Select Page

David A. Dittfurth

Professor of Law

 

Contact Information

Education

  • LL.M., University of Texas, Austin, 1973
  • J.D., University of Texas, Austin, 1967
  • B.A., University of Texas, Austin, 1965

Specialties and Courses

  • Advanced Constitutional Law—Freedom of Speech
  • Civil Restitution in Texas
  • Civil procedure
  • Remedies

Biography

Shortly after graduating from UT Law School in 1967, Dittfurth was drafted into the United States Army and did his basic training in Fort Polk, Louisiana, before doing a tour in Vietnam. Upon his discharge in 1969, he began his legal practice with Brown & Bradshaw, Attorneys at Law in Houston, Texas. In 1972, Dittfurth left practice and enrolled in the LL.M. program at UT Law School. After completing his degree program in 1973, he was hired for a Teaching Fellowship at the University of Indiana School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana. In 1974, he returned to Texas and began working for the Law Research Corporation in Austin, Texas. Beginning in the fall semester of 1975, he was employed as a full-time teacher at St. Mary’s University School of Law where he has remained until the present. From 1989 until 1993, he served as the Associate Dean (academic affairs) for St. Mary’s University School of Law.

Publications

Books

  • CIVIL RESTITUTION IN TEXAS (2016). This book, though currently unpublished, represents the edited cases, notes, and materials I have accumulated for the course I created — Civil Restitution in Texas.
  • LEARNING CIVIL PROCEDURE (2007), published by Carolina Academic Press.
  • THE CONCEPTS AND METHODS OF FEDERAL CIVIL PROCEDURE (1999), published by Carolina Academic Press

Articles

  • The Texas Constructive Trust and its Peculiar Requirements, 50 Tex. Tech. L. Rev. 447, (2018)
  • Restitution in Texas: Civil Liability for Unjust Enrichment, 54 S. Tex. L. Rev. 225 (2012).
  • A Theory of Equal Protection, 14 St. Mary’s Law Journal 829 (1983).
  • Rule 3, The Enabling Act, And Statutes of Limitations, 1981 Southern Illinois University Law Journal 329.
  • The Younger Abstention Doctrine: Primary State Jurisdiction Over Law Enforcement, 10 St. Mary’s Law Journal 445 (1979).
  • Unequal Justice: Lawyers And Social Change in Modern America, 9 St. Mary’s Law Journal 174 (1977).
  • Judicial Reasoning and Social Change, 50 Indiana Law Journal 258 (1975).

Media Highlights