Professor Scalise Named Eason-Weinmann Chair of International and Comparative Law

Ronald J. Scalise Jr., a nationally recognized scholar of civil and comparative law, has been named the Eason-Weinmann Chair of International and Comparative Law and the director of the Eason-Weinmann Center.

The Eason-Weinmann Chair is one of Tulane Law School’s most distinguished endowed chairs, created through the generosity of Ambassador John Giffen Weinmann and Virginia Eason Weinmann to strengthen Tulane’s global leadership in comparative and international law. As director of the Eason-Weinmann Center for International and Comparative Law, Scalise will lead a hub for scholarship and dialogue that brings legal scholars from around the world to Tulane.

“Professor Ron Scalise is one of the leading civil law scholars of his generation and a pillar of Tulane Law’s intellectual community,” said Tulane Law School Dean Marcilynn Burke. “His appointment to the Eason-Weinmann Chair recognizes the distinction of his scholarship, and his leadership of the center will advance Tulane Law’s longstanding strength in international and comparative law. His work in law reform has expanded access to justice for families across our state and nation, and his teaching has influenced generations of Tulane lawyers. The Eason-Weinmann Chair is a fitting recognition of the extraordinary impact he has on our school and the legal profession.”

Scalise joined the Tulane law faculty in 2009 and served as vice dean of the school from 2012 to 2016. Prior to his appointment as the Eason-Weinmann Chair, Scalise served as the John Minor Wisdom Professor of Civil Law.

Scalise’s scholarship and service have placed him at the center of national and international efforts to study and reform trusts and estates law. He serves as reporter for multiple projects of the Uniform Law Commission, which drafts model legislation for states to consider, and holds several leadership roles in the Louisiana State Law Institute, where he helps guide legislative reform in areas including succession, trust law and property.

He also serves as editor of the Louisiana Civil Code, the foundational legal text used by judges and attorneys across the state to interpret and apply Louisiana law, and contributes to six volumes of the Louisiana Civil Law Treatise series. In 2025, the nonprofit Louisiana Appleseed honored him with its Good Apple Award for Pro Bono Service, recognizing his leadership in drafting legislation aimed at improving access to justice and modernizing aspects of Louisiana law.

Among those efforts, Scalise helped lead reforms to Louisiana’s law on wills, culminating in legislation that simplifies will formalities and makes the process more accessible to individuals without sophisticated legal representation. He also spearheaded changes allowing low-income applicants to proceed without paying filing fees in succession cases, expanding access to the courts for families handling inheritance matters. Additionally, he led a multiyear effort to address the longstanding problem of heirs property, in which land passes informally through generations without a formal succession.

Scalise’s broader scholarship focuses on civil and comparative law, particularly inheritance and wealth-transfer systems across different legal traditions. His work has been widely cited and published in numerous national and international journals and by academic presses. He has also been elected to several of the legal academy’s most respected organizations, including the American Law Institute, the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, the International Academy of Comparative Law and the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law. He is a board member of the American Society of Comparative Law and has served as treasurer of that organization since 2019.

At Tulane, Scalise teaches courses in civil law property, obligations, security rights, community property, successions and donations, and trusts and estates. His teaching and scholarship have earned numerous honors, including the Felix Frankfurter Award for excellence in teaching — an honor he has received twice — the Hessel Yntema Prize for comparative law, and the John Minor Wisdom Award for the best civil law article published in the Tulane Law Review.