Professor Mary Anne Bobinski was a presenter on “HIV Testing, Confidentiality, & Reporting,” National Gay & Lesbian Bar Association’s National Conference in Dallas, Texas on October 28th 2001, and on "Senate Bill 11 & Health Care Privacy" at the Texas Medical Center Compliance Officer Meeting on November 16th 2001.
Clinical Professor Katherine Brem spoke Saturday, November 10th 2001 at Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law on tips for taking the essay and multistate practice test portions of the Texas Bar Exam.
Professor Johnny Rex Buckles’ article, "The Case for the Taxpaying Good Samaritan: Deducting Earmarked Transfers to Charity under Federal Income Tax Law, Theory and Policy," has been accepted for publication in the Fordham Law Review.
Professor Seth Chandler’s article, “Visualizing Adverse Selection: An Economic Approach to the Law of Insurance Underwriting,” has been accepted for publication in the Spring 2002 issue of the Connecticut Insurance Law Journal.
Professor David R. Dow’s essay, “War Leads to the Erosion of Civil Liberties,” was syndicated by the Progressive Media Project and distributed by Knight Ridder to various newspapers on October 2nd. His essay, "States’ Rights Lose Again in the Bush Administration," dealing with the Bush's Administration's response to Oregon's assisted suicide law, appeared in the Dallas Morning News on November 13th 2001. Prof. Dow recently filed a Petition for Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court on behalf of death row inmate Johnny Joe Martinez, whom he has been appointed to represent; Prof. Dow's co-counsel is Andrew Hammel, a Law Center alum now teaching in Germany.
Professor Sanford Gaines made a presentation on "Reflexive Law Lessons for Sustainable Development" on October 13th at a conference at the SUNY-Buffalo Law School on Environmental Law & Stewardship for a Sustainable Society. Along with other Law Center colleagues (Professors Stephen Zamora, Tom Oldham, Laura Oren and with Sharon Gibson-Mainka), Prof. Gaines participated in the three-day curriculum development workshop for the North American Consortium on Legal Education held November 9th-11th 2001.
Associate Dean Sandra Guerra-Thompson has been appointed as an Advisor on the new American Law Institute's Model Penal Code: Sentencing Project. The project will endeavor to draft a model for sentencing laws at the state level and is expected to last for approximately five years.
Professor Lonny Hoffman’s book review, “A Window into the Courts: Legal Process & the 2000 Presidential Election,” appeared at 95 Northwestern University Law Review 1533 (Summer 2001).
Professor Paul Janicke co-chaired the Law Center’s Institute for Intellectual Property & Information Law’s Annual Conference November 8th-10th in Galveston, which enjoyed full capacity attendance (160). On November 12th Prof. Janicke spoke on the past year's developments in patent law at the Center for American & International Law Study’s (formerly, Southwestern Legal Foundation’s) 39th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference in Dallas.
Professor Craig Joyce presented the faculty the Facilities Committee’s comprehensive recommendation, culminating five months' work, for a build-back of the Law Center's buildings damaged by Tropical Storm Allison. Prof. Joyce also attended the American Society for Legal History's Annual Meeting in Chicago, where he was reappointed as Chair of the Committee on Conferences & the Annual Meeting. (The University of Houston Law Center hosted the 25th Anniversary Gala National Meeting in 1996.) Prof. Joyce has served continuously as an officer, Executive Committee member, board member or committee chair of the Society since 1981, a Society record.
Professor Douglas Moll was interviewed by KUHF and the Dallas Morning News about the Dynegy-Enron merger. Portions of the KUHF interview were aired on the local NPR broadcast, and portions of the Dallas Morning News interview appeared in a November 10th 2001 article. On November 13th Prof. Moll spoke to the faculty at Florida State University College of Law about his recent article, "Shareholder Oppression & Reasonable Expectations: Of Change, Gifts, and Inheritances in Close Corporation Disputes," which is forthcoming in the Minnesota Law Review. Prof. Moll was invited to FSU as a faculty enrichment speaker.
Professor Thomas Oldham has been invited to talk next spring at Whittier Law School.
Professor Michael A. Olivas was elected Chair of the University of Houston’s Esther Farfel Award Selection Committee; and delivered a paper on legal issues concerning colleges at the Association for the Study of Higher Education’s Annual Meeting in Richmond, VA. Prof. Olivas was one of two candidates to run for the position of ASHE president, coming in second, and thereby becoming the Association’s Harold Stassen.
Professor Jordan Paust was a panelist during the annual meeting of the American Branch of the International Law Association in New York City, October 25-27th. Prof. Paust’s paper, "Sanctions Against Non-State Actors for Violations of International Law," will be published in the ILSA Journal of International and Comparative Law, which publishes the conference papers. He was also a panelist at a Human Rights Conference at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, on November 3rd, and his paper, "The Right to Life in Human Rights Law and the Law of War," will be published in the Saskatchewan Law Review. Prof. Paust will also be a panelist during the National Workshop for District Judges sponsored by the Federal Judicial Center in early December. As noted last month, Prof. Paust was interviewed several times by various media, and his comments now spread throughout the country and world (e.g., Newhouse News Service, The Hindu, Pittsburgh- Post Gazette, Los Angeles Times, New Jersey Star-Ledger, etc.).
Clinical Professor Susan Rachlin spoke Saturday, November 10th 2001 at Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law on how to write a law school exam.
Dean Nancy Rapoport was sworn into the Texas Bar November 12th, along with Mr. Russell Chorush, UHLC Class of 2001, who made the highest grade on the July 2001 Texas Bar Exam and delivered a wonderful speech at the swearing-in ceremony in Austin, including the line "I received a first-rate education at a third-world price."
Professor William P. Streng’s Fall 2001 activities include a 2001 Supplement to his book U.S. International Estate Planning (Warren, Gorham & Lamont/RIAG); a 2001-2 Supplement to Bittker, Emory & Streng’s Federal Income Taxation of Corporations & Shareholders-Forms (4th ed.), Warren, Gorham & Lamont/RIAG (released) & Supplement 2001-3 has been submitted for publication; & Number 32 Supplementing Streng & Salacuse’s six volume treatise, International Business Planning: Law and Taxation - United States (Matthew Bender) has been published and the manuscript for volume 33 has been transmitted for publication.
Prof. Streng’s article, “U.S. Income Taxation of Foreign Persons Engaged in a U.S. Trade or Business ” was included in one of the multiple volumes issued in conjunction with the Practising Law Institute’s Fall 2001 program Tax Strategies for Corporate Acquisitions, Dispositions, Spin-offs, Joint Ventures, Financing Reorganizations & Restructurings 2001. Prof. Streng spoke at the Florida State Bar program in Miami entitled “Estate Planning for the International Law Client” on one of the ultimate U.S. tax planning arrangements: “Expatriation and Related Effects for Taxation Purposes.”
Prof. Streng also participated in the 55th Congress of the International Fiscal Association in San Francisco, California, & his article, “U.S. Income Taxation of Foreign Investment in U.S. Real Estate” was included in the Special Issue (for this IFA Congress) of the Bulletin for International Fiscal Documentation, published by the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (Amsterdam). As the primary U.S. national co-reporter for the year 2002 Congress in Oslo, Norway, Prof. Streng provided the U.S. report entitled “Form & Substance in Tax Law” for the general discussion of that subject. For the benefit of the General Reporter at that forthcoming Congress he has also provided a background paper concerning certain U.S. tax rules relevant to this topic. Prof. Streng was also invited to become a member of the European Association of Tax Law Professors.
During the Spring Semester, 2002, Prof. Streng will be a Visiting Professor at The University of Texas School of Law, teaching Federal Income Tax and International Taxation.
Clinical Professor Joseph Vail spoke October 12th to the University of Texas Immigration Conference in San Antonio on proposed changes to the law relating to security and terrorism grounds of inadmissibility for immigrants after September 11th 2001; and, on November 10th, to the National Asian Pacific American Law Student Association conference at South Texas College of Law on the history of ideological and security related grounds of inadmissibility for immigrants. Prof. Vail’s dance card is rapidly filling up through the 1st quarter of next year.
Professor Stephen Zamora, along with Professors Laura Oren, Sanford Gains & Thomas Oldham, attended a curriculum development workshop sponsored by NACLE, the North American Consortium for Legal Education, which is headquartered at the Law Center. The workshop, funded by a FIPSE grant from the U.S. Department of Education, brought together 24 law professors from the nine NACLE member schools in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. The workshop was evenly divided between experts on family law (Professors Oldham & Oren included), environmental law (Professor Gaines) and NAFTA (Professor Zamora). In addition to exchanging ideas, the participants focused their attention on designing web-based course materials that will engage U.S., Canadian and Mexican law students in dialogues over issues of concern to all three countries. Professor Seth Chandler will host a similar workshop with NACLE health law experts, to take place in Houston in late January 2002. NACLE intends to convene additional workshops in 2002 and 2003.
Rod Borlase, Editor