Jan. 10, 2008 -- It takes a particular intellectual curiosity to become a recognized expert in medieval admiralty law, the canon law of the Catholic Church, and California community property law. Throughout his more than 40-year career, Professor William Bassett has pursued all of these and other topics, with passion and rigor.

His two most prominent works written for practicing attorneys are Bassett on California Community Property Law, The Expert Series (Thomson-West) and Religious Organizations and the Law (Thomson-West). For 20 years he has updated both books annually.

Two forthcoming works will add to his list of more than 50 bylined publications: a co-authored book published by Cambridge University press titled Christianity and Law and an article in a seminar issue of the Brigham Young University Law Review titled "Changing Perceptions of Private Religious Schools: Public Money and Public Trust in the Education of Children." 

Bassett's interest in religious law dates to his days as a doctoral student in canon law at the Gregorian University in Rome in the early 1960s, when he also served as a facilitator during the Second Vatican Council. He returned to the United States as vice-chancellor of the diocese of Peoria, Ill., the country's tenth largest diocese. "I managed the diocesan administration, which may have planted the seed for my later work on the business and legal aspects of churches," he said. He later taught at Catholic University. A National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship took him to Munich in 1973 to study medieval legal history.

Dean Delos Putz lured him to USF as visiting professor in 1974, with the promise of teaching jurisprudence and legal history. Despite being assigned instead to teach Wills and Trusts, Property, and Community Property, Bassett joined the faculty full-time a year later. "So, my involvement with one of the topics I have become known for was something of a fluke," he said.
Bassett, who will retire in May, is "the consummate law professor" said John Osborn, a distinguished scholar in residence at the law school "He is a mentor to me and many others. He is the soul of USF."

Throughout his teaching career, Bassett has sustained wide-ranging scholarly pursuits. For many years he continued as an editor of The Jurist, a publication devoted to canon law, and the international journal for theology, Concilium.

"Teaching at a law school affiliated with a Jesuit university is very satisfying. I especially appreciate Dean Brand's renewed focus on our mission as a Catholic institution. I've always been comfortable with my fellow faculty members, although I'm not sure they always knew what I was doing in my scholarship," he said with a smile.

Bassett also has served a large client base of nonprofit institutions and commercial and private interests. He said this "has enriched me and my teaching immensely. A consistent, positive involvement with the practical life of the bar adds authenticity to my role as mentor for students and as a helpful link to the job market for them."

Some of Bassett's recent scholarship probes issues such as the limitation of discovery in litigation involving churches and school vouchers. "The Catholic Church is the largest private teacher of inner-city children in the U.S. and higher education has historically been religion-based," he said. "There has long been a relationship between religious education and public funding. USF, for example, would not exist without federal funds. I submit that, for many children in cities whose school systems have collapsed-Milwaukee and Cleveland for example-the basic right to education is at risk."

The U.S. approach to separation of church and state, rather than the secularism practiced in France, for example, is by far the better system, according to Bassett. "The Establishment Clause was started as an experiment and it is still preserved. We haven't changed it, we haven't altered it, nor have we abridged it. Once in a while, the courts have to pull us back from the edge, but that is part of the system, too, and we survive. It's a miracle that this country exists. There is no other society like ours in the world."