Summer 2001

Prof.  MEREDITH DUNCAN  spoke on  "The (So-Called)Liability of Criminal Defense Attorneys: Our Ineffective, Illogical, and Inadequate System of Monitoring Criminal Defense Lawyering"  at the meeting of the  Southeastern Conference of the Association of American Law Schools  on Tuesday, July 17th  2001 in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Prof.  SANFORD GAINES  feels fortunate to have been away from Houston (and Alison) for the summer.   He worked on three piece:  1) a chapter on U.S. trade policy and sustainable development for a book on sustainable development to be published by the  Environmental Law Institute;   2) a chapter on investor claims for compensation under NAFTA for a book on NAFTA and the environment; and   3) further research into reflexive law and its (mis)application to environmental regulation, for a paper to be presented at a conference in October at Buffalo.

            Prof. Gaines’ major article on the shrimp-turtle decision in the  World Trade Organization  was accepted by the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Economic Law, and a chapter on trade and the environment in the Free Trade Area of the Americas written two years ago will finally appear in a book on trade and environment this fall.

            Prof. Gaines will be leading discussion on two separate topics related to public participation in international environmental law at the  Nordic Research Course  on "The New Procedural and Informative Instruments in Environmental Law" in Espoo, Finland, from August 19-23.   He'll be back at the Law Center on August 27.

Prof.  LONNIE HOFFMAN  was quoted in the most recent issue of the Texas Lawyer regarding the Fifth Circuit's July 23 decision in State of Texas v. Real Parties in Interest.   The Fifth Circuit's decision in this case concerned use of the  All Writs Act  as an independent statutory basis for removal, a topic on which Professor Hoffman previously has written an article that appeared in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review in 1999.

Prof.  CHRISTINE HURT  was appointed as a  Member  of the  Pattern Jury Charge  - Family Committee  of the  State Bar of Texas  for a 3_year term beginning  June 1, 2001.

            Prof. Hurt spoke twice at a conference sponsored by the  Association of Legal Writing Directors  entitled  “Erasing Lines: Integrating the Law  School Curriculum.”    On Friday, July 27, 2001, Prof. Hurt was a  commentator in a session on  “Do best pedagogical practices in legal education include a curriculum that integrates theory, skill, and  doctrine,”  responding to Dean Byron Cooper, Associate Dean of  University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.  Both Dean Cooper’s presentation and Christine’s response will be published in a symposium  monograph by West.   Prof. Hurt also lead a roundtable discussion on  Sunday, July 29, 2001 on the status of  Legal Writing Directors.

            Prof. Hurt also presented a seminar entitled “Legal Drafting” to  summer associates at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in  Houston, Texas on July 24, 2001.   Prof. Hurt is a Skadden alumna.

Prof.  CRAIG JOYCE  chaired the  Facilities Committee  during this summer’s recovery from  Tropical Storm Allison  and wishes to acknowledge the  Law Center’s  special debt of gratitude for the extraordinary efforts of committee members  Messrs. Robert Gonzalez and Jon Schultz.   Besides helping to restore the school to operation by the fall semester, the committee, under the direction of  Dean Nancy Rapoport  and  CFO Teresa Watts,  will oversee the build_back of 75,000 sq. ft. of damaged space for the spring semester, including a renovation of the former library basement to more than triple the area previously allocated to student organizations and  publications.

            In addition, Prof. Joyce published   “Welcome and Introduction: The Fifth Annual  Houston Law Review Frankel Lecture, Copyright and the Dead Sea Scrolls,”  in  38 Houston Law  Review xi (2001).   With the editors of the  Houston Law Review,  Prof. Joyce organized the highly  successful Lecture (and commentaries) presented at the  Law Center  last November and now  published in  Houston Law Review  (vol. 38, no. 1), and has assisted the Review in putting together a series of replies to the Lecture, to be published shortly.

            Prof. Joyce also organized the  Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law’s  highly  successful summer conference in Santa Fe, superbly moderated by fellow IPIL Co_Director  Raymond T. Nimmer,  on “E_Commerce and Privacy” (with proceedings also to be published in Houston Law Review), and judged the  American Bar Association’s  John R. Brown Competition for Excellence in Legal Writing (open to all current and graduating students at AALS_accredited  law schools).  In the latter capacity, Prof. Joyce succeeds the late Charles Alan Wright of the University  of Texas.

Prof.  PETER LINZER’s  article, “Rough Justice: A Theory of Restitution and Reliance, Contracts and Torts,”  2001 Wisconsin Law Review 695,  was published in July as part of a symposium on contracts.   It is followed by a commentary, Caroline N. Brown, Peter Linzer's "Rough Justice", 2001 Wisconsin Law Review 777.   Copies of the symposium issue are being distributed to all members of the AALS Contracts List Serve.   Prof. Linzer will attend the  ALI Members' Consultative Group  meeting on the  Restatement Third of Restitution  in Scottsdale, Arizona in early September, so the timing of the publication of the article is more than convenient.

Prof.  DOUGLAS MOLL’s  articles,  "Shareholder Oppression v. Employment at Will in the Close Corporation: The Investment Model Solution," 1999 University of Illinois Law Review 517,   &   "Shareholder Oppression in Close Corporations: The Unanswered Question of Perspective," 53 Vanderbilt Law Review 749,   were favorably cited in a recent  Minnesota Court of Appeals decision  (Gunderson v. Alliance of Computer Professionals, Inc., 628 N.W.2d 173 (Minn. Ct. App. 2001)). 

Prof.  LAURA OREN   published  “Righting Child Custody Wrongs: The Children of the ‘‘Disappeared” in Argentina,” 14 Harvard Human Rights Journal 123 (2001).

Prof.  JOE VAIL  fulfilled the following speaking engagements, or was quoted respecting same, since  Faculty Focus’  last publication:

Prof. Vail has also accepted a presentation request for  October 12th  to speak to the  University of Texas Immigration Law Conference,  San Antonio, Texas on waivers of inadmissability and defenses against deportability.


Rod Borlase, Editor