Faculty Focus is a monthly publication documenting the
activities, accomplishments, and honors of the University of Houston Law
Center Faculty.
April 2009
Previous editions of Faculty
Focus can be accessed here
Richard Alderman
gave a presentation on the law at the Texas Association of School Librarians,
he presented a paper on consumer arbitration at the 12th Annual
Consumer Attorneys Conference in Hyderabad,
India, and he spoke at the Honors College’s
Great Conversation on the disappearing jury. He also was elected to co-chair
President Khator’s Strategic Action Group, which will propose ways to implement
the University’s six long-term goals, as set out by the Board of Regents.
Johnny Rex
Buckles presented
“Does the Constitutional Norm of Separation of Church and State Justify the
Denial of Tax Exemption to Churches That
Engage in Partisan Political Speech?” in April, at the New England School of
Law. The presentation was part of a panel discussion, sponsored by the local
student chapter of the Federalist Society, and based on Prof. Buckles’ law
review article of the same title which was just published in 84 Indiana Law
Journal 447 (2009). Prof. Buckles has previously presented the paper at two
faculty workshops, one at the University of Kansas School of Law on December 5,
2008, and the other at the University of Tulsa College of Law on October 17,
2008. In March, Prof. Buckles participated in a debate at the University of Memphis
at an event sponsored by the local student chapter of the Federalist Society.
The debate topic was whether intelligent design theory may be taught in public
school science courses without violating the establishment clause of the First
Amendment. In February, Prof. Buckles spoke at a symposium hosted by the Liberty
University School of Law, focusing on teaching intelligent design theory. Prof.
Buckles’ presentation examined whether intelligent design theory is necessarily
a “religious theory” for purposes of Constitutional Law. The editors of the Liberty University Law
Review have decided to republish, in its symposium issue, Prof. Buckles
article, “The Constitutionality of the Monkey Wrench: Exploring the Case for
Intelligent Design,” originally published in 59 Oklahoma Law Review 527 (2006).
In January, Professor Buckles presented,” Fiduciary Assumptions Underlying the
Federal Excise Taxation of Charities” at the Association of American Law
Schools 2009 Annual Meeting. The presentation was part of the Section on
Nonprofit and Philanthropy Law panel on New Research in Nonprofit Law. Also in
January, he presented “New IRS Focus on Nonprofit Corporate Governance” at the
26th Annual Nonprofit Organizations Institute, cosponsored by the
Conference of Southwest Foundations and the University of Texas School of Law. This
presentation was an adaptation of “Governance of Tax-Exempt Organizations,”
which he presented at the 56th Annual Taxation Conference, sponsored
by the University of Texas School of Law in November 2008.
Richard Dole’s article, “The
Effect of UCP 600 Upon U.C.C. Article 5 With Respect to Negotiation Credits and
the Immunity of Negotiating Banks From Letter-of-Credit Fraud,” has been
published at 54 Wayne Law Review 735 (2008).
David Dow has signed a
contract with Twelve Books to publish his manuscript, “The Autobiography of an
Execution.”
Jim Hawkins’ article,
“Financing Fertility”, was accepted for publication in the Harvard Journal on
Legislation.
Craig Joyce published
“Intellectual Property in the United
States” in the new Oxford International Encyclopedia
of Legal History.
Joan Krause
and Richard Saver published Cases in Context: Health Law and Bioethics (2009)
(editors, with Sandra Johnson and Robin Wilson).
Douglas Moll
and Robert Ragazzo have submitted the manuscript for their treatise, The Law
of Closely Held Corporations, to Aspen Publishers.
Tom Oldham has been
consulting with the House Judiciary Committee on legislation revising the
federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines what constitutes a marriage for
purposes of federal law. Prof. Oldham has been conferring with the committee
staff about various issues that could arise, depending upon which revision
strategy is selected.
Michael Olivas
engaged
in a debate with Cornell labor economist Vernon Briggs about immigration reform
proposals at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln,
where he also spoke about his book on the Hernandez trial, in conjunction with
a showing of the PBS film of the trial, A Class Apart. He also gave the keynote
address at the annual banquet for the University
of Cincinnati Immigration and
Nationality Law Review, “Why State and Local Immigration Ordinances are a Bad
Idea”; he was invited because the INLR reprinted his 2007 University of Chicago Law
Forum work on the subject. He also consulted with
Virginia
college officials about the legality of providing scholarships for undocumented
students.
Jordan Paust was a member
of a panel addressing civil claims against former Bush administration officials
for violations of international law at the University of Virginia Sokol
Colloquium on Human Rights Litigation in U.S.
Courts, April 2. On April 1, he filed an amicus brief for the Human Rights
Committee of the American Branch of the International Law Association before
the Supreme Court in Republic of Iraq, et al. v. Simon, et al., concerning rights of
former prisoners of war and others against Iraq during the 1990’s for torture
and other forms of ill-treatment.
Spencer Simons
has
written a book, Texas Legal Research, to be published by Carolina Academic
Press. The book is going to press now and is expected to be available in May.
Prof. Simons recently presented “Basic Accounting for Law Librarians” at the
annual meeting of the Southwestern Association of Law Libraries in Albuquerque and at a meeting of the Houston Area Law
Librarians in Houston.
Diana Velardo was invited
for the third year to be a co-panelist at the South Texas College Conference on
Human Trafficking. Diana presented on issues of slavery affecting the Houston community and the
challenges faced by legal advocates. Diana was also the guest speaker at UH
Clear Lake as part of their “Voices of Color”
speaker series “Women and the Law Event.” Diana’s provocative presentation on
“Have You Met a Slave Today?” generated heated discussion among faculty,
students, and guests. Diana was also invited to provide training on immigration
remedies for victims of human trafficking to the Missouri Task Force at the
Children’s Assessment
Center. Diana is part of
the Houston Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance (HTRA), a task force that is
comprised of governmental agencies and headed by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
HTRA is viewed across the nation as the leader and a role model of effective
task force collaboration between non-profit agencies and law enforcement. Diana
presented at the Human Trafficking-Training on Modern Day Slavery Conference
sponsored by the Texas Regional Center
for Policing Innovation in Stafford. She was
also the guest speaker at Baylor College of Medicine, presenting to faculty and
first year medical students on “Human Slavery: How to Identify a Victim. Best
Responses for the Medical Field.” Her lecture is part of the Human Sexuality
course at Baylor College of Medicine.
Jacqueline
Weaver
spent a week in Kampala, Uganda at the invitation of the
U.S. State Department and met with the members of energy and resources
committees of parliament and members of the Ministry of Finance and Energy. She
also met with many civic groups, such as the Ugandan Wildlife Society and
African Institute for Good Governance, executives from the oil companies
operating in Uganda,
and the radio and print media. She presented talks on “Understanding a
Production Sharing Contract” and “A Model Revenue Management Law.” The latter type of law is designed to avoid
the resource curse of currency fluctuations that destabilize the domestic
non-oil economic sectors and to guard against corruption, which is an
ever-present problem in Uganda.
She also toured the oil fields, which are located in the country’s most
beautiful national park and wildlife reserve, and talked with park rangers
about the conflict in land uses, including the wave of in-migration from Rwanda and the Congo. Closer to home, she spoke on
pooling and unitization at the University of Texas “Boot Camp” on Fundamentals
of Oil, Gas, and Mineral Law, on March 26, 2009. Over 300 registrants attended,
despite the low price of oil.
Helen
Boyce
Editor