Notable scholarship and activity from the Pitt Law faculty
Notable scholarship and activity from the Pitt Law faculty
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Faculty Impact                                      Feb. 2017

Rhonda Wasserman Cited by Vermont Supreme Court in Estate of Lott v. O'Neill

The Vermont Supreme Court cited to an article by Professor Rhonda Wasserman in Estate of Lott v. O’Neill, 2017 Vt. 11, 2017 WL 462184 (Vt. Feb. 3, 2017).
The case considered whether the Sixth Amendment bars a plaintiff in a civil wrongful death action from attaching funds the defendant intends to use to defend against criminal homicide charges stemming from the same death at issue in the civil action.
The Court upheld the attachment, citing Prof. Wasserman’s article, Equity Renewed: Preliminary Injunctions to Secure Money Judgments, 67 Wash. L. Rev. 257, 271-75 (1992), to support its assertion that the common law history of “pretrial security procedure . . . stretches back into the English law before the founding of the United States.” 2017 Vt. 11, at para. 19 n. 4.

Center for International Legal Education Announces Publication of Oxford Treatise on Transnational Disputes

The Center for International Legal Education (CILE) of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law today announced that the University of Oxford Press has published General Principles of Law and International Due Process: Principles and Norms Applicable in Transnational Disputes, authored by Charles T. Kotuby, Jr. (Pitt Law J.D. 2001) and Luke A. Sobota. This is Volume 6 of CILE Studies, a series of monographs and edited volumes dedicated to the discussion of important issues and developments in public and private international law.
This work by Kotuby and Sobota is an important and long-overdue successor to Bin Cheng’s seminal 1953 treatise on the general principles of law, which identified core legal principles common to various domestic legal systems across the globe. Such “general principles of law recognized by civilized nations” stand alongside or supplement both treaties and customary international law. This volume promises to be an important resource for practitioners, jurists, and scholars in the field of international law.
General Principles of Law and International Due Process is available for purchase now through the website of Oxford University Press.

Other New Faculty Publications

William M. Carter, Jr.Class as Caste: The Thirteenth Amendment’s Applicability to Class-Based Subordination, 29 Seattle L. Rev. 813 (2016). Republished: The Civil Rights Litigation & Attorney’s Fees Handbook, Vol. 32, pp. 315-332 (Steve Saltzman, ed.) (West Publishing 2016).
Mary CrossleyLiving with Alzheimer's: A Fate Worse Than Death?, 12 Ind. Health L. Rev. 651 (2015).
Vivian CurranHarmonizing Multinational Parent Company Liability for Foreign Subsidiary Human Rights Violations, 17 Chi. J. Intl' L. 403 (2017).
Matiangai SirleafThe African Justice Cascade and the Malabo Protocol 11 Int’l. J. Transitional Just. (March 2017) (forthcoming) (peer-review).
Ann Sinsheimer, Lawyers at Work: A Study of the Reading, Writing and Communication Practices of Legal Professionals, 21 Legal Writing 62 (2016) (with David Herring).

Speaking Engagements

Chaz Arnett presented a paper, Electronic Surveillance and the Undermining of Juvenile Justice at the 22nd Annual Mid-Atlantic People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference at George Washington University School of Law, Jan. 2017.
Deborah Brake was a featured speaker at the 2017 American Association of Law Schools annual meeting’s Education Law Section program, “New Horizons: Navigating the Complex Landscape of Title IX Compliance.” The program was held on Jan. 6, 2017, in San Francisco.
Haider Ala Hamoudi presented a paper at a Dec. 4 conference on Judicial Ethics held at the Doha, Qatar campus of Texas A&M. Hamoudi’s paper was on the role of the judiciary in facilitating the rise of authoritarianism in the post Saddam era.
Paul Finkelman presented The Hidden History of Northern Civil Rights, 1875-1915 at the conference Emancipations, Reconstructions, and Revolutions: African American Politics in U.S. History and the Long 19th Century, sponsored by the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the Advanced Research Collaborative of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Anthony Infanti was part of a Jan. 20, 2017 panel at the ABA Tax Section’s midyear meeting in Orlando, Florida. The panel was titled “Deductible Medical Expenses Under § 213 Take on New Meaning” and was composed of two representatives from the IRS and Infanti.
Matiangai Sirleaf served as a commentator at a Dec. 2016 conference held 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

Harvard Law School Appoints Pitt Law's Pat K. Chew as Visiting Professor

University of Pittsburgh School of Law Professor Pat K. Chew has been appointed as a Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School for the spring 2018 semester. She will teach a course on Employment Law and Employment Arbitration, and a seminar on The Reasonableness Standard: Practice v. Theory.
Chew is the Judge J. Quint Salmon & Anne Salmon Chaired Professor at Pitt Law, and a University Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award recipient. She has taught at the University of Texas, University of Augsburg, and the University of California-Hastings. Her numerous presentations, both in the U.S. and abroad, are most recently on interdisciplinary and empirical approaches to judicial and arbitral decision-making, discriminatory harassment, and the role of culture and race in legal disputes.

Federal Appeals Judge D. Michael Fisher Named Inaugural Distinguished Jurist in Residence

The University of Pittsburgh School of Law has named Federal Appeals Judge D. Michael Fisher to its newly created position of Distinguished Jurist in Residence.
Fisher, who serves in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, will begin his appointment Feb. 1, 2017. Currently an adjunct professor at Pitt Law, he is expected to teach two courses every fall term and be on site during the spring term to meet with students and participate in other activities.
“The Distinguished Jurist in Residence program advances the law school's twin goals of excellence in teaching in order to ensure that our graduates are practice-ready and of encouraging the kind of public service to which Judge Fisher has dedicated his career,” said Pitt Law Dean William M. Carter Jr. “This new program will bring extraordinary judges to the law school to enrich the educational experience of our students, and I am proud and honored that Judge Fisher has agreed to serve as our inaugural Distinguished Jurist in Residence.

Dean William M. Carter, Jr. Cited By U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit recently cited Pitt Law Dean William M. Carter, Jr.'s article, "Race, Rights, and the Thirteenth Amendment," with regard to principles of constitutional interpretation. The case noted:
“To determine the commonly understood meaning of the phrase “criminal case” at the time of ratification (1791), we examine dictionary definitions from the Founding era. See Gregory E. Maggs, A Concise Guide to Using Dictionaries from the Founding Era to Determine the Original Meaning of the Constitution, 82 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 358, 365 (2014); see also William M. Carter, Jr., Race, Rights, and the Thirteenth Amendment: Defining the Badges and Incidents of Slavery, 40 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1311, 1338 n.99 (2007) (stating that contemporaneous dictionaries “obviously . . . provide some guidance to the commonly understood meaning of a particular word at the time that word was used in the constitutional text”).”

Pitt Law Hosts Russian Hacking: What Do We Know and How Is This Different? Watch the Panel Discussion

Pitt Law Hosts Russian Hacking: What Do We Know and How Is This Different? - Watch The Panel Discussion Recording

Other Faculty In The News

John Burkoff has been appointed Executive Dean of the Spring 2018 Semester at Sea Voyage. The academic sponsor for Semester at Sea is now Colorado State University.
John Burkoff commented to KDKA-TV CBS Pittsburgh for a segment on President Obama’s recent presidential pardons.
Danshera Cords was quoted by Nathan Richman in his Jan. 13, 2017 article, “Tax Court Nominations Lapse Without Full Senate Vote.” in Tax Notes. She was asked to discuss the nominations and appointment process.
Paul Finkelman was interviewed on The Junto, a website dedicated to early American History. He spoke about writing legal history and his forthcoming Harvard University Press book, Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation’s Highest Court.  
Paul Finkelman was cited on slavery origins of the Electoral College in Jim Shaw’s Feb. 5, 2017 op-ed, “A liar is a liar is a liar.”
Paul Finkelman was interviewed by WTAE on the immigration executive order and the case in the 9th circuit.
David Garrow was published in the Washington Post regarding President Trump’s U.S. intelligence chiefs.
Jasmine Gonzales Rose spoke to NBC News about opposition to President Donald Trump’s decision to tap Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for Attorney General. 
David Harris launched the third season of his 90.5 WESA podcast, Criminal (In)Justice, on Jan. 31, 2017. The first episode explored the largest provider of services to the mentally ill in America: the criminal justice system.
David Harris was quoted by the Baltimore Sun, telling the paper, “The idea of addressing violence and public safety is not at war with the idea of reforming the Police Department,” he said. “They do not contradict each other.”
David Harris commented to WKU, an NPR affiliate, on how a Kentucky rape case is testing the of the criminal justice system.
David Harris commented to the Baltimore Sun on the impact President Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general, Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, will have on the state of Maryland.
Arthur Hellman commented to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about Pittsburgh's Judge Hardiman appearing on President Donald Trump’s short list for Supreme Court.
Arthur Hellman was quoted by the Associated Press in a Feb. 4, 2017 article regarding the government’s suspended enforcement of President Donald Trump’s refugee and immigration ban.
Arthur Hellman spoke to Pittsburgh’s CBS affiliate KDKA News, about the potential Judge Hardiman nomination to US Supreme Court.
Grant MacIntyre commented to the Chronicle of Higher Education on President Donald Trump’s freeze on research grants.
Grant MacIntyre was a recent guest on the podcast Trump On Earth with Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick, discussing the Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.
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