Faculty Focus is a monthly
publication documenting the activities, accomplishments, and honors of the
University of Houston Law Center Faculty.
June 2009
Previous
editions of Faculty Focus can be accessed here
Richard Alderman published
“Why We Really Need the Arbitration Fairness Act: It’s All About Separation of
Powers” in 12 Journal of Consumer and
Commercial Law 151. He also spoke about public education programs such as
the People’s Law School
at the EuroAmerican Conference for Consumer’s Legal Protection, held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Marcilynn Burke presented
her work-in-progress entitled “Private Solar Energy Development on Federal
Public Lands” at the Property Works in Progress Conference at the University of
Colorado Law School on June 2, 2009. Presenters at the conference included
Professors Carol Rose, Robert Ellickson, and Thomas Merrill of Yale; Professors
Joseph Singer and Henry Smith of Harvard; Professor Molly Van Houweling of
Berkley: and Professor Lee Fennell of Chicago, to name just a few. Professor
Burke has been invited to give the luncheon presentation for natural resources
law professors at the 55th Annual Rocky Mountain Mineral Law
Institute in San Francisco,
California, in July. The
institute promotes the practical and scholarly exchange of information among
individuals, corporations, law firms, law professors, and government agencies.
She has also been invited to participate on the North Dakota Law Review’s 2010
Energy Law and Policy Symposium in April 2010. The theme of the symposium is
“Energy Law in a Clean Era: An Infrastructure, Environmental and Exportation
Analysis of the Future of Energy on North
Dakota and Beyond.”
David Dow spoke
about recent Supreme Court developments at the State Bar of Texas annual Bill
of Rights seminar. He also received this year’s Individual Rights section
award. His Newest book, America’s
Prophets: How Judicial Activism Makes America Great, has just been
published by Praeger.
Barbara Evans presented
a talk on health data network privacy and governance issues at the American Society
of Law, Medicine, and Ethics Annual Health Law Professor’s Conference in Cleveland, Ohio.
She attended the NIH Pharmacogenetics Research Network Analysis Workshop and
Scientific and Steering Committee meetings at the Mayo Clinic and spoke about
the ethical and economic framework for clinical implementation of
pharmacogenomics. Prof. Evans was named an Affiliated Investigator of the Indiana University Center
for Bioethics and continues as a research affiliate of the Division of Clinical
Pharmacology at IU School of Medicine.
Jim Hawkins published
a short article in the summer issue of the Journal
of Consumer and Commercial Law entitled “When Your Car Dealership Goes
Broke.”
Peter Hoffman taught
a depositions course over the winter break at Wake Forest
Law School.
In January, he organized and taught in the first NITA North Carolina Advocacy
Teachers Training Program held at Elon
Law School
in Greensboro, North Carolina. The one-day program was open
to advocacy teachers at all the North
Carolina law schools. He was the Team Leader and Program
Director for the Nixon Peabody Motion Practice Program in Washington, D.C.,
February 3-4. Prof. Hoffman created NITA’s new Advanced Deposition Program and
was Program Director for its first offering in Houston, February 26-April 1. The new program
covered 30(b)(6) depositions, video depositions, and expert witness
depositions. The program, which assembled a group of nationally recognized NITA
teachers, was very well received and will be offered around the country in the
upcoming months. On March 5, Prof. Hoffman gave a presentation to the Elon Law
Faculty on the NITA method of critique and its application across the
curriculum. He was a faculty member in an SEC program, Taking Testimony, in Washington, D.C.
on March 12-13. He was team leader and Program Director for the Greensfelder,
Hemker & Gale Motion Practice Program in St. Louis,
May 1-3 and for the Nixon Peabody Motion Practice Program in New York on June 16-17.
Douglas Moll
attended the Business Organizations conference at the AALS Mid-Year Meeting in Long Beach, California.
On June 19, Professor Moll spoke on “Shareholder Oppression in Texas Close
Corporations: What Texas Business Lawyers Need to Know” at the UH CLE program
Advising Businesses in a Troubled Economy.
Gerry Moohr will
contribute a solicited article on the criminal liability of corporations under
respondeat superior doctrine in a symposium issue of Georgetown’s American Criminal Law Journal. She published a short article “Tax
Evasion as White Collar Fraud” in the Houston
Business Law and Tax Journal and she moderated the conference on that topic
which the journal sponsored last autumn. She and Roger Sherman are pursuing
their own brand of law and economics, having written two articles that analyze
empirical studies relevant to current legal issues. Their first effort, a book
review of Monica Miller, Religion in
Criminal Justice, appears in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Law and Religion. It analyzed
(and found wanting) Miller’s claim that appeals to religious values have no
effect on a jury’s decision to impose the death penalty. Their second essay
“Medical Malpractice Tort Reform in Texas:
Treating Symptoms Rather Than Seeking a Cure” was just published by the Journal of Consumer and Commercial Law.
It analyzes several empirical studies that show the data do not support claims
made about the benefits of reform. They conclude that the problem of the
negligent practice of medicine is still largely ignored.
Tom Oldham was a
visiting scholar at Australian National University
in Canberra in
early May. He will participate in a conference about comparative views toward
marital contracting in Cambridge,
England in late
June.
Michael Olivas served
as a consultant to the New Mexico State History
Museum in its acquisition of several
rare texts printed by a New Mexico cleric on
the first printing press west of the Mississippi.
One of the books was a spelling primer written in Spanish and another was a
manual for parish priests, used by rural priests to administer sacraments,
written in Latin and Spanish. He wrote about the press, the cleric, and these
1830’s texts in “Reflections Upon Old Books, Reading Rooms, and Making
History”, 76 UMKC Law Review 811 (2008).
The Santa Fe New Mexican ran a series
of stories about the rare texts, including “Scholar Maintains One of New
Mexico’s Most Intriguing Historical Figures Unfairly Maligned” in the first
page of the April 30, 2009 newspaper:
http://.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Justice-comes-to-a-padre
Prof. Olivas also participated on
a panel in a retreat with the ABA Council to discuss legal education issues, in
Indianapolis, Indiana, in June.
Jordan Paust’s article
“The Absolute Prohibition of Torture and Necessary and Appropriate Sanctions”
published in the Valparaiso Law Review
as the article from a keynote speech, has been translated into French for
publication in the Hague Justice Journal.
Portions of the article will form
part of a book chapter that also addresses newly released DOJ memos from the
Bush Administration (book title to be determined, Marjorie Cohn will be the
editor and NYU Press the publisher). Prof. Paust created an Amicus Brief on
behalf of the Human Rights Committee of the International Law Association for
the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Freund, et al. v. Societe Nationales des
Chemins de fer Francais, et al. with respect to a lawsuit filed by Holocaust
survivors and others against the French Railroad and others for the taking of
properties in violation of international law. The brief will also be part of a
book chapter (with an introduction and postscript) edited by Keith D. Nunes
entitled “Democratic Values, the Holocaust, and Law” (2009). Prof. Paust’s
latest op-ed in Jurist “Obama’s
Military Commission and International Law” is available at:
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2009/06/obamas-military-commission-and.php
His other recent op-ed in Jurist “The Complicity of Dick Cheney:
No ‘Necessity’ Defense” (May 2009) is available at:
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2009/05/complicity-of-dick-cheney-no-necessity.php
On June 1, Prof. Paust was one of
the speakers on the 2-hour Gary Null show on WNYE radio (an NPR associate) and
PRN (Progressive Radio Network) in New
York and elsewhere regarding torture and other
unlawful conduct authorized by Bush Administration officials.
Spencer Simons completed
the teacher’s manual for his book Texas
Legal Research, published by Carolina Academic Press.
Sandra Guerra Thompson presented
a paper entitled “Blind Justice: Judicial Tolerance of Suggestive Eyewitness
Identification Practices” at a symposium at Marquette
Law School
on June 15 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The article will appear in the Marquette Law Review symposium on
Criminal Appeals Courts. She has co-authored, with Prof. Susan Klein, UT Law
School, two other articles that will appear in symposia editions of the Tulsa Law Review and the Ohio State Criminal Law Journal. Prof. Thompson
was honored as one of the Top 25 Women of Vision by Hispanic Business magazine at a gala at the Hilton Americas in Houston on June 4. The
honor was highlighted in the April 2009 edition of Hispanic Business. She also appeared on Channel 13 Eyewitness News
on May 30 regarding a drug arrest in Fort
Bend County.
Diana Velardo was a
co-panelist at a United Way
luncheon on “Human Trafficking in Our Houston Community”. She was also a
co-host on KPFT’s Progressive Forum Series during Crime Victims Week, speaking
on immigration relief for victims of crimes and domestic violence. Diana
dedicated the program to the late Professor Vail, a local hero. As part of the
U.S. State Department’s International Exchange Visitors Program, Diana hosted a
human trafficking delegation from Kazakhstan. The Mayor’s Crime
Victims Office presented the Immigration Clinic with a proclamation during
Crime Victims Week. The proclamation is a major honor recognizing the work
spearheaded by Diana as part of the crime victims program within the
Immigration Clinic. The program is funded through the OVAG and CVCLS grants the
clinic receives. Diana also took part in Constable May Walker’s 2009 Harris
County Precinct 7 May Day Festival Health Expo. She informed over 150 attendees
of their legal rights if they are victims of crime. Diana spoke on “Immigration
Relief for Victims of Domestic Violence” at an immigration training session for
the Houston Area Women’s Center. She was a presenter at the biannual Violence
Against Women Act Training held at Catholic Charities presenting on “VAWA
Relief in Court. The training, co-sponsored by our Immigration Clinic, was
attended by over 60 pro bono attorneys. Diana was a guest speaker at Clear Lake
Presbyterian Church discussing “Immigration Law, Human Trafficking and
Immigration Consequences for Human Traffickers”. On May 22, Diana was a speaker
at the Adult Protective services (APS) Conference with a presentation titled
“Immigration and the Elderly”. The presentation was attended by over 150 attorneys,
social workers, and law enforcement personnel.
Greg Vetter organized
and presided at IPIL’s Santa Fe
conference on June 5-6. The topic was “Intellectual Property in International
Perspective”. Professors who presented papers authored for the conference
include Rochelle Dreyfus, NYU School of Law; Peter Yu, Drake
Law School;
Cynthia Ho, Loyola-Chicago School of Law; Chuck McManis, Washington University
School of Law; and Jerry Reichman, Duke
Law School.
Jacqueline Weaver spoke at
the Committees of Foreign Relations branches in Billings,
Montana and Caspar,
Wyoming in May before proceeding to attend the
Natural Resources Law Professors Conference held near Yellowstone Park.
The topic was “The Future of Our Petroleum-Based Economy”. She also hosted a
group of Ugandan officials who were touring various oil and gas centers of the United States
under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. Prof. Weaver’s paper “Energy,
Economics, and the Environment: Cases and Materials” was recently listed on
SSRN’s Top Ten Download list for Environment & Natural Resources. This
paper is the first chapter of the casebook and it discusses the top ten issues
in energy law and policy as of 2006, although the list is a good one for 2009
as well.
Stephen Zamora and
Prof. Gidi gave lectures at the 46th Annual Academy of American and
International Law, at the Center for American and International Law in Plano, Texas,
in early June. The 6-week program brings foreign lawyers to the United States for lectures by leading experts on
U.S.
and international law. Information on the Academy can be found at:
http://www.cailaw.org/iicl
Prof. Zamora and Prof. Gidi
lectured on “International Litigation in U.S. Courts” to a group of 47 lawyers
from 20 countries. This is the twentieth straight year that Prof. Zamora has
lectured in this program and the Center was kind enough to celebrate with an
anniversary cake!
Helen Boyce
Editor