Megan Ballard is the inaugural holder of the Catholic Charities Chair in Immigration Law and Policy, and the founding Director of the Border Justice Initiative, a project of the law school’s Center for Civil and Human Rights. Professor Ballard’s scholarship explores legal protections for people forcibly displaced from their homes and countries. She has earned two Fulbright grants to pursue field studies related to this research agenda. In 2018, Professor Ballard was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar in Jordan, where she investigated methods used by the United States and Canada to introduce law and legal systems to resettling refugees. She also taught International Refugee Law at the University of Amman. In 2010, Professor Ballard’s Fulbright grant brought her to the country of Georgia, where she studied Georgia’s legal measures to restore property rights to people forced by conflict to flee from the occupied territories. Professor Ballard’s teaching similarly involves law related to migration but also various aspects of property law. Her pro bono work and community service has a global scope, including working with judges in Cambodia, refugees in Spokane, and asylum seekers in Nogales, Mexico and Seattle.
Publications
Refugees, Rights, and Responsibilities: Bridging the Integration Gap, 39 U. Penn. J. of Int’l Law __ (2017).
Trump’s Refugee Rationale is a Ruse, Guest Opinion, The Spokesman-Review, Oct. 15, 2017.
Relaxing Legal Norms to Restore Rights to Homes and Property in the Aftermath of War, chapter in Property, Exclusion, and Sovereignty (James C. Smith, ed., Ashgate Publishing, 2013).
Pre-Planning for Post-Conflict Property Remedies: A Case Study from Georgia, 43 George Washington International Law Review 43 (2011).
Seeking Balance in a Tbilisi Classroom, The Law Teacher (Institute for Law Teaching and Learning, 2011).
Estate Planning for Clients with Pets, Real Property, Probate and Trust, Winter 2010–11 (Washington Bar Association). Reprinted with permission, Oregon State Bar Association, Animal Law Section website, March 28, 2011. Reprinted with permission, Life Begins, Washington State Bar Association Senior Lawyer’s Section newsletter, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Spring 2011).
Post Conflict Property Restitution: Flawed Legal and Theoretical Foundations, 28 Berkeley Journal of International Law 462 (2010).
Washington’s Expanded Domestic Partnership Act, Real Property, Probate and Trust, Winter 2007–2008, at 7 (Washington Bar Association).
The Shortsightedness of Blind Trusts, 56 Kansas Law Review 43 (2007).
Legal Protections for Home Dwellers: Caulking the Cracks to Preserve Occupancy, 56 Syracuse Law Review 277 (2006).
Profiting from Poverty: The Competition Between For-Profit and Nonprofit Developers for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, 55 Hastings Law Journal 211 (2003).
The Clash Between Local Courts and Global Economics: The Politics of Judicial Reform in Brazil, 17 Berkeley Journal of International Law 230 (1999).
Innovative Designs for Affording Access to Justice: Learning from Schemes for Persons of Moderate Means, with Marc Galanter (1995). Prepared for the [ABA] Commission on Access to Justice 2000.
A Practical Analysis of the Constitutional and Legal Infirmities of Norplant as a Condition of Probation, 7 Wisconsin Women’s Law Journal 85 (1992–93).
A Survey of Press Freedom in Latin America, 1984–85, coeditor (The Newspaper Guild, 1985).
Selected Presentations
Refugees, Rights, and Responsibilities: Bridging the Integration Gap, speaker, Creighton University Law Faculty Works in Progress colloquium, Omaha, NE, October 23, 2017.
Bridging the Integration Gap: Teaching Refugees about U.S. Law and Justice, presenter, International Meeting on Law and Society, Mexico City, Mexico, June 20-23, 2017.
Refugees, Rights, and Responsibilities: Bridging the Integration Gap, speaker, University of San Francisco Law Faculty Works in Progress colloquium, San Francisco, CA, March 2017.
Fair Housing Law, co-presenter, workshop for Arabic-speaking refugees and immigrants, Gonzaga University School of Law, with Northwest Fair Housing Alliance and Refugee Connections Spokane, April 29, 2017.
Bridging the Integration Gap: A Practical Proposal for Teaching Refugees about U.S. Law and Justice, speaker, Brigham Young University Law Faculty Works in Progress colloquium and Immigration Law Forum, Provo, UT, March 15, 2017.
Refugees, Rights, and Responsibilities: Bridging the Integration Gap, speaker, University of San Francisco Law Faculty Works in Progress colloquium, San Francisco, CA, March 2017.
Bridging the Integration Gap: A Practical Proposal for Teaching Refugees about U.S. Law and Justice, speaker, Brigham Young University Law Faculty Works in Progress colloquium and Immigration Law Forum, Provo, UT, February 2017.
Challenges to Post-Conflict Property Restitution, Seminar on Post-Conflict Property Restitution in Kosovo, Norwegian Center for Human Rights, University of Oslo, June 13, 2016.
Animals, Access, and Accommodation: The Law Governing Service Animals, Kootenay County Bar Association CLE, Coeur d’Alene, May 5, 2014.
Developing and Using a Form for Students to Evaluate Teaching, Georgia Law Teaching and Learning Conference, Free University of Tbilisi, Tbilisi, Georgia, May 10, 2013.
Estate Planning for Clients with Pets, WSBA Elder Law Seminar CLE, Seattle, WA, March 1, 2013.
Post-Conflict Property Remedies and the Relaxation of Legal Norms, The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, October 27, 2011.
Pre-Planning for Post-Conflict Property Restitution: Lessons from Georgia and Colombia, Wittenberg University, October 28, 2011.
Pre-Planning for Post-conflict Property Remedies: A Case Study from Georgia, Association for Law, Property, and Society annual meeting, Georgetown Law School, Washington, D.C., March 4, 2011, and Javeriana University, Bogotá, Colombia, May 2, 2011.
Post-Conflict Property Restitution In Georgia: Political Pragmatism or Humanitarianism? Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University American Studies Center, Georgia, December 3, 2010, and the Center for Social Sciences, Tbilisi, Georgia, December 7, 2010.
The Ivory Tower and the Legal Community: A New Paradigm for Access, panelist speaker at the Washington State Access to Justice Conference, Wenatchee, Washington, June 5, 2010.
Post Conflict Property Restitution: Flawed Legal and Theoretical Foundations, Association for Law, Property and Society annual meeting, Georgetown Law School, Washington, D.C., March 5, 2010.
Crafting and Using Student Ratings Forms, workshop at Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University, October 30, 2009.
Estate Planning for Clients with Pets, “Macs & Tax” CLE, sponsored by Gonzaga University School of Law, September 26, 2009.
Estate Planning for Domestic Partners, Spokane Estate Planning Council, January 13, 2009.
Washington’s New Domestic Partnership Act: Estate Planning for Domestic Partners, “Macs & Tax” CLE, sponsored by Gonzaga University School of Law, September 27, 2008.
Estate Planning with Companion Animals, presentation at the “Doing Well by Doing Good in Animal Law Cases” CLE, sponsored by the Gonzaga Law School Chapter of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, September 26, 2008.
Workhouses or Houses for Work, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, June 5–8, 2003.
The Impact of Brazil’s Efforts to Engage with the Global Economy on Brazilian Judicial Reform Strategies, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, May 27–30, 1999, Chicago.