Religion & Law

I offer one answer to Michael's question, "Does a Bishop stand as an outsider to a Catholic University within his diocese?"  While I am aware that the Church internally attempts to maintain standards according to Ex Corde Ecclesiae, primarily through the mandatum, I believe that it is extremely important that bishops remain outsiders as a matter of governance.  If bishops or religious orders exercise control over universities, they potentially open themselves up to enterprise liability or reverse piercing claims that would allow seizure of university assets to settle debts.  These sorts of claims are being brought against institutions in order to satisfy tort claims that have led to diocese and religious province bankruptcy.  The strongest argument to defend against such claims is that the university is operated as a truly independent entity.