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 law review articles
have been excerpted and appear 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 was the prime sponsor of 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 the Act to Repeal the
Death Penalty in New Jersey.
Since retiring from the Legislature, Professor Martin has been appointed as one of
four commissioners on the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation, charged with
uncovering crime, waste and mismanagement. The Governor also appointed him to serve
on the Board of Directors of Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the largest health insurer
in New Jersey. He also serves as the Education Policy Consultant to the Council of
State Governments/Eastern Regional Conference, headquartered in New York City, and
as a member of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal
Education (ICLE).
Professor Martin previously 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 was also a member of the Select Committee to Study the
Divorce Laws of New Jersey and chaired the Governor's Task Force on the Treatment
of the Criminally Insane. He has taught at Rutgers-Camden Law School as a Visiting
Professor and at Rutgers-Newark Law School as an Adjunct Professor.He is certified
as a Diplomat in Municipal Law by Rutgers University and the 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. 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.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
LAW REVIEW ARTICLES
Killing Capital Punishment in New Jersey: The First State in Modern History to Repeal
Its Death Penalty Statute,
41 U. Tol. L. Rev. 3
(2010)
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)
Charter School Accessibility for Historically Disadvantaged Students: The Experience
in New Jersey,
78 St. John's L. Rev. 327
(2004)
Charting the Court Challenges to Charter Schools,
109 Penn. St. L. Rev. 43
(2004)
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)
