Notable scholarship and activity from the Pitt Law faculty
Notable scholarship and activity from the Pitt Law faculty
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Faculty Impact                                      Dec. 2016

Deborah L. Brake explores the contours of pregnancy discrimination in latest article in Georgetown Law Journal

Georgetown Law Journal will publish "The Shifting Sands of Employment Discrimination: From Unjustified Impact to Disparate Treatment in Pregnancy and Pay" by John E. Murray Faculty Scholar And Professor Of Law, Deborah L. Brake. 
This article situates the newly-minted pregnancy discrimination claim in Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc. against the backdrop of employment discrimination law generally and argues that the Supreme Court’s hybrid treatment-by-impact claim is in good company with other outlier cases in which courts blur the boundaries of the impact/treatment line. The article defends the use of unjustified impact to prove pregnancy discrimination as well-designed to reach the kind of implicit bias against pregnant workers that often underlies employer refusals to extend accommodations to pregnant workers. 

Michael J. Madison publishes "Authority and Authors and Codes" in George Washington Law Review

In his latest article, Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Innovation Practice Institute, Michael J. Madison, explores contests over the meaning and application of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and how it exposes long-standing, complex questions about the sources and impacts of the concept of authority in law and culture.
Accessing a computer network “without authorization” and by “exceeding authorized access” is forbidden by the CFAA. Courts are divided in their interpretation of this language in the statute. 
"Authority and Authors and Codes" first proposes to address the issue with an insight from social science research. Neither criminal nor civil liability under the CFAA should attach unless the alleged violator has transgressed some border or boundary that is rendered visible or “imageable” in the language of the research on which the argument draws.

Other New Faculty Publications

Deborah L. Brake, The Trouble with 'Bureaucracy', 7 Cal. L. Rev. Online 66 (2016).
Michael J. Madison, "Information Abundance and Knowledge Commons," a chapter in User Generated Law: Re-Constructing Intellectual Property in a Knowledge Society, edited by Thomas Riis (Edward Elgar, 2016).
Michael J. Madison, Knowledge Commons, Research Handbook on the Economics of Intellectual Property Law (Vol. II - Analytical Methods) with K. J. Strandburg, B. M. Frischmann, Peter Menell, David Schwartz, eds. (Edward Elgar, 2016).
Jasmine B. Gonzales Rose, Toward a Critical Race Theory of Evidence, 101 Minn. L.Rev. __ (2017)
Matiangai Sirleaf, The African Justice Cascade and the Malabo Protocol, The International Journal for Transitional Justice (forthcoming 2017).
Lu-in Wang, When the Customer Is King: Employment Discrimination as Customer Service at 23 Va. J. Soc. Pol'y & L. 249 (2016).

Speaking Engagements

Elena Baylis, International Criminal Justice and Transitional Justice: Tensions and Synergies. Presented at: International Law Weekend; New York City Bar Association; Oct. 2016.
Elena Baylis presented the results of her empirical research on post-conflict justice norms and knowledge development at International Law Weekend on Oct. 29, 2016, for the “Empirical Research on International Legal Education” panel. Her presentation was based on the findings described in two recent publications, What Internationals Know: Improving the Effectiveness of Post-Conflict Justice Initiatives, 14 Wash. U. Global Stud. L. Rev. 243 (2015) (preliminary paper competitively selected for American Society of International Law Research Forum) and Function and Dysfunction in Post-Conflict Justice Networks and Communities, 47 Vand. J. Transnat’l L. 625 (2014).
Elena Baylis served as a discussant and moderator at the Nov. 12, 2016 American Society of International Law Research Forum for a panel on Armed Conflict and International Law. The panel featured papers on detention, hybrid warfare and Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems.
Ronald Brand led a three-day training session Oct. 12-14, 2016 for professors and coaches of Vis International Arbitration Moot teams from law schools from throughout the Middle East. The program was held at the Kuwait International Law School in Kuwait.
Haider Ala Hamoudi presented a paper at a conference on Judicial Ethics held at the Doha, Qatar campus of Texas A&M on Dec. 4. Hamoudi’s paper was on the role of the judiciary in facilitating the rise of authoritarianism in the post Saddam era.
Matiangai Sirleaf, Ebola Does Not Fall from the Sky: Global Structural Violence and International Responsibility. Presented at: Mid-Year Research Forum; American Society for International Law; Nov. 2016.
Matiangai Sirleaf served as a commentator at a conference held in Dec. 2016 by Osgoode Law School, at York University in Toronto Canada. The interdisciplinary international conference was entitled: Canadian/Anglophone African Human Rights Engagements: A Critical Assessment of the Literature and a Research Agenda Conference. 

Faculty In The News

Visiting Professor Paul Finkelman publishes Commanders in Chief and the Defense of the Republic with Los Angeles Review of Books

Renowned legal historian Paul Finkelman will join the Pitt Law faculty this spring as the John E. Murray Visiting Professor of Law. Finkelman recently published Commanders in Chief and the Defense of the Republic with the Los Angeles Review of Books. This book examines Judge David J. Barron’s Waging War: The Clash Between Presidents and Congress, 1776 to ISIS, a study of the president as commander in chief.
This lengthy review explores Barron’s argument that presidents usually have (and should) work with Congress in waging war. Barron is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The review finds the book to be deeply flawed because of persistent errors of facts and because the author failed to mention or discuss many aspects of presidential war making, such as the Whiskey Rebellion, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Lyndon Johnson’s Vietnam policy, the Mormon War, or any wars with American Indians.

Other Faculty In The News

Paul Finkelman authored a front-page essay for the LA Review of Books entitled, Original Sin: The Electoral College as a Pro-Slavery Tool.
Paul Finkelman authored a front-page essay for the History News Network entitled, How the Electoral College Protected Slavery.
David Harris commented to the Los Angeles Times in Civil Rights Meet The Limelight.
David Harris spoke to USA Today for A Crash Course in Racial Disparities.
Arthur Hellman commented to the Associated Press in Conflict Rules Hardly the Same for President, Others.
Sheila I. Velez Martinez commented to ELLE Magazine in What's a DREAMer Supposed to Do Now?
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