Professor Vivian Curran was quoted in an article in The American Lawyer concerning the ongoing suit by Amazon tribespeople in Ecuador against Chevron. The plaintiffs claim that Chevron predecessor Texaco created an environmental disaster on their land. Chevron has uncovered evidence of fraud in a damages report made to the Ecuadoran court, but Professor Curran commented that in the end this may not matter. "[O]nce you're in a country where courts are politically motivated, it's tough to overcome those decisions, because you're trapped in that country's legal network."
Link to article
Faculty News
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 12:55pm
Monday, January 10, 2011 - 10:53pm
Professor David Harris described the advantages of wearable video cameras for police officers in the Pittsburgh City Paper's story, New Ideas for the New Year. The cameras, worn by officers using a small earpiece, make for greater accountability to the public for police conduct. For example, in the case involving the beating of CAPA High School student Jordan Miles by three Pittsburgh police officers, "[i]f you'd had the three officers all wearing cameras, you would have a pretty detailed picture of what happened...There would be a lot less dispute." The cameras also protect officers from baseless complaints.
Link to article
Monday, January 10, 2011 - 10:39pm
Professor Pat Chew was elected a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) at the January, 2011 Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Her term is for three years. Professor Chew will be the first individual from the University of Pittsburgh to serve on the AALS Executive Committee since the establishment of the AALS in 1900.
Monday, January 10, 2011 - 11:40am
Professor Ronald Brand’s chapter, "The 1999 Hague Preliminary Draft Convention Text on Jurisdiction and Judgments: A View from the United States," published in The Hague Preliminary Draft Convention on Jurisdiction and Judgments (Fausto Pocar & Constanza Honorati, eds., 2006), was cited by the United States in its Brief as Amicus Curiae Supporting Petitioners, in the case of Goodyear Luxembourg Tires, S.A., v. Brown. The case will be argued in the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, January 11, 2011.
Link to Brief
