Mitchell Crusto
Henry F. Bonura, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Law
Education
J.D., Yale Law School, 1981
M.A., Oxford University, 1985
B.A., Oxford University, 1980
B.A., Yale University, 1975
Departments
- College of Law
- Law
Expertise
- Civil Rights
- Law
- Louisiana
- Racial/Ethnic Issues
Bio
Professor Mitchell “Mitch” F. Crusto has a J.D. from Yale Law School, a B.A./M.A. in Jurisprudence from Oxford University, England (Marshall Scholar), and a B.A., Scholar of the House (History), magna cum laude from Yale College.
Professor Crusto currently teaches first-year Property and upper-level Wills, Trusts, and Estates; Real Estate Transactions; as well as the Scholarly Writing Seminar. He has also taught business courses including Business Organizations I and II, Agency and Partnership, Insurance, and Environmental Management. Crusto has taught as a Visiting Professor at Washington University (St. Louis), University of Miami (Florida), and Vermont Law School. He has received several awards for teaching and for student advising.
Professor Crusto’s legal scholarship focuses on the inter-disciplinary intersections between law and society, particularly liberty & property rights; college athletes’ media rights; the Constitution and equality; the right to travel; marijuana reform; the law of sole proprietors, and disaster law. Recently, he has published several seminal law articles on the NIL/media rights of college athletes, including Game of Thrones: Liberty & Eminent Domain, https://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol76/iss3/3. His Essay, entitled A Plea for Affirmative Action, was published in the Harvard Law Review Forum, https://harvardlawreview.org/forum/vol-136/a-plea-for-affirmative-action/ and was featured on CBS Sunday Morning, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/this-week-on-sunday-morning-june-4-2023/. He has several national media appearances. Crusto’s book on civil liberties and disaster, entitled Involuntary Heroes: Hurricane Katrina’s Impact on Civil Liberties, (Carolina Academic Press, 2015) was a Finalist for the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Book Award.
By way of background, Professor Crusto clerked for Judge John Minor Wisdom on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and has served two U. S. Presidents in senior governmental policy positions. He came to the legal academy after extensive legal practice with major corporate and international law firms, investment and chemical manufacturing industries, management consulting, and governmental policy positions. He is a member (inactive) of the Louisiana, Illinois, and Missouri Bar Associations and the Honorable Society of the Middle Temple in London.
Classes Taught
- Property
- Wills, Trust, and Estates
- Real Estate Transactions
- Business Organizations
- Agency and Partnership
- Insurance
- Environmental Management
- Disaster Law & Policy
- American Legal History
- Legal Profession
- Scholarly Writing Seminar
Areas of Expertise
- Property Rights & Liberty
- Wills, Trusts, and Estates
- Business Organizations
- Real Estate Transactions
- Diversity, Race, & the Law
- College Athletes’ NIL Rights
- Constitutional Right to Travel
- Environmental Policy
- Disaster Law & Policy
- Marijuana Reform & Amnesty
Publications
Juvenile Justice & Diminished Criminal Culpability, 78 U. Mia. L. Rev. 670 (2024), https://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol78/iss3/3
A Plea for Affirmative Action, Essay, 136 Harv. L. Rev. F. 205-225 (2023), https://harvardlawreview.org/forum/vol-136/a-plea-for-affirmative-action/
Blackness as State Property: Valuing Critical Race Theory, 57.2 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 578-614 (Fall 2022), lead article, https://harvardcrcl.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/BlacknessAsStateProperty.pdf (published February 1, 2023)
Right of Self, 79 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 533-608 (2022), https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/wlulr/vol79/iss2/3
Game of Thrones: Liberty & Eminent Domain, 76 U. MIA L. Rev. 653-741 (2022), https://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol76/iss3/3
Boycott the Games: Show Me the Money!, 32 JLAS 153-176 (2022), https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/jlas/issue/view/1664
Assessing the Status of Minors in Possession: Marijuana versus Alcohol, unpublished research grant report, 1-57, The Ohio State University (2022), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4203910
How to Get Away with Murder, When a White Male Police Officer Kills a Young Black Person, the Washington and Lee Online Review, W&L L. Rev. Website, (January 18, 2022, https://lawreview.wlulaw.wlu.edu/how-to-get-away-with-murder-when-a-white-male-police-officer-kills-a-young-black-person/
Newsweek, OpEd, “How Affirmative Action Really Works, Opinion,” (Oct. 31, 2022), https://www.newsweek.com/how-affirmative-action-really-works-opinion-1755497
Stay-in-Place: Coronavirus and its Impact on Intrastate Travel, Louisiana Bar Journal, Volume 68, Number 1 (June-July 2020), http://files.lsba.org/documents/publications/BarJournal/Journal-June-July-2020.pdf
Black Lives Matter: Banning Police Lynchings, 48 Hastings Const. L.Q. 3-72 (2020), https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly/vol48/iss1/3/
Weeding Out Injustice: Amnesty for Pot Offenders, 47 Hastings Const. L.Q. 367-424 (2020), https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly/vol47/iss3/3
Right to Life: Interest-Convergence Policing, 71 Rutgers U.L. Rev. 63-133 (2018), https://ssrn.com/abstract=3207886
State of Emergency: An Emergency Constitution Revisited,” 61 Loy. L. Rev. 471-523 (2015), http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2763667
Empathic Dialogue: from Formalism to Value Principles, 65 SMU L. Rev. 845-876 (Fall 2012), http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2201821
Obama’s Moral Capitalism: Empathy and the Constitution, 63 U. MIA L. Rev 1011-1040 (2009), http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1573770
Unconscious Classism: Entity Equality for Sole Proprietors, 11 U. Pa. JCL 215-275 (2009), https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1149&context=jcl
Enslaved Constitution: Obstructing Freedom to Travel, 70 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 233- (2008), http://lawreview.law.pitt.edu/issues/70/70.2/01Crusto.pdf
The Katrina Fund: Repairing Breaches in Gulf Coast Insurance Levees, 43 Harv. J. Leg. 329-373 (2006), http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1546661
Endangered Green Reports: ‘Cumulative Materiality’ in Corporate Environmental Disclosure after Sarbanes-Oxley? 42 Harv. J. Leg. 483-509 (2005), reprinted 35 ELR 10666 (Oct. 2005), https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1546670
Blackness as Property: Sex, Race, Status, and Wealth, 1 Stan. J. C. R. & C.L.L. Rev. 51-169 (April 2005), http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1572684.
Green Business: Should We Revoke Corporate Charters for Environmental Violations, 63 La. L. Rev 175-241 (2003), reprinted 34 ELR (Feb. 2004), https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1517334
Extending the Veil to Solo Entrepreneurs: A Limited Liability Sole Proprietorship Act (LLSP), 2001 Col. Bus. L. Rev.381-430 (2001), https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1546547
The Supreme Court’s New Federalism: An Anti-Rights’ Agenda, 16 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 517-572 (2000), https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1560076
All That Glitters Is Not Gold: A Congressional-Driven Global Environmental Policy, 11 Geo. Int’l Envtl. L. Rev. 499-529 (1999), https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1572630
Federalism and Civil Rights, the Meredith Case, 11 Nat’l Black L.J. 301-315 (1989), https://ssrn.com/abstract=1550875