Professor Milena Sterio participated in a conference entitled “Rescuing and Bringing Comfort to Captive Children and Women, Bringing Perpetrators to Justice” on April 27. At the conference, she spoke at a panel titled “Growing a Global Response.” Her remarks focused on the different prosecutorial options for bringing perpetrators of atrocity crimes committed in Ukraine to justice.  

Professor Milena Sterio will co-edit a book titled “Ukraine and the Legal Accountability of Russia: The Emergence of a New Global Order,” with Professors Yvonne Dutton, Michael Scharf, and Paul Williams.  The book will be published by Routledge in 2024.  This will be Professor Sterio’s eighth book.  

Legal Educator-in-Residence Howard E. Katz made a presentation at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis on April 21 as part of their Symposium and Workshop on “Transiting from Student to Lawyer: Infusing Professional Identity Formation into the Required Curriculum,” organized by the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions. His talk was on “Designing the First-Year Curriculum to Foster Profession Formation, Opportunity, and Competency.”

Professor Shih-Chun Steven Chien presented at this year’s Gordon Gamm Comparative Law and Justice Symposium on March 31, 2023, held at Tulane Law School. This year’s discussion focused on the politics of local criminal justice. Nine professors/scholars were invited to talk about the impact of politics on jails, prisons, courts, prosecutors, police, and defense attorneys. 

Professor Doron Kalir was interviewed by Business Insider about the recent ethical lapses plaguing Justice Thomas. The article focused on a comparison between Thomas’s recent allegations and the reasons that moved Justice Abe Fortas to withdraw from the Court 54 years ago. Kalir opined that in light of the length of the alleged Thomas’ violations (over 25 years), their scope (which included lavish gifts, a purchase of the Justice mother’s home, and high sums of money for his wife), as well as the attempts to hide all those — Fortas’ own violations pale in comparison. Still, under the current political climate, Kalir predicted that the chances the Justice would resign are between very low to none. 

Professor Christa Laser presented her forthcoming paper, “Legal Issues in Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and NFTs,” on April 15 at PatCon: The Annual Patent Conference, held at Northwestern School of Law. 

Professor Milena Sterio participated in a panel discussion with Dean Michael Scharf (Case Western Reserve University School of Law) on April 18 at the City Club of Cleveland, on the topic of “Ukraine and Accountability.”  The panel discussion was organized by the Greater Cleveland International Lawyers’ Group.

In addition, Professor Sterio participated in a symposium at Pace Law School on April 14, on the topic of “21^st Century Conflict: International Law and the War in Ukraine.”  Professor Sterio presented at a panel entitled “Prosecuting International Crimes,” and her remarks focused on the different accountability options for prosecuting perpetrators of atrocities in Ukraine, as well as on related issues, such as head-of-state immunity.  

On April 4, Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich appeared live in studio for WKYC Channel 3 news to discuss the indictment and arraignment of former President Donald Trump. Professor Witmer-Rich also discussed the case the next morning, April 5, on Ideastream’s The Sound of Ideas, along with CWRU Law Professor Emeritus Jonathan Entin.

Professor Milena Sterio will contribute a chapter on the topic of “International Criminal Law in the United States” to the Elgar handbook on Comparative Enforcement of International Law.  The volume will appear in the Elgar Research Handbook Series, edited by Francesco Parisi and Tom Ginsburg, and will gather around thirty international scholars from a variety of jurisdictions and perspectives, who will discuss the domestic and transnational enforcement of international law as it takes place in various regions and legal systems. 

Professor Sterio also will contribute an entry on the topic of “Sef-Determination and Secession” to the Edward Elgar Encyclopedia on Law and Peace.  The Encyclopedia is co-edited by Professor Louise Malinder (Queen’s University Belfast), Rachel Killean (University of Sydney), and Lauren Dempster (Queen’s University Belfast).

On March 28, Professor Emeritus Deborah Geier appeared on WKSU’s “Sound of Ideas” show to discuss HB 1, a proposal of the Ohio House of Representatives dealing with state taxation.