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

Previous editions of Faculty Focus can be accessed through the Faculty Focus website.

August 2008

 

Richard Alderman submitted the manuscript for the 2008-09 edition of Consumer Credit and the Law, published by Thomson/West, and the 2008-09 edition of Texas Consumer Law: Cases and Materials, published by Imprimatur Press. He spoke on arbitration at the State Bar of Texas Annual Convention, and

on practicing consumer law at the National Bar Association Annual Meeting. He also addressed several local organizations, including the Houston Metropolitan Paralegals, Acres Homes and Catholic Charities. He was also appointed by President Khator to the UG Discovery Advisory Board.

 

Aaron Bruhl presented a work in progress entitled, “What Does it Mean for the Senate to be a Continuing Body?” at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools annual meeting in Florida.

 

Marcilynn Burke will participate in an invitation-only workshop on “The Public Nature of Private Property,” sponsored by the Georgetown University Law Center & the Center on Property, Citizenship, and Social Entrepreneurism (Syracuse University College of Law) in November 2008 at the Georgetown University Law Center.

 

Darren Bush gave a talk entitled, “Competition Issues in ERCOT: Market Power, Market Manipulation, Detection, and a Role for Antitrust,” at the Capital Campus Texas Retreat in San Antonio this summer. His article, coauthored with Professor Shubha Ghosh and titled, “Predatory Conduct, Predatory Legislation, and Other Exclusionary Tactics in Airline Markets,” was published in 45 Houston Law Review 293 (2008). Professor Bush also provided the introduction for that symposium, entitled, “Introduction: Thirty Years of Airline Deregulation,” available at 45 Houston Law Review 278 (2008). Professor Bush’s article with Professor John Comer, titled,” How to Clock Cartel Formation and Price Fixing: Using Extraterritorial Application of the Antitrust Laws as a Deterrence Mechanism,” was published at 112 Pennsylvania State Law Review 813 (2008). The article is an extension of the arguments put forth in an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. See Brief of Amici Curiae of Professors Darren Bush, et al., Empagran, S.A. v. F. Hoffman-LaRoche, Ltd. (Mar. 15, 2004) (No. 03-724), available at

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

 

The brief has been downloaded over 6800 times. He and coauthors Harry First and John Flynn published an op-ed titled, “Sue Opec,” available at

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-first19-2008jun19,0,7991948.story

 

The op-ed was carried in numberous papers both here and abroad and is now posted on the faculty blog. He also appeared on numerous news broadcasts regarding issues arising from high fuel costs in the airline industry. He has also posted two essays on the faculty blog, one discussing whether or not there is any merit to the bar exam, and the other discussing the issue of handguns on campus.

 

Seth Chandler submitted two articles for publication on the Lexis/Nexis Insurance Law Center, “GINA’s Challenge: An Exposition of Title I of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 and the Issues Likely to Arise,” and, “Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Argonaut Insurance Co.: Following the Fortunes: But Just How Far?”. Two earlier submissions have been published:

” Professor Seth J. Chandler on Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 USCS Section 1681b: Congressional Bill Would Outlaw Use of Credit Scores in Personal Lines Insurance”:

http://law.lexisnexis.com/practiceareas/Insurance/Regulatory-Issues-and-Compliance/Professor-Seth-J-Chandler-on-Fair-Credit-Reporting-Act-15-USCS-Section-1681b-Congressional-Bill-Would-Outlaw-Use-of-Credit-Scores-in-Personal-Lines-Insurance

and” Professor Seth J. Chandler on Florida Statute section 627.0628,”

http://law.lexisnexis.com/practiceareas/Insurance/Climate-Change/Professor-Seth-J-Chandler-on-Florida-Stat---6270628

 

He has also published eight new demonstrations:

1. Congressional Apportionment Using General Divisor Methods

http://demonstrations.Wolfram.com/CongressionalApportionmentsUsingGeneralDivisorMethods

 

2. State Population Growth

      http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/StatePopulationGrowth/

 

3. The Present Value of Future Gas Use

      http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ThePresentValueOfFutureGasUse/

 

4. The Perfect Venn Diagram

      http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ThePerfectVennDiagram/

 

5. Collocation by Chi Square

      http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/CollocationByChiSquare/

 

6. Mixed Radix Number Representations

      http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/MixedRadixNumberRepresentations/

 

7. Generating Realistic Baseball Line Scores

      http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/GeneratingRealisticBaseballLineScores/

 

8. Sports Seasons Based on Score Distributions

      http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/SportsSeasonsBasedOnScoreDistributions

 

Professor Chandler has also been named one of five members of the Executive Committee of the International Mathmatica Symposium.

 

Brigham Daniels presented two papers in July at the 12th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Commons (IASC), held in Cheltenham, England. The first, coauthored with Erika Weinthal and Blake Hudson, was, “Is an Exemption from U.S. Groundwater Regulations a Loophole or a Noose?” The second was titled, “Breaking Commons Cartels.”

 

Barbara Evans’ article, “Congress’ New Infrastructural Model of Medical Privacy,” will appear in the Notre Dame Law Review. She contributed a chapter on ethical issues in genetic research for the American College of Clinical Pharmacy’s Pharmacogenomics, 2nd edition. She entered a contract to write a chapter on policy issues for the forthcoming Cambridge University Press medical textbook, Pharmacogenomics. Last month, she spoke on legal barriers to personalized medicine at the American Association for Cancer Research Translational Medicine 2008 Conference; discussed the FDA Sentinel System for drug safety surveillance as part of the Personalized Therapeutics Seminars at Indiana University School of Medicine; spoke about new legal service opportunities in the era of personalized medicine at a meeting of Ohio and Indiana law practitioners; discussed health database privacy issues in interactions between pharmaceutical manufacturers and physicians in the UH Health Law CLE program. Earlier, she spoke on recent amendments to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act at the American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics Annual Health Law Professors’ Conference.

 

Victor B. Flatt’s article, “Act Locally, Effect Globally,” was just published in the symposium issue of 35 Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review (2008). In July, he also published an op-ed in Jurist Online on the D.C. Circuit’s dismissal of the Clean Air Interstate Rule. His presentation to the mid-year meeting of the Washington State Bar Association on climate change has been published, with updates, in the WSBA’s Environmental Law Newsletter summer edition. His article,” Taking the Legislative Temperature,” 102 Northwestern University Law Review Colloquy 123 (2007) will be reprinted in Farber (Berkeley) and Freeman’s (Harvard) Environmental Law Supplement.

Professor Flatt was featured in a Point-Counterpoint with Professor Tom McGarity of the University of Texas Law School, at the State of Texas annual Environmental Law Superconference in Austin, on August 7, 2008.

Professor Flatt has accepted a visiting position at the University of North Carolina for the Fall Semester, where he will be the Taft Distinguished Visiting Professor of Environmental Law. While at the University of North Carolina, he will guest lecture on environmental policy and geography. He will continue to serve as Director of the EENR Center and will be working on collaborative projects between the University of Houston and the University of North Carolina. As part of this work, Professor Flatt will co-chair a workshop on Adapting Legal Regimes in the Face of Climate Change. The workshop will be co-sponsored by the Taft gift at the University of North Carolina, the EENR Center at the University of Houston, and the Center for Progressive Reform.

Professor Flatt finished co-teaching a class on Alaska Natives and Environmental Law in Anchorage, Alaska. The class examined issues of resource usage, climate change, and Alaska Native legal status. While there, Professor Flatt met with the Anchorage office of the Mineral Management Service to discuss offshore leasing issues in the Chuckchi Sea, given changing patterns and possible regulatory response.

In Washington, D.C., Professor Flatt met with the head of the EPA’s Office of Air Radiation and the Pew Center to discuss the work of the EENR Center on carbon capture and sequestration legislation. In September, he will present at the University of Michigan Fall Conference on Environmental and Energy Plans for the New Administration. He has also been asked to present on federal climate change at the Center for American and International Law annual conference in Dallas.

Professor Flatt will chair a workshop on CO2 Trading in the U.S. and Europe at the University College London in October. In November, he will host another workshop on the same topic in Washington, D.C. with the EENR Center and the British Consul General of Houston and in conjunction with the Pew Center on Climate Change, Point Carbon, and the International Carbon Action Programme. Because of the work he is doing on CO2 trading, Professor Flatt has been appointed to the Greater Houston Partnership’s Carbon Trading Task Force.

The Center for Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources hosted the annual meeting of the Center for Progressive Reform in May and Mayor White spoke to the assembled scholars. The EENR Center has also posted proposed legislation on Carbon Capture and Sequestration, and has provided comments on the procedure to the EPA:

www.law.uh.edu/EENRCenter

 

 

Peter Hoffman taught a four-week course in May and June on international negotiations for the University of San Diego in its Florence, Italy, program. He was program director for the NITA National Session on trial skills held in Louisville, Colorado, July 12th - 23rd. The National Session was Nita’s first program and remains its largest.  He was also Program Director for the Houston Regional NITA Deposition Skill Program, February 21- 23, in Houston and the Houston Regional NITA Expert Deposition Program, February 24, in Houston. Professor Hoffman was inducted as an Academic Fellow of the International Society of Barristers, March 1-15 in Maui, Hawaii. He spoke on deposition questioning techniques for the Texas Bar CLE program, Spring Training 2008: Winning Before Trial, on May 1, in Dallas and he spoke on impeachment and other trial issues for the Texas Bar CLE program, Advanced Family Law Course, August 12, in San Antonio. He spoke on witness preparation for the UH CLE program, The Jury Trial, August 8, in Houston and August 12, in Dallas. He taught a trial and a deposition training program for the Stinson Morrison firm in Kansas City, a trial program for the Howrey firm in Washington D.C. and two deposition programs for the Gardere firm in Houston and Dallas. He taught a trial program for the Beirne Maynard & Parsons firm in Houston and will be teaching two discovery programs for the SEC in Washington, D.C.

 

Joan Krause submitted two commentaries for the Criminal Law Conversations book project, “Imminence Reconsidered: Are Battered Women Different?” and “Tolerating the Loss of Self-Control.”

 

Mon Yin Lung was both a speaker and the program coordinator of a 90-minute program, “Energizing the Senior Citizens: Exploring the Evolving Field of Assisted Living for the Elderly” at the 101st American Association of Libraries meeting on July 15, 2008.

 

Tom Oldham organized three family law panels with Naomi Cahn of GW at SEAALS. He also acted as a mentor for a new scholar and spoke at a panel.

 

Michael A. Olivas published the following in the last month: “Hernandez v. Texas: Jim Crow, Mexican Americans, and the Anti-Subordination Constitution,” with Ian Haney Lopez; Chapter 8 in Rachel Moran and Devon Carbado, eds., Race Law Stories (Foundation Press, 2008), 269-306; “Majors in Law? A Dissenting View,” 43 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 629 (2008); and “Reflections Upon Old Books, Reading Rooms, and Making History”, 76 UMKC Law Review (2008). He was reappointed for a twelfth term to the editorial board of the Journal of college and University Law, a hybrid law review and refereed journal devoted to college law scholarship and published at the University of Notre Dame Law School. He was also chosen to serve as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

 

Laura Oren was a panelist in a PBS production hosted by Ernie Manouse, “Conversation on Race: In Memory of James Byrd, Jr.,” which aired on June 20, 2008. It may be viewed at

www.houstonpbs.org/race/

 

Her article, “Unmarried Fathers and Adoption: ‘Perfecting’ or ‘Abandoning’ an Opportunity Interest,” was recently listed on SSRN’s top ten download list for REIP: Other (Topic) All Papers; it will be published as part of a symposium in Capital Law Review.  Pre-publication publicity for the book, Children, Law, and Disasters: What Have We Learned From the Hurricanes of 2005?, was available at the Annual Meeting of the ABA, held in August 7-11, 2008. The book, co-published by the ABA and the Center for Children, Law, & Policy at the University of Houston, is edited by Laura Oren, Ellen Marrus, and Howard Davidson.  The book is expected to be in print in September or October 2008.  Professor Oren was a member of the faculty for the Gulf Coast American History Academy, June 17, 2008, “Race, the First Amendment, Military Necessity and the Living Constitution.” The Gulf Coast American History Academy has provided American history teachers in the Texas Gulf Coast region a program to strengthen content knowledge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Editor, Helen Ehmann Boyce