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

January 2008

previous editions of the Faculty Focus archive can be accessed through the Faculty Focus Website 

 

Richard Alderman testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007. He served as a panelist at the meeting of the Creditor and Debtor Law Section of the AALS, spoke on the Deceptive Trade Practices Act at the State Bar Consumer Law Seminar and conducted a faculty seminar and guest lectured in several classes at the University of Tokyo Law School. He published the 2007-2008 edition of Consumer Protection and the Law (1626 pages, Thomson/West) and published the 2007 supplement to The Lawyer’s Guide to the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (LexisNexis).

 

Victor Flatt’s article, “Taking the Legislative Temperature: Examining Federal Climate Change Legislative Proposals,” was published in 102 Northwestern Law Review Colloquy 123 (2007). When released, the article was flagged by instapundit.com as an important discussion of climate change policy. It was also on SSRN’s top ten downloads for “Legislative and Statutory Interpretation”,

“Environmental Economics”, “Public Policy Deliberation”, “Public Policy Democratic Theory”, “Political Behavior: Voting & Public Opinion”, and “Political Theory: Political Philosophy.”  His articles’ “Act Locally, Affect Globally,” and “Let Us Drink Our Full,” have also made several of the SSRN top ten download lists for December. Professor Flatt will be presenting a Climate Change Legislation Update CLE on January 29 and will also be a virtual speaker on a nationwide Environmental Law lecture forum.

 

Craig Joyce joined other leading national authorities in copyright law in judging ASCAP’s Annual Nathan Burkan Student Paper Competition.

 

Joan Krause was interviewed on December 17 by ENToday magazine about the fraud and abuse dangers of purchasing in-office diagnostic imaging equipment.

 

Ellen Marrus coordinated and presented at a symposium honoring the 40th anniversary of the In re Gault decision sponsored by the Center for Children, Law & Policy at the University of Houston Law Center. Professor Irene Merker Rosenberg (UHLC), Professor Wallace Mlyniec (Georgetown University), Dr. Michael Lindsey and Dr. Steven Mintz (History, UH) also presented at the conference. The papers will be published in an upcoming volume of the Criminal Law Bulletin, a peer review journal published by West Publishing. Professor Marrus, as the inaugural chair of the AALS Section on Children and the Law, moderated the section’s panel presentation, “Adolescence in American Law: The Boundary Between Childhood and Adulthood” at the AALS annual meeting in January.

 

Douglas Moll will serve on the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Agency and Unincorporated Business Associations for 2008-2009. He will be visiting at the University of Texas Law School in the spring of 2008.

 

Michael A. Olivas completed his three-year term on the AALS Executive Committee, although he continues to be on the search committee for the new association executive director. At the 2008 AALS Annual Meeting, he made presentations about local immigration ordinances (he is against them) and about litigation concerning immigrant children, on a panel examining Plyler v. Doe after 25 years. He served as consultant to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in DC, participating in a meeting on legal issues concerning international science education and admissions. He is also serving as a consultant to the College Board, which is revising it admissions materials and procedures for immigrant SAT-takers; from 1995-99 he served as a Trustee of the College Board.

 

Jordan Paust spoke at Tulane University School of Law on January 18 regarding war crimes and war crime responsibility of various members of the Bush administration concerning the President’s admitted program of secret detention and “tough”, “coercive”, interrogation of detainees. He also participated with Professor Paul Verkuil of Cardozo Law School, Yeshiva University, during a mid-December program with “On Lawyer2Lawyer”, regarding the investigation of Blackwater, the legal issues, the effect the use of private contractors is having on the U.S., and what the future holds for Blackwater and contractors like them. The program can be accessed by clicking on one of the following:

 

Show URL:

http://www.legaltalknetwork.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=232

 

MP3:

http://websrvr82il.audiovideoweb.com/ny60web16519/LTN/C2C/C2C_121307_Blackwater.mp3

 

Windows Media Player:

http://interface.audiovideoweb.com/lnk/avwebdsnjwin4287/LTN/C2C/C2C_121307_Blackwater.wma/pl

 

Greg Vetter concluded his year as Chair of the Law and Computers section of the AALS by attending its annual meeting held in New York, January 2-6. At the annual meeting, he co-moderated the Joint Program he arranged with the Section on Defamation and Privacy, entitled,” Protecting Data, Protecting Privacy?” Headlining the panel was Professor Edward W. Felten of the Department of Computer Science at Princeton University, a world-famous expert on data security and cryptography.