attanasio has taught constitutional law, First Amendment, civil procedure,
torts, and jurisprudence. He has written and lectured around the world in
the areas of constitutional law, comparative law, international law, freedom
of speech, federalism, human genetic engineering, and legal education.