Can we have fair tax laws? What is poverty? What is wealth? Why would the Boy Scouts want to include homosexuals as group leaders? Are Americans willing to sue anyone or anything?

A variety of topics will be explored by business law professor Fred Naffziger during a public lecture at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, in Room 1001, Wiekamp Hall, Indiana University South Bend.

The presentation, “Legal Issues: A Call for Context in Public Discussion,” is the fall Faculty Research Lecture. The evening is free and open to the public.

Administrators and other faculty members nominate their peers for the Faculty Research Award. As a nationally known scholar on labor law and corporate law, Naffziger, who has been a faculty member at IU South Bend since 1973, was cited for the high quality of his research and writing.

Naffziger’s lecture will focus on common sense perspectives on First Amendment rights, tax laws, poverty issue and tort law.

In 2003, Naffziger was interviewed and quoted in numerous newspapers and broadcasts after his article on bankruptcy and the Catholic Church was published in America, a national Catholic weekly from New York, as the issue was being raised in the Boston Archdiocese.

The Portland, Ore., archdiocese declared bankruptcy in the spring of 2004 and Naffziger was once again quoted and courted by the media for his views.

Naffziger said that the bankruptcy of the Catholic Church could have a far ranging affect on other entities such as church sponsored schools and charities. “There is a whole labyrinth (of affiliations) that people are unaware of.”

In addition to his years at IU South Bend, he also served for a time as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, University of Texas-Arlington, and he taught in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia in an Indiana University project for the Arabian American Oil Company.

During part of his time at IU South Bend he served as the director of the Graduate Business Program.

He received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Illinois (BA 1967 and JD 1970) and attended The Hague Academy of International Law in The Netherlands.

Naffziger holds Illinois and Texas law licenses. He is an arbitrator in the commercial, labor and securities fields. He is an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association, National Association of Securities Dealers, New York Stock Exchange, and the National Futures Association.