Ave Maria School of Law

Ave Maria School of Law offers a high quality legal education with a commitment to professional excellence, rooted in the Catholic intellectual tradition. Our school motto is Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason.) Inspired by Pope John Paul II’s 1998 encyclical, Fides et Ratio, Ave Maria School of Law offers a distinctive legal education — an education characterized by the harmony of faith and reason. In fact, Ave Maria Law is the only law school in the United States to offer a concentration in Natural Law.

Pope John Paul II wrote Fides et Ratio to address the relationship between faith and reason. It was written primarily to address and defend traditional Christian philosophy. His Holiness believed that faith and reason together allow people to know and love God.