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

February 2008

 

 

Johnny Rex Buckles’ article,” Is the Ban on Participation by Charities Essential to Their Vitality and Democracy: A Reply to Professor Tobin,” has been accepted for publication in the University of Richmond Law Review. This article was also abstracted and discussed in the February 2, 2008 edition of the Nonprofit Law Prof Blog. Professor Buckles also submitted two entries that will be published in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States. Finally, Professor Buckles presented, “Fiduciary Duties and Associated Standards,” on January 18, 2008 at the 25^th Annual Nonprofit Organizations Institute, co-sponsored by the University of Texas School of Law and the Conference of Southwest Foundations.

 

Darren Bush’s article with Salvatore Massa, “ Rethinking the Potential Competition Doctrine,” 2004 Wisconsin Law Review 1035, was cited favorably in the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals case, Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. N.V. v. Federal Trade Commission. The case is available at 2008 WL 203802. Along with coauthor David Spence, he also completed a book chapter for a forthcoming book on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. He is currently putting the finishing touches on an article coauthored with Shubba Ghosh, “Predatory Conduct, Predatory Legislation, and other Exclusionary Tactics in Airline Markets.” The article was presented by author Bush at a symposium he hosted along with the Houston Law Review, titled 30 Years of Airline Deregulation: A Structure, Conduct, and Performance Review. Along with coauthor John Connor, he completed edits on, “How to Block Cartel Formation and Price Fixing: Using Extraterritorial Application of the Antitrust Laws as a Deterrence Mechanism,” an article forthcoming in the Penn State Law Review. The Supreme Court amicus brief, which was the foundation of the article, has been downloaded over 5300 times and is available at:

http://www.aei-brookings.org/publications/abstract.php?pid=728

Along with Bruce McDonald from Jones Day, he presented at the Energy Bar Association Houston Chapter concerning Antitrust Issues in Energy Industries: Recent Developments. He has also been invited to join a roundtable entitled One Year Later: The Antitrust Modernization Commission’s Report and the Challenges That Await Antitrust at New York University in April. In addition, he completed a draft of an article with Betsy Gelb and Jill Sundie titled,” Economic Reality Versus Consumer Perceptions of Monopoly.” The article will be submitted to a peer-reviewed business and public policy journal. Finally, he was appointed as a member of the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Antitrust and Regulation.

 

Barbara Evans addressed the New York Academy of Sciences on February 4 and spoke on legal issues in toxicogenomics (the use of genetic data to predict toxic reactions to drugs). She continues to participate in deliberations of the Oversight Task Force of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health, and Society as it finalizes recommendations on federal oversight of genetic tests.

 

Robert B. Johnson was appointed to the Board of Directors for the Houston Bar Association, Consumer and Commercial Law Section, beginning with fiscal year 2008.

 

Craig Joyce attended his initial meeting as a member of the LexisNexis Law School Publishing Board, which advises LexisNexis regarding subject matter trends in American legal education, development of new product lines, and the selection of new authors for existing lines. Prof. Joyce’s own Copyright Law (7^th Ed. 2006) remains among the publisher’s top-five-selling casebooks. Prof. Joyce also was reappointed to the Board of Editors of the Journal of Supreme Court History, on which he has served since 1988.

 

Joan Krause’s article,” Fraud in Universal Coverage: The Usual Suspects (and Then Some)”, was published in 55 Kansas Law Review as part of a symposium on The Massachusetts Plan and the Future of Universal Coverage. On January 31, Prof. Krause was interviewed by Pharmalot about False Claims Act Litigation in the pharmaceutical industry.

 

Tom Oldham was invited to participate in a symposium sponsored by Brigham Young University on conflict of laws and family law. He attended on February 1 and made a short presentation.

 

Michael A. Olivas delivered two presentations at the recent AALS Annual Meeting, one on local and state immigration ordinances, and another on Plyler v. Doe’s 25^th anniversary. He participated in a national workshop on legal issues in college pipeline and pre-professional programs, sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He spoke on his Hernandez v. Texas book at the California Western School of Law. He was reappointed to the Litigation Committee of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).

 

Robert Schuwerk was elected to a three-year term on the initial board of the Balance in Legal Education section of the AALS. The sixth edition of his co-authored treatise, Handbook of Texas Lawyer and Judicial Ethics 2007-2008, has just been published.

 

Sandra Guerra Thompson has been interviewed numerous times in both English and Spanish for television news, print newspaper, and radio. She has spoken on the Joe Horn shooting of two burglars in Pasadena, the Texas grand jury system, the District Attorney’s dismissal of indictments against a Texas Supreme Court justice and his wife, and the Congressional testimony by Roger Clemens on steroid use. She also spoke on the change in the federal sentencing guidelines for crack offences, the destruction of emails by District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, and the possible extradition of a Marine accused of killing a pregnant Marine colleague.

 

Greg Vetter’s symposium article entitled,” Information Security, Cryptography and Patent Thickets,” is scheduled to publish in the Chicago-Kent Law Review as part of its publication of the proceedings of the Data Devolution Conference by the Center for Information Research at the Levin College of Law at the University of Florida.

 

Jacqueline Weaver spoke to the UHLC Advanced Oil and Gas CLE course in Houston on February 8 and in Dallas on February 15, on the “Future of Our Hydrocarbon-Based Economy.” She has been invited by the Crown Minerals of New Zealand) the equivalent of our Dept. of the Interior) to give a similar speech in New Zealand at the Petroleum Conference Beyond 08 in March. She completed the manuscript for the annual update of the Texas Law of Oil and Gas treatise. Prof. Weaver has also been asked to become a co-author on the third edition of International Petroleum Transactions, a casebook published by the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation and used extensively in classrooms and CLE training.

 

Stephen Zamora will give two lectures in California, on the same topic, “Assessing NAFTA’s Social Deficit: The Social Repercussions of Free Trade.” The first lecture was at the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley on February 11. The second lecture will be at the Global Workplace Conference sponsored in San Diego by Thomas Jefferson School of Law and LSU Law School. While in Berkeley, he met with faculty and students to promote Berkeley’s involvement as a new member of the North American Consortium on Legal Education, which the UH Law Center directs (www.nacle.org).