Chris Sagers, the James A. Thomas Professor of Law, spoke recently with prominent international media about Amazon’s $9 billion bid to acquire the MGM movie studios, a deal that caught many by surprise, especially given the high price tag and what the case may portend for video distribution. Sagers spoke about the deal with the Financial Times, Yahoo Finance, and Bloomberg.

Chris Sagers, the James A. Thomas Professor of Law, recently spoke with several news organizations about antitrust matters. He spoke with the Wall Street Journal on the background of Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who oversees a closely watched antitrust case against Apple brought by Epic Games, maker of the popular game Fortnite. He also spoke with the tech industry news magazine Protocol about new claims against Apple in Europe, and how they might affect the Epic Games case. 

Separately, he spoke with Fortune magazine for a story that will appear in the print magazine in June, about Visa’s failed attempt to acquire the payment-systems intermediary Plaid, a deal that was apparently scuttled on government antitrust concerns. 

Professor Milena Sterio’s article, “Darryl Robinson’s Model for International Criminal Law: Deontic Principles Developed Through a Coherentist Approach,” was published by the Temple International and Comparative Law Journal (Volume 35, No. 1, Spring 2021).  

Professor Sterio’s article is part of a journal symposium issue, where Professor Sterio and several other prominent international criminal law authors provided commentary on the recently published book by Professor Darryl Robinson, Justice in Extreme Cases: Criminal Law Theory Meets International Criminal Law (2020).  

Professor Sterio’s article is available here: https://sites.temple.edu/ticlj/category/volume-35/.

David Forte’s article, Originalism and its Discontents, has just appeared in the on-line journal, Law & Liberty. It can be accessed here: https://lawliberty.org/originalism-and-its-discontents/

Legal Educator in Residence Howard E. Katz organized and presented a webinar sponsored by the New Law Professors section of the AALS on “How to Better Construct and Grade Exams to Enhance Assessment and Learning.” The co-presenter was Professor Sharmila Murthy, Director of Faculty Scholarship and Research at Suffolk University Law School.

The April 15 webinar gave attendees many actionable suggestions to be more fair and more efficient. Topics addressed included: integrating discussion of exams and test-taking into your teaching, generating ideas for questions, drafting questions, ways of structuring an exam, different question formats, common pitfalls and mistakes, fairness issues in constructing and administering exams, grading methods, managing expectations of both professor and students, and giving useful feedback.

Dean Lee Fisher, along with his wife Peggy Zone Fisher, were featured in a Cleveland Magazine article about their recent receipt of the 2021 Richard W. Pogue Award for Excellence in Community and Engagement.

Dean Fisher also write an article in the same issue of Cleveland Magazine, titled “Cleveland State Helps Build Talent Dividend.” In the article, Dean Fisher argues that the key to our region’s success lies in “the link between educational attainment, talent and workforce development.” He highlights the role of CSU in fostering educational attainment, and also discusses Governor Mike DeWine’s recently-announced “Jobs Ohio partnership linking and leveraging Cleveland’s distinctive health care, research and higher education assets,” in which Cleveland State will play a key role.

Professor Brian Ray continues to play an important leadership role in the Sedona Conference, a leading international non-profit organization focused on law and technology policy.

Most recently, Professor Ray chaired the Biometric Data Privacy Brainstorming Group. The Sedona Conference WG11 Steering Committee recently announced two drafting groups for new white papers based on outlines suggested by Professor Ray’s group: (1) a biometric privacy primer and (2) legal principles that should govern notice and consent in connection with the use of an individual’s biometric facial recognition data. The Sedona Conference typically selects only a small number of brainstorming group outlines to develop into full white papers. 

Professor Milena Sterio, along with three other law professors, have settled their lawsuit against the U.S. Government over Executive Order 13928, an order issued by President Trump that authorized economic sanctions and civil and criminal penalties against those who support the International Criminal Court.

In January 2021, the court granted the plaintiffs an injunction against the enforcement of this order, acknowledging that the order was likely unconstitutional. On April 1, 2021, President Biden revoked E.O. 13928. The administration also settled the lawsuit brought by Professor Sterio and her co-plaintiffs, agreeing not to impose any penalties against the plaintiffs for conduct described in their lawsuit.

A press release describing the process and settlement is available here.

Professor Brian Ray’s eCornell blog post on digital contact tracing was featured in the most recent issue of the CSU Research Newsletter.

Professor Ray also was quoted several times in a Law Week Colorado story about new data privacy legislation in Congress and several U.S. states.

Professor Milena Sterio moderated a panel on April 23 on “The Biden Administration and the War in Yemen: Pathways to Peace?”  The panel was hosted by the Public International Law and Policy Group and featured Prof. Sterio as moderator, and the following panelists: Peter Salisbury, International Crisis Group; A. Heather Coyne, UN Special Envoy for Yemen; General George Macintosh, US Special Envoy for Yemen; and Raiman al-Hamdani, Yemen Policy Center and Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.  A recording of the panel discussion is available here: https://www.publicinternationallawandpolicygroup.org/yemen-pathways-to-peace-roundtable

Professor Sterio also participated as a panelist in a discussion organized by the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law School on the topic of “Self-Determination, Remedial Secession and International Law: The Artsakh Crisis in Comparative Perspective.”  This panel discussion focused on the recent conflict in Nagorno-Karabkah (also known as Artsakh), a disputed area between Armenia and Azerbaijan.  The other panelists included John Dugard (former UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories), Sheila Paylan (public international lawyer specializing in international criminal law, humanitarian law and human rights, based in Armenia), and Geoffrey Robinson (Professor of History at UCLA; former Political Affairs Officer with the United Nations in Dili, East Timor).