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D. Don Welch

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Photo of D. Don Welch

Associate Dean for Administration .Professor of Law

Voice: (615) 322-0164
Fax: (615) 322-0936
Email: don.welch@vanderbilt.edu
Office: 154 Centre
View curriculum vitae (.pdf)

Research Interest(s)

Law, ethics and public policy; professional ethics; legal education

Education

Ph.D., M.A. Vanderbilt University
B.A. Baylor University

Biography

D. Don Welch is an active scholar and teacher in the field of ethics and public policy. He has authored four books, including a history of Vanderbilt Law School, written on legal education and the intersections of law, ethics and public policy in a variety of law journals, and served as editor of the Journal of Legal Education. Dean Welch joined the Law School as Associate Dean in 1984, and holds a secondary faculty position as Professor of Religion in the Graduate Department of Religion. In addition to his administrative responsibilities at Vanderbilt Law School, he teaches interdisciplinary courses on law, religion, ethics and public policy. His current writing project is a book, Finding Our Way: Benchmarks for Public Policy, in which he is developing a comprehensive framework for the ethical assessment of public policy.

Representative Publications

Books

Articles

  • "Just Another Day at the Office: the Ordinariness of Professional Ethics," 2 Professional Ethics 3 (1994). Reprinted in: The Professions in Ethical Focus: An Anthology, Fritz Allhof and Anand J. Vaidya, eds. (Broadview, 2008); 15 Tennessee’s Business 14 (2006); Ethics for the Professions, John Rowan and Samuel Zinaich, eds. (Harcourt Brace, 2003); Ethics in the Workplace, Robert A. Larmer, ed. (2nd edition, Wadsworth, 2002).

  • "Inclusive Policy Analysis,” 9 Research in Public Policy Analysis and Management 231 (1998)

  • "Ruling with the Heart: Emotion-based Public Policy," 6 Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal 55 (1997)

  • "Legitimate Government Purposes and the State's Enforcement of Morality," University of Illinois Law Review 401 (1993)

  • "Right, Rights and the Law,” 39 Journal of Legal Education 147 (1989)

  • “Walking in Their Shoes: Paying Respect to Incompetent Patients,” 42 Vanderbilt Law Review 1617 (1989)

  • "The State as a Purveyor of Morality,” 56 George Washington Law Review 540 (1988)

Working Papers

  • "Finding Our Way: Benchmarks for Public Policy"

Presentations

  • “Moral Values in the Assessment of Governance: Effectiveness and Fidelity,” at “Governing Good and Governing Well,” the First Global Dialogue on Ethical and Effective Governance, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam (May 29, 2009)



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