Milner Ball

MILNER S BALL, Harmon W. Caldwell Professor of Constitutional Law, has been a member of the University of Georgia School of Law faculty since 1978. He is an ordained Presbyterian minister and specializes in the areas of law and religion, jurisprudence, constitutional law, public interest law and environmental litigation.

A renowned scholar, Ball is the author of numerous articles and books, including Called by Stories:Biblical Sagas and Their Challenge for Law (2000), The Word and The Law (1993), and Lying Down Together (1985). His articles have appeared in such journals as Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy, Cardozo Studies in Law & Literature, Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, Harvard Law Review and Michigan Law Review. He frequently participates in conferences and serves as a guest lecturer at leading institutions around the globe. He has twice served as a Fulbright Scholar: first upon his graduation as valedictorian of Harvard Divinity School's Class of 1961 to study at the University of Tubigen; and the second to teach a course on the law of the sea at the University of Iceland in 1980.

During his time at UGA, Ball has been an ardent proponent of public interest efforts and has worked closely with students on a number of causes. The School of Law's thriving Civil Clinic Program owes its start to Ball, who founded the innovative Public Interest Practicum in 1992. PIP, as it is now commonly called, places law students in local soup kitchens, shelters, housing projects and other settings where they offer legal support to the poor, needy and disenfranchised. The program has been recognized numerous times for the vital service it provides, and its success led to the establishment of a Civil Clinic in 1996.

Ball earned his bachelor's degree from Princeton and a divinity degree from Harvard. A call to campus ministry brought him to the University of Georgia, where he enrolled as a law student, finished first in his class and served as editor-in-chief of the Georgia Law Review. He taught at Rutgers-Camden Law School for six years before returning to Athens in 1978.