Robert J. Martin

 Professor of Law & Director of the Center of State and Local Government Law
 SETON HALL LAW SCHOOL

martinro@shu.edu
(973)642-8853
 
 
Biography & Scholarship
Biography
Publications
Curriculum Vitae
Courses & Syllabi
Property I and II
Legislation
Education Law
State Constitutional Law
State & Local Government
American Legal History
Zoning Land Use and Planning
Prof. Martin no longer runs the Judicial Externship Program
Biography

Professor Robert Martin focuses on major policy areas involving the operation of state and local governments. He has concentrated on issues impacting land use, education law, state constitutional law and legislation. Several of his articles on these topics have been excerpted and noted in leading law school textbooks.

From 1985 to 2008, Professor Martin served in the New Jersey State Legislature, the last fifteen years as a state senator representing portions of Morris, Essex and Passaic Counties. As a legislator, he sponsored more than a 100 laws, including the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act, the Open Public Records Act, the Comprehensive Educational Improvement and Financing Act and Repeal of New Jersey's Death Penalty.

In 2008, Professor Martin became the education policy consultant to the Council of State Governments/Eastern Regional Conference. In 2004-05 he was a visiting professor at Rutgers-Camden Law School and in  2006-07 he was an adjunct professor at Rutgers-Newark Law School.

He is certified as a Diplomat in Municipal Law by Rutgers University and NJ Institute of Municipal Attorneys and has completed leadership programs at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and the University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government. At New York University School of Law he was awarded the Seymour Goldstein Memorial Prize for academic excellence.

Professor Martin is a member of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education (ICLE), and formerly served on the Executive Committee of the Council of State Governments, the New Jersey State Employment and Training Commission, and the Education Commission of the States. He also served on the Select Committee to Study the Divorce Laws of New Jersey and chaired the Governor's Task Force on the Review of the Treatment of the Criminally Insane.

Before joining the Law School full-time in 1990, Professor Martin was a partner in a New Jersey law firm specializing in land use and municipal practice and represented numerous municipalities as municipal attorney, municipal prosecutor and zoning board attorney and as counsel to three statewide trade organizations.

State webpage:
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/Members/martin.asp

 
Publications
 

Law Review Articles

Killing Capital Punishment in New Jersey: The First State to Repeal Its Death Penalty Statute (forthcoming 2008). 

Elimination of Litigation by Legislation: The Statutory Salvation of St. Virgil School, 31 SETON HALL LEGISLATIVE JOURNAL 345 (2007).

Observations on a Jersey Jury, 185 N.J. L. J. 10 (2006).

Rigid Rules for Charter Schools: New Jersey as a Case Study, 36 Rutgers l.j. 439 (2005)

Charting the Court Challenges to Charter Schools, 109 Penn. St. L. Rev. 43 (2004).

Charter School Accessibility for Historically Disadvantaged Students: The Experience in New Jersey, 78 St. John's L. Rev. 327 (2004).
Judicial Selection in New Jersey, 6 Gov., Law & Pol. J. 25 (2001).

Reinforcing New Jersey's Bench: Power Tools for Remodeling Senatorial Courtesy and Refining Judicial Selection, 53 Rutgers L. Rev. 1 (2000).

A Matter of Simple Justice: Enactment of New Jersey's Municipal Public Defender Act, 51 Rutgers L. Rev. 637 (1999) (co-authored with Walter Kowalski).

Calling in Heavy Artillery to Attack Politics as Usual: Past and Prospective Deployment of Constitutional Conventions in New Jersey, 29 Rutgers L.J. 964 (1998).

Pursuing Public Protection through Community Notification of Sex Offenders: The Trials and Tribulations of Megan's Law, 6 B.U. Pub. Int. L..J. 29 (1997).

The Best in Public Service: A Tribute to Congressman Dean Gallo, 19 Seton Hall Legis. J. 299 (1995).

Fixing the Fiscal Police and Firetrap: A Critique of New Jersey's Compulsory Interest Arbitration Act, 17 SETON HALL LEGISLATIVE JOURNAL 59 (1993).

Other Publications

President Washington's Two First Inaugural Addresses, The washington association of new jersey (2006).

The Encyclopedia of New Jersey, rutgers university press (2004). Byline contributor for numerous legislative and judicial articles.

The Case for Convening a Constitutional Convention, new jersey lawyer, the magazine (1997).

School Boards are Scoring More Victories in the Supreme Court Than You Might Think, american school board journal (1979).