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

June 2007

 

Aaron Bruhl completed entries on “ripeness doctrine” and “abstention doctrine” for the Encyclopedia of the United States Constitution. Prof. Bruhl also attended a conference in St. Louis on empirical legal research.

 

Marcilynn A. Burke has been invited by the University of South Carolina School of Law and the Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute of Georgetown University Law Center to participate in the Conference on Balancing Private and Public Rights in the Coastal Zone in the Era of Climate Change: The Fifteenth Anniversary of Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council in September 2007. Professor Burke will be discussing property rights legislation. Her article will be published in the Southeastern Environmental Law Review.

 

Anne Chandler delivered a talk on May 18 in Miami, Florida, on Social Group and Asylum Claims at the Plenary Session of the 2^nd Annual Conference, On Their Own, Unaccompanied Immigrant Children Seeking Refuge. With Generous financial support from the Kirk Edwards Foundation, two UH Law Center students, Kari Konikowski and Leira Moreno were able to attend the two day conference.

 

Seth Chandler has had published five Demonstrations at

  http://gemonstrations.wolfram.com

 

They include three on law:

1.      Asylum in the United States (Co-authored with Anne Chandler)

 2. The 2001 CSO Mortality Tables

 3. Life Insurance Pricing

and two on computer science:

4.      Visualizing Turing Machine Enumeration

5.       Cellular Automata with Global Control.

 

 

Victor B. Flatt will be co-teaching a course with Professor Marcilynn Burke, entitled Alaska Natives and Environmental Law, at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Professor Flatt’s article, “Gasping for Breath, the Administrative Flaws of Federal Hazardous Air Pollution Regulation,” has been published in  34  Ecology Law Quarterly.

 

Paul Janicke spoke in Boston, at the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s annual international conference, on the subject of patent law reform efforts now ongoing in Congress. On May 19 and 20, Prof. Janicke was the keynote speaker at the San Francisco Intellectual Property Law Association annual program in Healdsburg, California, on patent case law developments.

 

Joan Krause presented,” Regulation, Information, and Litigation Revisited: The Case of Off-Label Drug Promotion,” at the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics Health Law Professor Conference in Boston, MA, on June 1.

 

Douglas Moll has a number of book projects in the works. First, he is busily working on a treatise on closely held corporations for Aspen Publishers (with Bob Ragazzo). Second, he has been asked by Professor Jon Macey of Yale University Law School to contribute a chapter to Macey’s book, “Iconic Cases in Corporate Law.” Professor Moll will be focusing on Donahue v. Rodd Electrotype – a well-known close corporation opinion. The submission is due in August. Third, Professor Moll is a co-author of, “A Student’s Guide to Article 9” – a secured transactions study aid that is being published by West. The first draft of the book will be completed in August. Finally, Professor Macey and Professor Moll will author a “concise hornbook” on corporate law for West. That project is slated for completion in 2009.

 

Michael Olivas hosted a group of junior scholars in the 10^th IHELG Houston Higher Education Law Roundtable, and hosted a workshop for UHLC Alums on becoming a law professor, with Aaron Bruhl. In addition, he directed the first UH/CLEO Summer Prelaw Institute (which will run from June 4 through June 29), with 33 college sophomores from the Houston area, and filmed a narrative for a PBS documentary being shot on the Hernandez v. Texas case.

 

Laura Oren’s paper entitled,” Honor Thy Mother?: The Supreme Court’s Jurisprudence of Motherhood,” was recently listed on SSRN’s Top Ten download list for Women Gender and the Law. Her article, “Some Thoughts on the State-Created Danger Doctrine: DeShaney is Still Wrong and Castle Rock is More of the Same,” has appeared in 16 Temple Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 47 (2007)

 

Richard Saver presented, “Limiting Physician Discretion to Promote Public Health: The Challenge of Antibiotic Resistance,” at the Health Law Professors’ Conference held at Boston University Law School at the end of May. He also moderated a panel on patient safety and medical quality. The conference was sponsored by the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics.

 

Ira B. Shepard spoke or will speak on “Recent Developments in Federal Income Taxation,” to the Houston Bar Association Tax Section on March 21^st, to the Houston Internal Revenue Service CPA Society on April 4^th, to the American Petroleum Institute Federal Tax Forum on April 23^rd, to the Great Lakes Federal Tax Forum in Cleveland(OH) on April 26^th, to the State Bar of Michigan 2007 Tax Conference in Plymouth (MI) on May 2^nd, the University of North Carolina Tax Institute (with Dan Simmons of the UC Davis Law School) on May 3^rd, to the Dallas Bar Association Tax Section on May 7^th, to the Hampton Roads (VA) Tax Forum on May 16^th, to the Tax Alliance Conference in Plano(TX) on June 14^th, to the State Bar of New Mexico Tax Symposium (again with Dan Simmons) on June 15^th, to the American Institute on Federal Taxation in Birmingham (AL) on June 21^st, and to the Kentucky Bar Association Tax Section on June 22^nd. He also spoke or will speak to the Wednesday Tax Forum on, “Current Developments in Federal Taxation,” on March 13, April 10, May 8, and June 12.

 

His article (co-authored by Martin McMahon of the University of Florida Law School), “Recent Developments in Federal Income Taxation: The Year 2005” was published at 8 Florida Tax Review 5 (2006), and the article covering developments in 2006 has been sent to press.

 

 

Spencer Simons’ article,” Navigating Through the Fog: Teaching Legal Research and Writing Students to Master Indeterminacy Through Structure and Process,” was published in the Journal of Legal Education. In addition, the chapter, “Accounting and Budgeting for Librarians,” appeared in Beyond the Books (Hein).

 

Greg Vetter presented, “Perspectives on Patent Licensing Language in Open Source Form Licenses,” to the Austin Intellectual Property Law Association as the speaker for its monthly program, held on May 22, 2007.