 PAPER CHASE / Law School News |
| JURIST >> PAPER CHASE >> Law School News |
| Law school and legal education news from JURIST's Paper Chase... |
Math error muddies U. Montana's path to Jessup finals Adam Henry A simple error in addition recently subtracted a team of University of Montana School of Law students from a regional moot court competition. Montana's students apparently lost in the fourth round in the Salem regional of the prestigious Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. But upon reviewing the score sheets, they learned that the team had actually won. They notified the competition coordinator, the International Law Students Association, which then added the team to the international stage of the competition as equitable remedy for its error. The Missoula Independent has the whole story here. In other legal education news, the Law School Admission Council is appealing a judge's order, made last month, to grant extra time on its Law School Admission Test to a learning disabled Syracuse University senior (see JURIST's initial report for more on the judgment). According to yesterday's Daily Orange, upholding the appeal would create a circuit split and ripen the case for Supreme Court review. Read its full story here. Finally, Friday brings reports of lectures by US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at two different law schools. At the University of Connecticut School of Law last week, the associate justice spoke on many subjects, including the collegiality enjoyed by members of the current court, "the longest sitting bench since 1823." She also defended her decision not to recuse herself from a case involving a women's advocacy group with which she has long been associated. See JURIST's earlier report for more on the recusal controversy, and see the Advance for the full story on her Connecticut lecture. Then, at the City University of New York School of Law, Justice Ginsburg lectured on a pair of women who played important roles in American legal history despite facing gender-based barriers. The New York Law Journal offers the full story on her CUNY lecture here. 3:19 PM | | link to this post | latest Law School News
O'Connor decries decline in ethics in law school lecture Adam Henry Speaking this week at the University of Wyoming College of Law, US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor bemoaned the current ethical state of the legal profession. In her lecture, entitled "Professionalism & Ethics," she identified declines in professionalism and ethical standards as responsible in part for widespread and widely documented job dissatisfaction among attorneys. She urged practicing and prospective attorneys in her overflow audience to practice civility in an environment better characterized by brutality, and to remember the "moral and social aspects of an attorney's power and position." The Casper Star-Tribune has the full story here. Meanwhile, Harvard Law School has launched a new program to research changes in the legal profession, notably its transformation to one dominated by global enterprises. Under the direction of Professor David Wilkins, though, the first project of the new Program on Lawyers and the Professional Services Industry will examine how corporations select and purchase legal services in an increasingly competitive market. HLS has the full story here. Elewhere, Pace Law School's competitive negotiating team has earned itself a trip to the City of Lights. By besting a field of 180 law schools in the American Bar Association's Negotiation Competiton in February, the team earned the honor of representing the US in an international competition in Paris in July. See Pace's press release for more. Finally, Janet Harvey-Clark, Marketing Director at the Michigan State University-DCL College of Law, writes to clarify JURIST's Wednesday report on a proposal to more fully integrate the school with Michigan State. "MSU isn't stripping us of our affiliation," she says. "The affiliation agreement remains fully intact. We are just strengthening the affiliation to include academic governence [sic] issues, more integrated academic programming and the name change." JURIST reiterates its original statement that the proposal would strip the school only of its "nominal affiliation with DCL," and thanks Ms. Harvey-Clark for her clarification. 5:53 PM | | link to this post | latest Law School News
Proposal will nominally integrate independent law school with Michigan State Adam Henry The Michigan State University-DCL College of Law may soon have a simpler, less confusing name. According to the State News, a proposal awaits approval from the school's two constituent institutions that would more fully integrate it with Michigan State by stripping it of its nominal affiliation with DCL (the Detroit College of Law). Michigan State University-DCL is the product of a 1995 agreement between the two, after which it moved into a new facility on the former's East Lansing campus. At present, it receives no funding from either Michigan State or the state of Michigan, and it would retain its financial independence even after any integration. The boards of both institutions will vote on the proposal to become the "Michigan State University College of Law" in April. State News has the full story here. Additionally, JURIST has reports on similar integration issues between Penn State University and Dickinson School of Law, here and here. Elsewhere, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law wants the university to apologize for its historical ties to slavery and to consider paying reparations to slave descendants. The Mobil Register reports that Professor Alfred Brophy pitched his proposal to the university's Faculty Senate on Tuesday. Brophy has documented both ownership and rental of slaves by the university in antebellum years, as well as public defense of slavery by former leaders who now have buildings in their name on the Tuscaloosa campus. In addition to reparations, he suggests less controversial measures like marking unmarked slave graves and creating a museum in former slave quarters. Read the Register's full report here. 3:47 PM | | link to this post | latest Law School News
New HLS student group plans to protect voting rights Adam Henry A new student group at Harvard Law School is hoping to prevent the mistakes and confusion that plagued many polling places in the 2000 presidential election. Called Just Democracy, and recently launched by two second-year students at HLS, the group aims to create a national network of law school students familiar with election law to promote and protect voting rights in their communities. Already, it has ambitious plans for the 2004 election: it intends to place more than 1,000 such students in polling places where voters are most likely to be effectively disenfranchised by poor procedures. Read the full story on Just Democracy from HLS here, or contact the group directly at justdemocracy2004@yahoo.com. Students at the University of California at Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law are also making news. On Saturday, a team of students swept top honors in the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition, billed as the nation's premier competition on trademark and unfair competition law. Boalt offers a fuller report here. Meanwhile, faculty members at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law are hoping to remain an independent bargaining unit in the face of recent administrative changes. The Independent Florida Alligator reports that 48 of the college's approximately 60 law professors have filed a petition, opposing the university's decision to group law faculty with the university's general bargaining unit. They prefer to remain independent, says Professor Joseph Little, because their size and situation as a faculty are different from those of the university's other colleges. Litigation has been threatened should the university deny their request. Lastly, some commencement speaker news. The Daily Pennsylvanian reports that the University of Pennsylvania will confer an honorary Doctor of Laws degree upon singer and activist Bono at its ceremony on May 17. In a press release, Penn President Judith Rodin applauds Bono as "a powerful force for change," notably for pet causes like debt relief and AIDS awareness in Africa. Elsewhere, the New England School of Law announces that anchor and author Bill O'Reilly will be the keynote speaker at the school's Law Day on April 16. More from NESL here. 6:31 PM | | link to this post | latest Law School News
Army admits wrong in probing UT Islamic law conference Adam Henry The US Army has admitted that two of its agents exceeded their authority when they sought information about attendees at a conference on Islamic law at the University of Texas School of Law last month. Inquiries made by the agents about the identities of attendees touched off campus-wide concerns about racial profiling and violations of free speech and privacy. An Army spokeswoman grants that "it was a lapse in judgment," as well as procedure. AP has the latest here, while Paper Chase offers the backstory here. In other law school news, the Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship Program for public interest law at the New York University School of Law is fast approaching its fiftieth anniversary, and NYU has plans to increase both the number and the size of the awards. New York Lawyer reports on the flurry of this and other public service initiatives underway under the watch of Dean Richard Revesz in its full story here. 11:07 PM | | link to this post | latest Law School News Comments by Haloscan |
