Faculty Focus

Faculty Focus is a monthly publication documenting the activities, accomplishments, and honors of the University of Houston Law Center Faculty.

March, 2006

John J. Douglass’s nomination to membership on the City of Houston Ethics Commission has been approved by the Houston City Council.

David R. Dow’s three poems “The Night Before the Morning,” “Euclidean Mergings,” and “Mourning in Carolina,” were reprinted in volume 30 of the Legal Studies Forum.   Professor Dow also spoke on “Innocence and the Death Penalty” at the National Innocence Conference, held at the University of Washington School of Law.  He also gave a lecture entitled “The Worst of the Worst, and Other Myths of Delusion” at the University of Denver College of Law.

Victor B. Flatt spoke on regulation of air toxics at Seattle University School of Law on Feb. 27th.  Along with Professors Marcilynn Burke, Darren Bush, Jacqueline Weaver, and Sandy Gaines, he hosted Judge Danny J. Boggs, faculty and attorneys from around the country at the Environmental & Energy Law & Policy Journal's second annual symposium on Liquified Natural Gas.

Gidi completed his work as Associate Reporter to the American Law Institute project on international litigation and arbitration.  The book, Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure, was published by Cambridge University Press.

Craig Joyce moderated, and presented the principal paper at American University’s symposium on Gender, Social Policy & the Law: Jurists and Gender.  He also was reappointed to the Board of Editors of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A.

Joan H. Krause was interviewed by the Houston Chronicle on February 24th on abortion laws.

Peter Linzer gave the opening paper at the Second International Contracts Conference, held in Fort Worth at Texas Wesleyan Law School.  It was entitled “E. Allan Farnsworth’s Theory (Non-theory? Anti-theory? Mega-theory?) of Contracts.”  The panel commenting on the paper was made up of Joseph Perillo, of Fordham; Randy Barnett of Boston University (on his way to Georgetown); David Campbell, head of the Law Department at the University of Durham, United Kingdom; and Hila Keren, of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and Boalt Hall, Berkeley. 

John Mixon’s article co-authored with Kathleen McGlynn, A New Zoning and Planning Metaphor: Chaos and Complexity Theory was published in 42 Hous. L. Rev. 1221 (2006).

Michael A. Olivas delivered the St. Thomas University (Miami) Law School Distinguished Lecture in February, entitled, “College Responses to Terrorism Legislation.” He also taught a demonstration class to pre-law college students for CLEO, which held its regional pre-law seminar in Houston. The third edition of his casebook, The Law and Higher Education: Case and Materials on Colleges in Court, was published by Carolina Academic Press; the Teachers Manual will be available for adoption in Summer, 2006.

Jordan Paust published an on-line essay, Political Discrimination and Academic Freedom available at http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2006/02/political-discrimination-and-academic.php. His op-ed, War on the Constitution was published in the National Law Journal, Jan. 30, 2006 at 30.

Ira B. Shepard spoke on “Recent Developments in Federal Income Taxation” (with Professor Martin McMahon of the University of Florida Law School) at the American Bar Association Tax Section Midwinter Meeting in San Diego on February 4^th. He spoke on the same topic to the Wednesday Tax Forum [that meets on Tuesdays] on February 14th, to the Houston Bar Association Tax Section on February 15th, and at a program in Atlanta sponsored by the State Bar of Georgia Tax Section and the Georgia Society of CPAs called “Hot Topics for Tax Attorneys and CPAs” on February 17th. He will speak on the same topic to the Houston IRS CPA Society on March 15th. On February 23rd, he spoke on an ethics panel for the International Fiscal Association U.S. Regional Meeting in San Antonio on the subject of tax practitioner privilege. He is also teaching a Federal Income Tax class at the Law Center this Spring Semester which meets on Sundays from 4:00 to 6:00 and 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. – a time slot suggested by former Vice Dean Seth Chandler that is being received with great approval by both teacher and students.

Sandra Guerra Thompson helped to organize a “Restorative Justice Forum,” which was held on February 10th in Krost Hall at the Law Center.  The event featured two panel discussions which both addressed ways in which community organizations can partner with government agencies in assisting offenders to be rehabilitated and returned to the community.  The speakers included two Harris County Criminal Court judges, the Director of the Institutional Division of TDCJ, the Director of the Texas Parole Department, the Director of Chaplaincy for TDCJ, the Director of the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department, and others.  Approximately 150 people, including many community leaders, attended the event.  The forum was co-sponsored by the Criminal Justice Institute and the Community Partnership Council.  Professor Thompson also organized police “ride-alongs” for her criminal procedure students who will spend time with Houston Police Department officers during a weekend shift.

Don Tomlinson spoke to the Texas Justices of the Peace Association in Galveston on February 8th. The title of his talk was “Media Law and Media Relations.” On February 25th, he spoke to the Texas Aggie Bar Association in College Station on  “What Every Lawyer Should Know About the New Texas Business Organizations Code.” On March 3th, he spoke to the Intellectual Property Section of the State Bar of Texas in San Antonio on “Copyright Update: Technology Breeding Litigation.”

Joseph Vail was interviewed by Texas Lawyer on January 28th concerning the UHCL immigration clinic and one of its asylum cases. On February 8th he was interviewed by NPR on the Victoria alien smuggling case and on February 17th he conducted a training for pro bono lawyers for ProBAR, an ABA sponsored legal aid program in Harlingen.

Jacqueline Weaver spoke at a conference on “Biofuels and the New Energy Economy” at the Cumberland School of Law on February 10th.  Her article titled The Traditional Petroleum-Based Economy: An ‘Eventful’ Future will be published in a symposium issue on this subject.  The article covers the issues of Peak Oil, Big Oil, Chinese Oil and a “flags” versus “open doors” future for global economic and energy growth.