Faculty News

Professor Pat Chew was the keynote speaker at the University of Texas "Celebration of Excellence in Diversity" Conference on Feb. 23, 2013.  Her talk was titled "Bumping Into Diversity."  Each year, the law school selects a distinguished graduate to present the keynote speech.  The Conference also focused on the U.S. Supreme Court's Fisher case, which considers the use of diversity in admission to the the University of Texas.  

Professor Chew also presented her Inaugural Lecture as the Judge J. Quint Salmon & Anne Salmon Chair on Feb. 7, 2012, hosted by the Provost's Office at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Her talk was titled "Life, Law, and Inflection Points."

Professor Jessie Allen has published her essay, "Theater of International Law," in volume 3 of the Creighton International & Comparative Law Journal.  Here's the abstract:

In this essay I defend international human rights tribunals against the charge that they are not “real” courts (with sovereign force behind them) by considering the proceedings in these courts as a kind of theatrical performance. Looking at human rights courts as theater might at first seem to validate the view that they produce only an illusory “show” of justice. To the contrary, I argue that self-consciously theatrical performances are what give these courts the potential to enact real justice. I do not mean only that human rights tribunals’ dramatic public hearings make injustice visible and bring together a community committed to building human rights. My claim goes more directly to the issue of enforcement. The essay focuses on a hearing of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. I argue that, as a performance, the hearing is aimed at a particular audience effect that is characteristic of all court performances, namely, generating government enforcement. To support this claim, I revisit Robert Cover’s famous essay, Violence and the Word. I see the charge that human rights courts are unreal because they lack enforcement power as the mirror image of Cover’s charge that domestic courts are engaged in creating an illusion of force-free justice. In these terms, my essay looks to see how the Inter-American Court performs the characteristic business of all courts — transforming its words into deeds of governmental force.

You can download the full essay here.  The full citation is 3 Creighton International & Comparative Law Journal 121 (2012).

Professor David Harris's book "Failed Evidence: Why Law Enforcement Resists Science (2012) has just been reviewed by the American Criminal Law Review.  According to the eviewer, the book  "provides a thoughtful analysis of the scientific bases underlying forensics, current evidentiary and investigatory problems, and possible solutions. [The] suggestions are particularly well thought-out because they consider the problems faced by law enforcement when implementing ideal solutions in the real world."

Read the review here.

The February 2013 edition of Professor John Burkoff's treatise, Search Warrant Law Deskbook, has been published.  Click here.  The book can also be found in the Westlaw Treatises database.