(239) 687-5300
Jane Adolphe
Professor of Law
Canon Law
Criminal Law
Family Law
Human Rights Law
International Human Rights
International Law
Education
- 2021- 2026 Postdoctoral Program, Department of Theology, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome Italy (ten publications authored or edited alone or with others in the area of law; seven of them peer reviewed)
- 2016 Visiting Fellow, University of Calgary, Faculty of Law, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
- 2009 Seminar for Advanced Studies in Public and Private International Law on the Protection of Children, L’Academie de Droit International de La Haye, The Hague, Netherlands
- 2001 Doctorate in Canon Law, Pontificia Università della Santa Croce, Rome, Italy
- 1997 Licentiate in Canon Law, Pontificia Università della Santa Croce, Rome, Italy
- 1990 LL.B/B.C.L., (Common Law & Civil law degrees), University of McGill, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- 1985 B.A. (major: Political Science), University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Professional Experience
Dr. Jane Adolphe is called to practice law in the State of New York, USA and Province of Alberta, Canada with degrees in civil law (LL.B/B.C.L) and canon law (J.C.L/J.C.D). As a Professor of Law at Ave Maria School of Law (AMSL), in Naples, Florida (2001 – present), with an expertise in international human rights law, from 2003 she worked for the Holy See (Pope), Secretariat of State, Section for Relations for States, first as an outside legal advisor for Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, then in 2011, during the final years of Pope Benedict VI’s papacy, as an inside expert on international human rights issues within the United Nations System in Vatican City State, and continued into the papacy of Pope Francis, until her resignation in 2020.
While working for the Holy See, in her capacity as Professor of Law, Adolphe established the International Center on Law, Life, Faith and Family (ICOLF), in 2014, as a forum for Catholic jurists guided by the Holy See’s Charter on the Rights of the Family. It was renamed the International Catholic Jurists Forum (ICJF), in 2021. Under the auspices of this forum, Adolphe has organized multiple international conferences on topics of relevance for the Holy See, some of which have resulted in the publication of books that she has co-edited: Clerical Sexual Misconduct: An Interdisciplinary Analysis (Cluny: 2020); Equality and Non-discrimination: Catholic Roots, Current Challenges (Pickwick: 2019); The Persecution of Christians in the Middle East: Prevention, Prohibition, Prosecution (Angelico Press: 2018).
Another notable book co-edited by Adolphe is St. Paul, the Natural Law and Contemporary Legal Theory (Lexington: 2012). A dialogue between theologians at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, in Detroit, Michigan, and law professors at AMSL, it was the outcome document of a speaking series organized by Adolphe and Dr. Robert Fastiggi during the “Year of St. Paul”, declared by Pope Benedict XVI. The book responds to a specific request for a conference on the natural law made by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (as Pope Benedict XVI then was) to AMSL President and Dean, at the time, Bernard Dobranski.
Adolphe was awarded the top 20 persons (6th) of 2020 by Inside the Vatican Magazine for her courage and determination. She was described as a “tireless advocate for victims of abuse and persecution,” and was also profiled as a guest on the Series: Where are they now?” regarding her athletic career with the University of Calgary Dinos basketball team, her career as a law professor, and work with the Pope. She recently appeared on EWTN live with Father Mitch Pacwa to speak about “Catholic thought and Human Rights.” Most recently, Adolphe together with Elizabeth Westhoff of AMSL prepared a series of videos under the auspices of the ICJF to help launch the Global Call to Prayer for China Campaign organized by a coalition of lay Catholics and Christians from around the globe.
She began her legal career clerking with the Court of Appeal and Queens Bench in Calgary, Alberta, and the law firm Bennett Jones Verchere, then prosecuted criminal cases for the Alberta Crown Prosecutor’s Office, and later worked as a legal consultant to a law firm in Rome, and to non-governmental organizations lobbying at United Nations’ conferences, before participating as a member of various delegations of the Holy See at international meetings.
Her doctoral thesis in canon law is entitled: A Light to the Nations: The Holy See and the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. She has published numerous articles on international human rights and the Holy See, and holds a Bachelor of Arts and four law degrees: licentiate and doctorate in canon law (J.C.L/J.C.D) from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, in Rome, Italy; common law (LL.B), and civil law (B.C.L.) from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Adolphe also holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Calgary.
Honors & Professional Affiliations
- Member, State Bar of New York, USA Member, Bar of Alberta, Canada
- Founder & Executive Director, International Catholic Jurists Forum
- Senior Advisor, Global Liberty Alliance
- Board of Advisors, International Solidarity and Human Rights Institute International Advisory Board, Campion College (Australia) SERVICE TO THE HOLY SEE (POPE)
- Expert for the Secretariat of State, Second Section (2011 – 2020) Consultant for the Secretariat of State, Second Section (2003-2011) Member of Delegation or Representative
Presentations Delivered on Behalf of the Holy See
- Certain Aspects in International Law and Policy on Women, Children, Peace and Security, Holy See Secretariat of State, Section for Relations with States” (2018)
- Holy See, Jane Adolphe (Point of order), 2011 High Level Meeting on AIDS, 95th plenary meeting, 10 June 2011, available on-line.
- Holy See, Jane Adolphe (Statement, 2011 High Level Meeting on AIDS, 95th plenary meeting, 10 June 2011
- Holy See, 55th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, United Nations, New York, March 2011
- 2010 World Youth Conference, Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico 23-27 August
Participation as Diplomat on Delegation
- Inter-Active Dialogue between the Holy See and the Committee on the Rights of the Child regarding the Reports of the Holy See submitted to the Committee pursuant to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the relevant Optional Protocols, 65th Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, 13-31 January 2014, Palais Wilson, Geneva, 16-17 January 2014.
- Human Dimension Implementation Conference, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Warsaw, 24 September -5 October 2013.
- International Catholic Legislative Network, Fourth Annual Conference September 29 to October 1, 2013, Frascati, Italy/ International Catholic Jurists Network, First Annual Conference, September 29 to October 1, 2013, Frascati, Italy.
- Human Dimension Implementation Conference, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Warsaw, 24 September -5 October 2012.
- “Seminar on the Role of Civil Society in Combating Hate Crimes Against Christians,” Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), 26-27 June 2012, Rome
- 54th Session of the Commission on Population and Development, on “Fertility, Reproductive Health and Development” April 2011, New York
- 55th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, on “Access and participation of women and girls in education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work”, March 2011, New York
- United Nations General Assembly, High Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS, New York, 2011
- United Nations, General Assembly, High Level Millennium Development Goals, Meeting, September 2010.
- World Youth Conference Mexico, Léon, Guanajuato, 23 -27 August 2010
- Seminar for Advanced Studies in Public and Private International Law on the Protection of Children, L’Academie de Droit International de La Haye, The Hague, Netherlands 2009 (unofficial representative of the Holy See).
- Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OCSE), Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Holburg, Vienna 9- 10 July 2009.
- World Congress III against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, Rio de Janiero, 25-28 November 2008.
- United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Regular Session, Women’s Resolution & Children’s Resolution, Geneva, April 3-18 2005.
- United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Regional Preparatory Meeting on the 10-Year Review of the Beijing Platform for Action, Geneva, December 14- 15, 2005.
- United Nations General Assembly, 58th Session, Third Committee, Agenda Item
- Promotion and Protection of Children’s Rights, 17-21 October, New York, 2003.
- Top 10 persons of 2020 (6th), Inside the Vatican Magazine (2021)
- University of Calgary Profile: Where are they Now? Success on the court – Basketball and Law (2021)
- City of Calgary Booster Club Award (1985) All Canadian Basketball First Team (1985) Canada West Player of the Year (1985)
- Canada West All-Stars First Team (1983, 1984, 1985) Canada West All-Stars Second Team (1982)
AWARDS AND HONORS
- Top 10 persons of 2020 (6th), Inside the Vatican Magazine (2021)
- University of Calgary Profile: Where are they Now? Success on the court – Basketball and Law (2021)
- City of Calgary Booster Club Award (1985) All Canadian Basketball First Team (1985) Canada West Player of the Year (1985)
- Canada West All-Stars First Team (1983, 1984, 1985) Canada West All-Stars Second Team (1982)
- Alberta Provincial Basketball Team
- Jimmie Condon Scholarship, for athletic and scholarly achievement (three times) Numerous tournament and conference all-star awards for athletic achievement in basketball
PERSONAL/OTHER
- Member of the University of Calgary Basketball Team (1980-1985), Canadian National “B” Basketball Team (summer 1983), and various running teams specializing in 400 and 800 meter races (1985-2001)
- Languages: English (mother tongue); Italian (advanced); French (advanced reading comprehension); Spanish (intermediate reading comprehension).
Courses Taught
- International Law
- International Law and Human Rights
- International Law and the Holy See
- International Family Law
- International Law Human Rights and International Crimes
- Human Rights and the United Nations System
- Canon Law, Papal Diplomacy, Family Law, Criminal Law
Publications
The editors of this unique collection of essays exploring the relationship of St. Paul and the natural law bring together contributions by scripture scholars, theologians, philosophers, and international lawyers. Inspired by the special Jubilee Year from June 2008 to June 2009 – proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI to celebrate the 2,000-year anniversary of the birth of St. Paul – the chapters in this book are the fruit of the contributors’ collaboration during the celebration of the Year of St. Paul. They share a common appreciation of the natural law as a basis for civil law and contemporary legal theory, and each chapter examines the foundations of the natural law – particularly in the writings of St. Paul – giving special recognition to the Catholic contributions to natural law and contemporary legal theory.
Equality and Non-discrimination: Catholic Roots, Current Challenges
This volume explores ways of understanding equality and non-discrimination. Drawing on the timeless logic of realist philosophy, Catholic morality, and Catholic social teaching, the authors seek to provide intellectual clarity on many controversial questions.
The contributors are lawyers, philosophers, and theologians who offer rich insights into the modern crisis of social thought on equality. They examine various global assaults on human life, marriage, the family, and the natural dignity of masculinity and femininity. They seek to uphold the essential foundations of reality for the attainment of the common good. The contributors attempt to move beyond a positivist mentality in order to evaluate the first principles of the natural law in which all human law is grounded.
The various chapters evaluate developments and application of theories of equality and non-discrimination in the history of Western thought; in modern European practice; in contemporary inter-American practice; in the Asian setting; in the Middle East and North Africa; and in the Catholic canon law tradition. The authors strive to restore a universally valid conception of equality and non-discrimination as understood within the Catholic tradition.
The Persecution and Genocide of Christians in the Middle East
In the summer 2014, ISIS waged a bloody blitz through Iraq’s Nineveh province, crucifying, beheading, raping, torturing, forcibly converting to Islam, and driving out every member of the region’s 2000-year-old Christian community. Christian girls, as young as three, were sold at ISIS sex slave markets in Mosul. Ancient churches were burned and ISIS attacked dozens of Christian towns in Syria. The beheading in 2015 of 21 Egyptian Copts was videotaped by ISIS and became a searing, iconic symbol of this wave of persecution that threatens to eradicate Christianity in the Middle East. Many in the West, even Christians, remain unaware of the scale of this persecution, and even fewer know what can be done about it.
Inspired by Pope Francis’ denunciation of these acts as “genocide,” a group of Catholic legal scholars, writers, and theologians began work on The Persecution and Genocide of Christians in the Middle East. Its case studies focus on persecuted Christians, but its analysis equally applies to the other victims. In the United States, military and diplomatic responses are contemplated and sometimes undertaken. But what about the legal system? Are there things we can or should be trying? That question animates this book as it explores various facets of religious persecution, examining ISIS’s ideology and their relationship to Islam as practiced by most Muslims, as well as exploring the nature of religious freedom. Practical, relevant, and rich in ideas, this book addresses the most crucial religious freedom issue of our day. It is a primer for Christians, students of international human rights, and all concerned about religious persecution.
Clerical Sexual Misconduct: An Interdisciplinary Analysis
What is truly remarkable about this book is the breadth and depth of the analysis of the entire sex abuse crisis from men and women possessed of deep Catholic identity and firmly committed to authentic Catholic renewal. – From the foreword by Jeffrey Mirus
In 2018, as accounts of clerical sexual misconduct in Chile, Honduras, and the United States roiled the Catholic Church, an international meeting of experts in journalism, law, pastoral care, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and theology, was convened to study the incidence of clerical sexual abuse of males. Under the skilled editorship of Jane F. Adolphe and Ronald J. Rychlak, Clerical Sexual Misconduct: An Interdisciplinary Analysis is the result of that meeting and the incisive, insightful studies that it generated.
Part I: Challenges—Church Culture and the Social Sciences explores the data on clerical sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and also exposes prevalent cultural myths that conceal the roots of the problem.
Part II: Contributing Factors—Extra-Church and Intra-Church Influences situates the problem of clerical sexual abuse amidst the surrounding problems, including the broader cultural roots of abuse, Catholic organizational culture, and clericalism.
Part III: Consequences—Legal and Policy Issues examines Canon Law, Criminal Law, and Civil Law and their impact on the punishment and control of abuse.
Part IV: Charting the Course Forward—Biblical, Theological and Pastoral Reflections identifies the Catholic roots of a true and abiding solution.
JANE ADOLPHE, ROBERT FASTIGGI, MICHAEL VACCA, EDS., ST. PAUL, THE NATURAL LAW AND CONTEMPORARY LEGAL THEORY, [Hard Cover] (Lexington: 2012).
Gender Wars at the United Nations, 11 AVE MARIA LAW REVIEW 1-31 (2012)
“New Rights” What International Law Actually Says? 10 AVE MARIA LAW REVIEW 149-168 (2012)
The Pope’s Peace and Security Council Resolution 1325, 5 AVE MARIA LAW REVIEW 429 (2007)
Chapter 20: Same Sex Marriage in Canada: The Debate About the Best Interests of Children, in LYNN D. WARDLE, CAMILLE S. WILLIAMS, EDS., FAMILY LAW: BALANCING INTERESTS AND PRIORITIES, (William S. Hein & Co: 2007).
Chapter 18: The Principles and Canada’s Beyond Conjugality Report: The Move Towards the Abolition of State Marriage Laws in ROBIN FRETWELL WILSON, ED., RECONCEIVING THE FAMILY, (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006).
Chapter 10: Holy See and Convention on the Rights of the Child: Moral Problems in Negotiation and Implementation, in H. WATT ED., COOPERATION COMPLICITY, AND CONSCIENCE: MORAL PROBLEMS IN HEALTHCARE, SCIENCE, LAW, AND PUBLIC POLICY (London: Linacre Center, 2005).
Book Chapters
- Chapter: Natural Law, Rights of the Family, and International Human Rights Instruments, in Tom P. S. Angier, Iain T. Benson & Mark Retter (eds.), THE CAMBRIDGE HANDBOOK OF NATURAL LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS. Cambridge University Press (2022)
- Chapter: Organizational Culture and Male-on-Male Sexual Violence: A Comparative Study in Jane Adolphe, Ronald Rychlak, eds. CLERICAL SEXUAL MISCONDUCT: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ANALYSIS (CLUNY MEDIA: 2020).
- Chapter: The International Personality and Sovereignty of the Holy See, in Stefanus Hendrianto,S.J., ed. PRIESTS, LAWYERS, AND SCHOLARS: ESSAYS IN HONOR OF ROBERT J. ARAUJO, SJ., (Franciscan University Press: 2017)
- Chapter 5: Sexual Violence as a Tactic of Terror: The Plight of Christian Women and Children, in THE PERSECUTION AND GENOCIDE OF CHRISTIANS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: PREVENTION, PROHIBITION AND PROSECUTION, (Angelico Press: 2017).
Articles
- What the Holy See Has to Say about Violence Against Women and Girls: Commission on the Status of Women, 57th Session, 27 March 2013 in Zenit.org
- What the Pope has to Say about Women and Aids, 14 June 2011, in Zenit.org
Presentations
- Professor Adolphe presented at a Men’s Conference organized by the “God Squad” in Calgary Alberta. It was the first time in the history of the organization that a woman presented.
- Professor Adolphe’s topic was entitled Three Popes on Joy: Part 1 and Part 2. View Here