Faculty Focus

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

June,  2006

Johnny Rex Buckles' most recent article, The Constitutionality of the Monkey Wrench: Exploring the Case for Intelligent Design, has been accepted for publication in the Oklahoma Law Review.

Darren Bush, along with Professors Betsy Gelb and Jill Sundie at the Bauer College of Business, submitted an article titled, Psychological Monopoly: The Next Illegality? to a peer-reviewed management journal.  He also was quoted in THE DEAL, a business and financial newspaper, regarding recent amendments to the Tunney Act (an act that requires Courts to only enter consent decrees in federal antitrust settlements if such decrees are in the public interest).  Professor Bush’s article, co-authored with John J. Flynn, is cited in the legislative history of the Tunney Act amendments.  He also participated in the University of Houston’s “Alumni College,” where he spoke on the relationship between ENRON’s role in the California power crisis and the corporate scandal that plagued the company. 

Seth Chandler gave the commencement address to Loyola New Orleans University School of Law on May19th at the New Orleans Arena. President Kevin Wildes of Loyola University also bestowed upon Professor Chandler the President’s Medal for his service in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. On May 20th, Law Dean Brian Bromberger escorted Professor Chandler and his family on an extensive tour of the widespread and significantly unrepaired devastation in the New Orleans area. Copies of Professor Chandler’s address and photos from the tour are available on request.

Tony Chase was selected Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Board of Directors by the Board of Governors in Washington D.C. His term began in January 2006.

Victor Flatt presented a paper on the non-delegation doctrine and benefit-cost analysis at a conference entitled "Improving the Use of Benefit-Cost Analysis" held at the University of Washington School of Law and Evins School. He had two articles published in the last month.  These include: Let Us Drink Our Fill, 17 Yale Journal of Law and Humanities (May 2006) (invited symposium article, The Properties of Carol Rose, Yale Law School, November, 2005); and Energy Competition and the Environment, 1 U. H. EnvTL & Energy Law & Policy Journal 221 (Spring 2006),  an invited symposium article. He was also interviewed on Pacifica Radio on June 1, 2006 regarding the environmental record of Mayor White's administration. In May he was on Houston’s NPR Radio commenting on water pollution problems and he authored an op-ed on climate change and the City of Houston which was published in the Houston Chronicle. This month he has been invited to address local businesses on climate change options at a roundtable.

Gidi taught Comparative Civil Procedure at the Loyola Law School Summer Program Abroad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  While in Rio de Janeiro, he also gave lectures at the Association of State Judges and at the Federal University of Niteroi Law School.

Craig Joyce spoke to attorneys, staff and summer interns at Baker Botts and Bracewell & Giuliani regarding Justice O'Connor's doctrinal approach and judging style.

Joan Krause spoke on “The Ethics of Influence:  Pharmaceutical Companies and Medical Practice” at the ASLME Health Law Teachers Conference in Baltimore on June 3rd.

Peter Linzer's A Contracts Anthology third edition will be published by Lexis.  He has selected Frank Snyder of Texas Wesleyan as co-author.  Snyder, who is currently finishing up a visit at Notre Dame, is the editor of the AALS Contract Section's blog (or is it a web site, PL is not au courant).  Professor Linzer will give a lecture next fall at McGeorge Law School (University of the Pacific, somewhere in California), as part of its Distinguish Speakers Series.  He will speak to the students informally about the anti-formalist ideas in his 2001 Wisconsin Law Review article, Rough Justice, and will give a paper to the faculty on his views of the future of race and law in the United States.  This paper will then be published in the McGeorge Law Review and will serve as the concluding chapter of his book The Color of the Constitution, subtitled "Race and Law in America, Then, Now and Yet to Come" or some such.  Professor Linzer started writing this book after a debate over the Dred Scott decision with Dennis Duffy in a bar.  Since Dennis was still on the faculty, you can get an idea how long this book has been festering. Finally, he is hoping to get his volume of the revision of Corbin On Contracts (parol evidence and implied terms)out by the end of 2006.  In all, that makes three books this year or next.  Now all that remains is to do it!

Laura Oren’s article, Honor Thy Mother?: the Supreme Court’s Jurisprudence of Motherhood, has been published at 17 HASTINGS WOMEN'S L.J. 18 (2006).

Jordan Paust has sent the new edition of Paust, Bassiouni, et al., Human Rights Module: On Crimes Against Humanity, Genocide, Other Crimes Against Human Rights, and War Crimes (2 ed. 2006) to the publisher.

Richard Saver presented “Teaching Hard Concepts in Health Law: A Transactional Exercise Approach” at the American Society of Law, Medicine, & Ethics Health Law Teachers Conference, held at the University of Maryland Law School, on June 1st.

Sandra Guerra Thompson organized the Teen Court Conference and Competition held at the Law Center on June 8th-10th.  Teens from the Texas coastal area participated as attorneys, jurors, clerks, and bailiffs.  Actual teen offenders volunteered to have their cases heard during the competition. The conference and competition brought together judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, court clerks, bailiffs, and others in the criminal justice community who provided lectures and evaluated the competition.  It is the first such area-wide competition to be held in Texas.

Joe Vail spoke before City Council on the issue of Day Labor Sites in Houston and employer sanctions on May 31st. On June 22nd he will speak at the Annual Conference of the American Immigration Lawyers Association on a panel with representatives from the Department of Justice on representation before the immigration court.  

Jacqueline Lang Weaver presented an article entitled The Future of the Traditional Petroleum-Based Economy: Of Peak Oil, Big Oil, Chinese Oil, Flags and Open Doors, to the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators in Houston on May 24th. As a result of this talk, she was invited to present the same topic to Shell Oil managers and scientists in the Research and Development Division of Shell International Exploration and Production, Inc. on June 1st.  She was interviewed by National Public Radio for a segment on nuclear power and was quoted extensively in the Neue Zurcher Zeitung, the leading liberal German language daily in Switzerland on the issue of government/oil company division of profits in international energy contracts today.

Harriet Richman, Editor