A monthly update of the scholarly activities of the Pitt Law faculty
A monthly update of the scholarly activities of the Pitt Law faculty
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Faculty Impact                                                          April 2015

PUBLICATIONS

Anthony Infanti Publishes 'Controversies in Tax Law'
Professor and Senior Associate Dean Anthony Infanti has published Controversies in Tax Law: A Matter of Prospective (Ashgate Publishing, 2015), for which he is both editor and contributor. This volume presents a new approach to today’s tax controversies, reflecting that debates about taxation often turn on the differing worldviews of the debate participants. To capture and interrogate what often seems like a chasm between the different sides of tax debates, this collection comprises a series of pairs of essays. Each pair approaches a single area of controversy from two different perspectives—with one essay usually taking a “mainstream” perspective and the other a “critical” perspective. In writing their contributions, the authors read and incorporated reactions to each other’s essays, and paid specific attention to the influence of perspective on both the area of controversy and their contributions to the debate. With contributions from leading mainstream and critical tax scholars, this volume takes the first step toward bridging the gap between these differing perspectives on tax law and policy. Read more

OTHER FACULTY PUBLICATIONS

Publications
Douglas Branson, An Essay for Professor Alan Bromberg: Removing the Taint from Past Illegal Offers and Sales—40 Years Later, Southern Methodist University Law Review (forthcoming, 2015). (SSRN)
David Thaw, Data Breach (Regulatory) Effects, Cardozo Law Review de•novo (forthcoming, 2015). (SSRN)
Bernard Hibbits, Martial Lawyers: Lawyering and War-Waging in American History, 13 Seattle Journal for Social Justice 405 (2014). (SSRN) (Website)
Book Chapter
Haider Ala Hamoudi, with Wasfi H. Al-Sharaa and Aqeel Al-Dahhan, "The Resolution of Disputes in State and Tribal Law in the South of Iraq: Toward a Cooperative Model of Pluralism," in Michael A. Helfand, ed., Negotiating State and Nonstate Law: The Challenges of Global and Local Legal Pluralism, Cambridge University Press, 2015 (forthcoming). (SSRN)

PRESENTATIONS

Sheila Velez Martinez Testifies Before Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Speaks at American University on Human Rights in Puerto Rico
Professor Sheila I. Velez Martinez appeared before the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women for the Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Tracy Robinson, as part of a series of public hearings before the commission taking place March 13-27 in Washington, D.C. Robinson noted the presence of Velez Martinez and welcomed and thanked the University of Pittsburgh School of Law for its assistance in bringing to the attention of the IACHR the plight of immigrant women in Puerto Rico. Velez Martinez also participated in a follow-up discussion of the rights of immigrants, specifically immigrant women, in Puerto Rico as part of Human Rights in Puerto Rico, an event sponsored by the American University Washington College of Law Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law that featured leading activists, academics, and representatives of civil society organizations, who were in D.C. for the hearings. Read more

Mary Crossley Presents at ADA Anniversary Symposium
Professor Mary Crossley presented at a symposium in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, The ADA at 25: Disability Rights and the Healthcare Workforce on March 27, 2015. The William C. Wefel Center for Employment Law and the Center for Health Law Studies at St. Louis University School of Law cosponsored the symposium. Crossley’s presentation was entitled “Disability Cultural Competence and the Health Professions.” It explored the concept of disability cultural competence and examined how its incorporation into the education of health professionals might contribute to expanded opportunities for persons with disabilities in the healthcare workforce. Read more

OTHER FACULTY PRESENTATIONS

Pat Chew presented “Gender, Arbitration, and Sex Discrimination” at the University of Pennsylvania Law School as part of a CLE program on the work of feminist legal scholars. She discussed empirical study on the effect of arbitrators’ gender on the outcome of sex discrimination cases.
Vivian Curran spoke at the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) about the new challenges globalization poses to comparative law.
Larry Frolik gave a talk to the Young Professional Organization of Pittsburgh on Issues with Aging Parents. The group consists of younger professionals and business persons who meet regularly to discuss their professional and personal challenges.
Haider Ala Hamoudi spoke at a RAND conference in Arlington, Va., about prospects for the Iraqi judiciary in light of Iraq’s continuing turmoil. Also participating on Hamoudi’s panel were Iraq’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Hamid al-Bayati, and the author and academic Kanan Makiya. Others participating in the daylong conference included Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Ambassador James Jeffries, both of whom served in Iraq for a period of years.
Haider Ala Hamoudi spoke at a University of Pittsburgh conference on Countering Violent Extremism, focusing specifically on the history of the caliphate in Sunni Islam and its controversial misuse by groups such as ISIS. Also appearing on the panel were Dan Simpson, editorial writer for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Seamus Hughes from the National Counterterrorism Center and Harald Weilnbock from the EU Commission in Belgium.
Anthony Infanti presented his paper titled “The House of Windsor: Accentuating the Heteronormativity in the Tax Incentives for Procreation” at the Conference on Reproductive Health, Rights, Access, and Action, organized by the University of Pittsburgh Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program.
Anthony Infanti presented an incubator session at the 18th Annual Critical Tax Conference, held at Northwestern University School of Law. He talked about the idea for his sabbatical project, which is tentatively titled “Presumptuous Selfishness: The ‘Other’ in Tax Law.”

FACULTY FEATURE
Professor Deborah Brake coauthored, with Professor Joanna Grossman of Hofstra Law School, an amicus brief filed last September in support of Peggy Young’s position that urged the Supreme Court to hear arguments in Young v. UPS. The brief was cited by Justice Kennedy. Brake also coauthored a two-part column with Grossman for Justia’s Verdict blog. Part one, “Forceps Delivery: The Supreme Court Narrowly Saves the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in Young v. UPS,” was posted on March 31, 2015.
In this latest installment of Faculty Features, a series of monthly videos highlighting Pitt Law faculty members on items of current legal interest within their areas of expertise, Brake discusses the recent case of Young v. UPS concerning discrimination against pregnant employees. View video

AWARDS

Anthony Infanti is Elected ACTC Fellow
Professor and Senior Associate Dean Anthony Infanti has been elected a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel (ACTC), a professional association of tax attorneys. Fellows must be nominated by their peers for this honor, satisfy the established criteria, and pass a rigorous screening process. Formed in 1981, ACTC offers membership  to a maximum of 700 tax attorneys across the United States. Fellows are tax lawyers working in private law firms and in-house legal departments, teaching tax in law schools, or working in federal or state revenue agencies. Fellows are recognized for their extraordinary accomplishments and professional achievements and for their dedication to improving the practice of tax law. Read more

IN THE NEWS 

David Harris is Sought-After National Expert on Police Accountability
Professor David Harris, an expert on police behavior and regulation, law enforcement, and national security issues and the law, as well as a leading national authority on racial profiling, has frequently been called on by leading media outlets to discuss recent high-profile incidents involving on-duty police officers that resulted in the deaths of civilians in their custody. Among the highlights of his media appearances between March 15 and April 15, 2015, are the following:
Harris commented to The New York Times on the death of Walter Scott and the video that surfaced showing North Charleston, S.C., police officer Michael T. Slager shooting him in the back as he fled. Read more
In The Washington Post report “Fatal Shootings by On-Duty Police Officers: An Analysis," Harris said, "Jurors usually see the officer as ‘the good party in the fight.’ To get them to buy into a story where the officer is the bad guy goes fundamentally against everything they believe,” Read more  
Harris appeared on MSNBC’s The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell to talk about the Tulsa county deputy who shot and killed a man instead of using his taser, as well as the matter of a Tuscon, Ariz., officer who used his cruiser to ram a suspect at high speed. Watch the segment
Harris spoke with HuffPost Politics in “Cop Cams Will Change Policing. But Maybe Not The Way You Think,” saying, “Officers quickly figured out these things [body cameras] were good for them. They often backed up cops who were behaving correctly when people made bogus complaints.” Read more
Click here for an updated report of Harris' more recent media activities related to issues of police accountability.

OTHER FACULTY IN THE NEWS

John Burkoff Comments to Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Sentencing of a Washington County Judge
Anthony Infanti Provides Expert Commentary for WalletHub Report '2015’s Best States to Be Rich or Poor from a Tax Perspective'
Ben Bratman is Interviewed by Scholastica Blog Regarding His Assessment of Bar Exam Reforms
David Harris Appears on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show in 'How Technology is Changing Criminal Linguistic Evidence in Court'
Anthony Infanti Publishes Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Op-ed, “How Does a Business Transaction Become ‘Religious’?” 
Michael Madison Comments in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on $1.54 Billion Lawsuit Between Carnegie Mellon University and Marvell Technology Group Ltd.
David J. Garrow Pens a Washington Post Book Review of Bryan Burrough’s 'Days of Rage: America’s Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence'
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