Professor Arthur D. Hellman testified at a legislative hearing of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security on H.R. 5219, the “Judicial Transparency and Ethics Enhancement Act of 2006.” The bill would create an independent Inspector General for the federal judiciary. The IG – to be appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States – would conduct investigations of complaints of judicial misconduct, conduct and supervise audits, detect and prevent waste, fraud, and abuse, and recommend changes in laws or regulations governing the judicial branch. Professor Hellman supported H.R. 5219, but suggested that it be made clear in the proposed statute that the IG would have no authority over the substance of judicial decisions. He also recommended that an IG’s responsibilities in misconduct proceedings would not begin until after the chief judge and the circuit judicial council have completed their work.
Link to Professor Hellman's testimony: http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/hellman062906.pdf
Related items:
The press release announcing the hearing
Coverage in The Third Branch, the newsletter of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts
Archived Faculty News
August 25, 2006 - 2:32pm
Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Lu-in Wang was recently elected to membership in the American Law Institute. Professor Wang joins Professors Ronald Brand, Douglas Branson, Pat Chew, Vivian Curran, Arthur Hellman, William Luneburg, Rhonda Wasserman and Dean Mary Crossley as ALI members.
According to the ALI:
The American Law Institute was founded in 1923 and is based in Philadelphia. The Institute, through a careful and deliberative process, drafts and then publishes various restatements of the law, model codes, and other proposals for legal reform "to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice, and to encourage and carry on scholarly and scientific legal work." Its membership consists of judges, practicing lawyers, and legal scholars from all areas of the United States as well as some foreign countries, selected on the basis of professional achievement and demonstrated interest in the improvement of the law. The Institute’s incorporators included Chief Justice and former President William Howard Taft, future Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, and former Secretary of State Elihu Root. Judges Benjamin N. Cardozo and Learned Hand were among its early leaders.
August 22, 2006 - 2:19pm
Professor Richard Delgado's newest book, The Politics of Fear: How Republicans Use Money, Race, and the Media to Win, has been published by Paradigm Publishers. From the publisher:
What explains the electoral success of Republicans, particularly of the ascendant neoconservatives who now dominate the party? Based on a thorough and up-to-date examination of the New Right over twenty-five years, The Politics of Fear (Paradigm Publishers 2006) proposes some provocative answers, including globalization, new technologies, and a far-reaching network of right-wing think tanks and foundations. As the authors show, all have opened the doors to a new politics of fear successfully waged by the neoconservatives. By manipulating insecurity, the New Right has created an extraordinarily successful populist conservative movement. Utilizing extensive documentation, the authors argue convincingly that the fear of immigrants and racial minorities has served as the most effective tactic in the GOP arsenal, while its approach also implicates gays, feminists, and terrorists. The book explains why Americans have willingly supported a party that promises them security, just as it delivers greater economic and political insecurity. The authors argue that, despite their striking political successes, neoconservatives have delivered to voters a set of policies harmful to working Americans in the way of regressive tax measures, military exploits, tort reform, deregulation, and environmental destruction.The book is co-authored with Manuel G. Gonzales, who is Professor of History at Diablo Valley College and adjunct professor of history at California State University, East Bay.
August 22, 2006 - 2:18pm
Pitt Law's Center for International Legal Education and Arent Fox PLLC present a conference on "Challenges and Opportunities of Globalization: How to Comply and Compete in the Global Marketplace" on Friday, September 29, 2006 at the School of Law. For more information, download the conference brochure.
August 22, 2006 - 2:17pm
Professor Barry McCarthy chaired a ten-member committee that developed new, comprehensive guidelines for juvenile court dependency hearings in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which appointed the committee, adopted those guidelines yesterday.
Link to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette coverage of the new guidelines.
Link to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court press release announcing adoption of the guidelines.
August 21, 2006 - 2:19pm
Professor Janice Mueller has posted "The Tiger Awakens: The Tumultuous Transformation of India's Patent System and the Rise of Indian Pharmaceutical Innovation" to SSRN. The abstract:
India developed a world-class generic drug manufacturing industry by excluding pharmaceutical products from patent protection in 1972. In 2005, India reintroduced pharmaceutical patenting in order to comply with its obligations as a WTO member. For an emerging superpower still mired in poverty and public health crises, the change did not come quickly or without controversy. This Article provides the first major comparative analysis of India's new patents regime. Based on the author's data gathering and interviews in India, the Article evaluates the regime's first eighteen months. It critiques the new law and the capacity of India's administrative and judicial infrastructure to implement it. Multiple influences shape India's “mosaic view” of patents: a huge population, widespread poverty, lack of health insurance, wariness towards foreign influences, a developed but fragmented pharmaceutical sector, a fledgling entrepreneurial culture of innovation among indigenous pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, a fragile coalition government, and a vocal citizenry remarkably aware of esoteric patent law developments. Concluding that the new patents regime is neither the fully-Westernized panacea hoped for by its pro-TRIPS advocates nor the unmitigated disaster for the Indian public predicted by its fiercest critics, the Article offers recommendations for the future of India's evolving patent system.
August 14, 2006 - 2:20pm
The University of Pittsburgh School of Law is pleased to welcome its newest full-time faculty member, Peter Oh. Professor Oh's scholarship focuses on the intersection between law and business and uses both interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary methods. He will teach Business Organizations, Agency & Partnership, Corporate Finance, and Law & Economics.
Professor Oh comes to Pitt from the William Mitchell College of Law, where he was an Assistant Professor. He previously taught at Florida State University College of Law as a Visiting Assistant Professor. His publications include "Tracing," 80 Tul. L. Rev. 849 (2006); "Gatekeeping," 29 J. Corp. L. 735 (2004); and "A Jurisdictional Approach to Collapsing Corporate Distinctions," 55 Rutgers L. Rev. 389 (2003). He received his BA from Yale and his JD from the University of Chicago.
August 10, 2006 - 2:21pm
Professor Harry Flechtner is an internationally-recognized expert on the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), and he's also a musician. He recently combined his talents by composing, performing, and recording a song about international commercial law. Hear (and download) the tune at http://www.cisgsong.info.
