John Kip Cornwell

Image of Interim Dean John Kip Cornwell

Interim Dean and Professor of Law

  • Degrees:

  • J.D., Yale Law School | M.Phil., University of Cambridge | A.B., Harvard University

  • Contact:

  • [email protected]
  • Tel: 973-642-8498
  • Curriculum Vitae

  • Courses:

  • Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Medical Malpractice

Dean Cornwell joined the Seton Hall Law faculty in 1994 and he served as Associate Dean for Academics from 2006 to 2009. He was named the Interim Dean of Seton Hall Law in November 2022.

His scholarship focuses on the intersection of criminal and mental health law, with particular attention to the constitutional limits on states’ authority to manage criminal offending linked to mental disability. Within this context, his articles have addressed schoolyard shooters, sexual predators, persons found not guilty by reason of insanity, and offenders suffering from addiction. He is also interested in the increased blurring of criminal and civil enforcement in a variety of contexts, including RICO, sexting by minors, and the treatment of lawful permanent residents. His articles have appeared in the Washington & Lee Law Review, Houston Law Review, SMU Law Review, and the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, among others. In 2010, he authored The Glannon Guide to Criminal Procedure, whose fifth edition was published by Wolters Kluwer in 2021.

Dean Cornwell teaches criminal law, criminal procedure and medical malpractice and has been voted Professor of the Year by the student body eight times. He has provided commentary in criminal cases in print and broadcast media, including The New York Times, Time magazine, the Associated Press, the New Jersey Star Ledger, and CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox News. He also lectures on criminal law and procedure for the nation’s leading Bar review company.

Dean Cornwell received his A.B., with honors, from Harvard University, his M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University, and his J.D. from Yale Law School where he was an Editor of the Yale Law Journal. He clerked for the Honorable Mariana R. Pfaelzer of the United States District Court for the Central District of California and the Honorable Dorothy W. Nelson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Before joining the Seton Hall law faculty, he served as a senior trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice where he received a Special Achievement Award from the U.S. Attorney General for "sustained, superior performance."

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

LAW REVIEW ARTICLES

Status-Based Prosecution: Conflict, Confusion and the Quest for Coherence, 25 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 107 (2023)

The Search for Answers: Overcoming Chaos and Inconsistency in the Opioid Crisis, 47 Mitchell Hamline L. Rev. (2021)

Opioid Courts and the Judicial Management of the Opioid Crisis, 49 Seton Hall L. Rev. 997 (2019)

RICO Run Amok, 71 SMU L. Rev. 1017 (2018)

The Quasi-Criminality Revolution, 85 UMKC L. Rev. 311 (2017)

Sex Offender Residency Restrictions: Government Regulation of Public Health, Safety and Morality, 24 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 1 (2015)

Sexting:  21st Century Statutory Rape, 66 SMU L. Rev. 111 (2013)

A Constitutional Right to Community Treatment for Sexually Violent Predators following Civil Commitment, 34 Seton Hall L. Rev. 1213 (2004)

Teaching Criminal Law, 48 St. Louis L. J. 1167 (2004)

Preventing Kids from Killing, 37 Hous. L.Rev. 21 (2000)

The New Jersey Sexually Violent Predator Act: Analysis and Recommendations for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders in New Jersey, 24 Seton Hall Legisl. J. 1 (1999) (with John V. Jacobi & Philip. H. Witt)

Protection not Punishment: The Permissible Civil Detention of Sexual Predators, 53 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. 1293 (1996)

Confining Mentally Disordered “Super Criminals:” A Realignment of Rights in the Nineties, 33 Hous. L . Rev. 651 (1996)

CRIPA: The Failure of Federal Intervention for Mentally Retarded People, 97 Yale L.J. 845 (1988)

BOOKS

The Glannon Guide to Criminal Procedure, Fifth Edition, Wolters Kluwer (2021)

The Glannon Guide to Criminal Procedure, Fourth Edition, Wolters Kluwer (2019)

The Glannon Guide to Criminal Procedure, Third Edition, Aspen Publishers (2015)

The Glannon Guide to Criminal Procedure, Second Edition, Aspen Publishers (2012)

The Glannon Guide to Criminal Procedure, Aspen Publishers (2010)

BOOK CHAPTERS

OTHER JOURNAL ARTICLES

Exposing the Myths Surrounding Preventive Outpatient Commitment for Individuals with Chronic Mental Illness, 9 Psychol. Pub. Pol'y & L. 209 (2003) (with Raymond Deeney)

Understanding the Role of the Police and Parens Patriae Powers in Involuntary Civil Commitment Before and After Hendricks, 4 Psychol., Pub. Pol’y & Law 1 (1998)

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

The Right to Community Treatment for Mentally Disordered Sex Offenders, in The Sexual Predator, Civil Research Institute (2006) (Schlank, Anita, ed.)

Legislative Responses: Panel Critique, in Sexually Coercive Behavior: Understanding and Management, 989 Annals of the N.Y. Acad. of Sci. 355 (2003) (with Thomas Grisso)

Sex Offenders and the Supreme Court: The Significance of Kansas v. Hendricks, in Protecting Society from Sexually Dangerous Offenders: Law Justice and Therapy, American Psychological Ass’n, 2003 (2003) (Winick, Bruce J. & La Fond, John Q., eds.)

PRESENTATIONS

Full list of presentations available in Curriculum Vitae

Responses to the U.S. Opioid Crisis, Responses to the U.S. Presenter, XXXIXth Congress of the International Academy of Law and Mental HealthOpioid Crisis (July 2019)

Student Bar Association Professor of the Year, (2018) (2017-18; 2013-14; 2010-11; 2007-08; 2004-05; 2001-02; 1998-99; 1995-96)

The Evolution of Opioid Courts in the United States, Presenter, Symposium on Race and the Opioid Crisis: History and Lessons, Seton Hall Law Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy and the Seton Hall Law Review (co-sponsors) (October 2018)

Protecting Adolescents in the 21st Century, Presenter, Symposium on Cybersecurity, Institute for Law, Science & Technology (June 2011)

Sex Offender Residency Restrictions and Medieval Banishment, Presenter, XXXIVth Congress of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health (July 2009)