Professor Ryan Rowberry is an Assistant Professor in the College of Law at Georgia State University.

Abstract for "Restoring John Marshall's Missing Monument"
John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States, is revered as the “Great Chief Justice.” During his thirty-four years as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1801- 1835), he was instrumental in assuring America’s recognition of the judiciary as a third and coequal branch of government.

In 1882, Congress authorized a monument to John Marshall, consisting of two elements: (1) a statue; and (2) an outdoor public location in Washington, D.C. in which to place the statue. This national monument to John Marshall was completed in 1884 when a statue of John Marshall was formally erected outside of the West Front of the United States Capitol Grounds. Marshall’s Monument remained in existence until 1981 when Marshall’s statue was relocated to the basement of the U.S. Supreme Court building to make way for President Reagan’s inauguration ceremonies.

This paper argues that Congress should restore the national monument to John Marshall by rededicating the existing John Marshall Park, a derelict park located between the Canadian Embassy and the United State Court of Appeals for the Washington D.C. Circuit that contains a replica of the original John Marshall statue, as the John Marshall Memorial Park.

Explore the conceptual plan from 2007 and the conceptual plan from 2009.

About Ryan Rowberry
Ryan Rowberry is an Assistant Professor at the Georgia State University College of Law.  As a member of the Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth, he teaches Property Law, Environmental Law, and Legal History.  Professor Rowberry's research concentrates on the historical development of property and natural resources law.  He also examines legal issues facing Coptic Christians in Egypt.  His most recent article, A Brief History of Coptic Personal Status Law, was published by the Berkeley Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Law in 2010.  

Professor Rowberry graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was an Islamic Legal Studies Fellow, a Cravath International Fellow, and received the Irving Oberman Award in Legal History.  Following graduation, he practiced environmental and natural resources law at Hogan Lovells in Washington, DC.  Immediately prior to joining the College of Law, Professor Rowberry was a Supreme Court Fellow, during which he collaborated with foreign judges and academics on judicial independence and rule-of-law matters.

Before attending law school, Professor Rowberry worked as a historian and an educator.  He transcribed and collated all extant medieval manuscripts for three of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.  He also taught 7th grade at a charter school and lectured in English and History at Peking University in Beijing, China.  He holds a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University and was selected as a Rhodes Scholar.  At Oxford University he earned a M.Sc. in Comparative Education Policy and a M.St. in Medieval British History.