UMass Law UMass Law: McDonald’s Newest Article Spotlights the Moral Duty to End Homelessness through Legal Advocacy and Policy Reform

UMass Law Professor Geoff McDonald proposes ways to mitigate homelessness through legal advocacy and policy reform and outlines the public’s ethical obligation to address homelessness in the context of contemporary moral philosophy.

UMass Law Professor Geoff McDonald published his most recent article, Addressing Legal Resolution to Homelessness in the Context of Contemporary Moral Philosophy, in Volume 17.1 of the Washington University Jurisprudence Review. The Jurisprudence Review is the only student-edited, in-print journal of Jurisprudence in the United States and is published by Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. The article focuses on the moral bankruptcy of modern American public policy that fails to adequately address extreme poverty, suffering, and homelessness and discusses the ethical and political commitments necessary to compassionately end homelessness in the United States.

McDonald proposes ways to mitigate homelessness through legal advocacy and policy reform and outlines the public’s ethical obligation to address homelessness in the context of contemporary moral philosophy. The article contrasts the traditional moral philosophical writings of Aristotle, Kant, and John Stuart Mill with the more recent philosophical works of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida. McDonald’s article argues that while traditional moral philosophy has many strengths, it has been unable to provide the basis for the comprehensive action needed to end homelessness. The article endorses the more recent philosophical works of Levinas and Derrida that do provide the foundation and support for the tremendous task of ending homelessness.

Before coming to UMass Law, Professor McDonald practiced law in New York City for fifteen years, including both private practice and public interest work. He represented creditors, debtors, trustees and other significant parties in interest in some of the largest, most prominent and complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in this country. In the five years immediately prior to joining the UMass Law faculty, he worked as a public interest attorney in the South Bronx, where his practice was focused on preventing homelessness by providing free legal services to people facing eviction or foreclosure.

In his research, McDonald focuses on technical bankruptcy questions as well as the moral basis of bankruptcy, including the interrelated issues of debt, justice, and forgiveness, with particular emphasis on the constitutional and jurisprudential dimensions. His current research is focused on homelessness amelioration in the context of religious ethics and the Free Exercise Clause of the U. S. Constitution.

Professor McDonald received his B.A. in Philosophy from Wesleyan University, his M.A.R. in Philosophy of Religion from Yale University, where he also studied jurisprudence and legal philosophy at Yale Law School, his Ph.D. in Religion (Ethics & Society) and J.D. from Emory University, and his LL.M. in Bankruptcy from St. John’s University School of Law. Professor McDonald teaches in the areas of contracts, commercial law and bankruptcy as well as jurisprudence and ethical theory.