Marc L. Roark

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  Louisiana Outside Counsel of Health and Ethics Endowed Professor of Law

(225) 771-2552

mroark@sulc.edu

Prof. Marc Lane Roark is the Louisiana Outside Counsel of Health and Ethics Endowed Professor of Law at the Southern University Law Center, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.. He is also a Senior Fellow with the Native American Law and Policy Institute, a think tank dedicated to policies relating to Native American tribes in the U.S. and first nations in Canada. Professor Roark also holds an affiliated appointment at the University of Pretoria as a Research Associate Professor. Professor Roark is a member of the EVICT research network, a collaborative group of world wide scholars researching and collaborating on affordable housing issues world wide. Additionally, he serves on the Advisory Panel for the UNESCO Housing Chair at the Universitat Rovira I Virilli, in Tarragona Spain.
Professor Roark’s research primarily considers the how narrative and norms are scaled in Property conflicts around housing. Together with Lorna Fox O’Mahony (University of Essex) he is the author of Squatters and the State: Resilient Property Theory in an Age of Crisis.  His primary areas of work are in the study of housing and homelessness through the lens of property norms, including publications: Homelessness at the Cathedral (2015) 80 Missouri LR 53; Human Impact Statements (2015) 54 Washburn LJ 649; Under-propertied persons (2017) 26 Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy 1. In Scaling Commercial law in Indian Country, Roark describes how resources, tribal structures, and uniform legal processes influence adoption of secured finance legislation on Indian tribes. Hs work was the basis of the first economic impact study of secured transactions laws on indian tribes (See Dippel, Frye, Feir, and Roark, Secured Transactions Laws and Economic Development on American Indian Reservations, 111 AEA Papers and Proceedings 1 (2021). Professor Roark has published 21 articles in U.S. law journals and regularly serves as a peer reviewer for international journals and dissertations. He is currently working on a second book titled Under-Housed, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in 2023.

Professor Roark is a founding member of the Resilient Property Research Network, a collaborative research network aimed at illuminating the role of property in shaping state resilience around the globe.  He is also a member of the EVICT research network sponsored by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

Publications

BOOKS

1. Under-housed: How Property Regimes Impact the Poor (Forthcoming Cambridge University Press)
2. Squatting and the State (with Lorna Fox O’Mahony) (Forthcoming Cambridge University Press).
3. Color me Secured: Exploring Article 9 with Crayons (with Colin Marks) (2017).

ARTICLES (Citations to Article below entry)

1. Law, Literature, and Identity, published at Hedgehogs and Foxes
2. Under-Propertied Persons, 26 Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy 1 (2017) (selected as lead article).
3. Poetry and Property: Reflections on Marc R. Poirier (1952-2016), 3 Journal of Law Property and Society 13 (2016) (solicited tribute and reflection on scholarship of Marc Poirier).
4. Place and Identity in Lee and Warren, solicited colloquium article dedicated to Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman, forthcoming Cumberland Law Review (2016).
5. Retelling the English Sovereign, 4 British J. Amer. Legal Studies 81 (2015) (Peer Review).
6. Human Impact Statements, 54 Washburn L. J. 649 (2015) (solicited as part of Colloquium: Future of Housing).
7. Slavery, Property and Marshall in the Positivist Legal Tradition, 2 Savannah L. Rev. 45 (2015) (solicited as part of Colloquium: Reintegrating Spaces).
8. Homelessness at the Cathedral, 80 Missouri L. Rev. 53 (2015).
9. Payment Systems, Consumer Tragedy, and Ineffective Remedies, forthcoming in 88 Johns L. Rev. 39 (2014).
10. Disease, War, and Waste: A Consideration of External Factors on the Trade Fixtures Doctrine Between 1350-1803, 41 Cumberland L. Rev. 1 (2012) (selected as lead article for volume).
11. The Contracts Course Survey, 61 Legal Ed. 435 (Feb. 2012).
12. Limited Sales Warranties as an Alternative to Intellectual Property: An Empirical Analysis of the Deterrent impact on consumers of the I-Phone Warranties, Duke L & Tech. Rev. (Fall 2010).
13. Groping Along Between Things Real and Things Personal: Defining Fixtures in law and Policy in the UCC, 78 Cincinnati L. Rev. 1437 (2010).
14. The Real Property Interest in the UCC: Fixtures and Encumbrances, 42 UCC L. J. 197 (2010).
15. Loneliness and the Law: Solitude Action and Power in Law and Literature, 55 L. Rev 45 (2009).
16. Reading Mohammed in Charleston: Understanding U.S. Jurisprudential Approaches to Law, Language and Norms 14 Widener L. Rev. 205 (2007).
17. The CONSTITUTION as IDEA: Defining – Describing – Deciding in Kelo, 43 West. L. Rev. 363 (2007).
18. Opening the Barbarians’ Gate or Watching the Barbarians from the Coliseum: A Requiem on the Nomos of the Louisiana Civil Law, 67 L. Rev. 451 (2006).
19. All in the Family: The Apocalyptic Legal Tradition as Crit Theory, 75 UMKC Rev. 482 (2006).
20. Note, Warning! Road Block Ahead!: Louisiana creates Log Jam of Search and Seizure Analysis, 46 Loy. L. Rev. 1341 (2000).