Page 4 - Briefcase V36 Number 1

JANUARY

2017

A LOOK BACK Year in

Review

UHLC PROF. WILLIS STRESSES MEDIATION and Public Transformation of the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios
GUIDELINES AT UN CONFERENCE IN TBILISI, Superiores de Monterrey, the Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo
A.C. (CIDAC), and the Faculty of Law and Criminology at the
GEORGIA Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León.
University of Houston Law Center The book is dedicated to former dean and professor Stephen P. Zamora,
Professor Tasha Willis spoke in founding director of the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law and one of
Tbilisi, Georgia at a United Nations the organizers of the research project. Zamora passed away in July 2016.
program designed to reform that
eastern European country’s judicial Center for U.S. and Mexican Law Affiliate Scholars who contributed to
system, in part, through the increased the book include Dr. José Ramón Cossío Díaz, a justice of the Mexican
use of mediation to ensure justice for Supreme Court, and Dr. Alberto Abad Suárez Ávila, professor-researcher
all, especially children. at Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la Universidad Nacional
Willis, director of the Law Center’s Autónoma de México (IIJ-UNAM).
Alternative Dispute Resolution The conclusion to the book was co-authored by Zamora and Tony
(ADR) program and a mediation Payan, director of Rice’s Mexico Center.
clinic professor, spoke on the subject:
Tasha Willis
“Regulating Mediation: Importance UHLC COMMUNITY JOINS VOLUNTEER EFFORT TO AID
and Necessity of Voluntary Credentialing.” She stressed the importance IMMIGRANTS AFFECTED BY TRAVEL BAN
of developing a system in which mediators actively choose to follow
a defined set of ethical guidelines as opposed to being government As confusion mounted across the
regulated. nation’s airports in the wake of a Jan. 27
order banning immigrants from certain
The program, “Enhancing Access to Justice and Development of a Child countries, the director of the University
Friendly Justice System in Georgia,” was sponsored jointly by The of Houston Law Center’s Immigration
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Clinic, in his individual capacity, former
Development Project (UNDP). students, and local attorneys headed to
Bush Intercontinental Airport to see if
UHLC’S CENTER FOR U.S. AND MEXICAN LAW they could help.
PARTNERS WITH RICE’S BAKER INSTITUTE FOR BOOK “We were an impromptu bunch of
The University of Houston Law Center’s Geoff Hoffman volunteer lawyers who gathered with
Center for U.S. and Mexican Law celebrated the little or no prior discussion to help
publishing of a book that examines recent reform families get their loved ones released from Customs and Border
of the energy sector in Mexico. Protection after arriving from all over the world,” said Geoffrey A.
The book is titled, “Estado de Derecho y Reforma Hoffman, head of the Immigration Clinic, who worked into the night
along with Rosemary Vega, a supervising attorney at the clinic. “Some
Energética en México,” which translates to “The of the 20 to 25 volunteers were immigration attorneys, but most were
Rule of Law and Mexico’s Energy Reform.” The not, their expertise and practice areas ranging from civil rights, criminal
project is the culmination of a major research defense and federal courts to commercial litigation, tax and in-house
effort to examine rule of law issues arising under counsel.”
Mexico’s new energy legislation.
It was published in collaboration with the Baker Institute’s Mexico International travelers, including those with green cards and valid visas,
were questioned and some detained in the wake of Executive Order
Center at Rice University, in association with the School of Government 13769. The order included a 90-day ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens

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