On Yom Kippur, Wednesday October 5, Clinical Professor of Law Doron Kalir was invited to speak before Congregation Kol-HaLev about the Dobbs opinion and its aftermath. The presentation included a historical review of the Court’s right-to-privacy opinions (“how did we get here”); a quick description of both the majority and dissenting opinions of the Dobbs decision itself (“what just happened”); and, finally, an examination of current freedom-of-religion lawsuit, filed by Jewish (and other) religious organization, challenging Dobbs on freedom-to-exercise basis. More than 50 congregants were in attendance.

Professor Karin Mika presented at the Western Regional Legal Writing Conference, held at the University of Oregon on October 7-8. Her presentation was titled, The Concept of Lists in Legal Drafting, and discussed structuring organized lists in drafting contracts, leases, and other legal documents that make the document more readable.  

Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson attended the Vermont Environmental Legal Scholarship Colloquium on September 23 and 24 at Vermont Law and Graduate School in S. Royalton, Vermont.  The colloquium is designed to draw environmental law scholars from around the country to present and obtain feedback on works-in-progress.  Robertson presented Irrationalizing the Local Role in Energy Deveopment: Oil and Gas v Wind and Solar in Ohio.

Robertson is the Steven W. Percy Professor of Law at CM Law and Professor of Environmental Studies at the College of Education and Public Affairs.

Professor Brian Ray was quoted in the article “Cleveland Has Spent Millions on Police Cameras. Why Are the Locations a Secret?” published by the Marshall Project in Scene magazine. Ray and Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich advised on a report and recommendation from the Cleveland Community Police Commission urging the City to adopt a community oversight process for surveillance technologies to provide greater transparency and accountability over their use by police and civilian agencies.

Ray also is one of two faculty from Cleveland State and Case Western Reserve Universities’ Internet of Things Collaborative (IoTC) who plans to work on a privacy-protective solution for illegal dumping powered by artificial intelligence for the City of Cleveland recently approved by Cleveland City Council. Ray is a founding member of the IoTC, which has received over $3 million in funding from the Cleveland Foundation.

On September 17, 2022, Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson was an invited guest speaker at the National Association of Royalty Owners 2022 Convention at the Pritchard Laughlin Center in Cambridge, Ohio.  Her presentation, entitled Forced Unitization, Who Decides and at What Cost in Ohio?described the hows, whens, and whys of forced pooling and unitization in Ohio.  It explained the rights holders’ role — and the various stumbling blocks and pitfalls of the Ohio unitization process from the perspective of landowners and rights holders.  

Robertson is the Steven W. Percy Distinguished Professor of Law at the College of Law, and Professor of Environmental Studies at the College of Education and Public Affairs, Cleveland State University.

Professor Karin Mika has published an article titled Obergefell v. Hodges—and the Use of Oral Argument and Storytelling to Reinforce Competencies in the Legal Writing Classroom. The article describes how having first year students listen to Supreme Court arguments on meaningful contemporary legal issues reinforces skills learned in Legal Writing and humanizes the otherwise mundane task of learning legal analysis. The article also references how the background “human” stories that brought litigants to the courtroom increases empathy.

The citation is: Karin Mika, Obergefell v. Hodges—and the Use of Oral Argument and Storytelling to Reinforce Competencies in the Legal Writing Classroom, 29 Persps. 36 (2022).

Professor Shih-Chun Steven Chien presented a forthcoming article in a workshop discussion at the Criminal Justice Ethics Schmooze in June. The event was co-sponsored by Brooklyn Law School’s Center for Criminal Justice, Fordham Law School’s Stein Center for Legal Ethics, Hofstra Law School’s Monroe H. Freedman Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics, New York Law School’s Institute for Professional Ethics and Criminal Justice Institute, and Touro Law Center. Professor Chien’s article, forthcoming in the Minnesota Journal of International Law, is titled “Cultivating Sense: Cultural Change in the Prosecutor’s Office.”

Professor Chien also presented his empirical research regarding comparative prosecutorial reforms in the United States and Taiwan in a conference organized by the National Chengchi University in Taiwan. The paper will be included in The Handbook of Taiwanese Law and Society Study.

Professor Shih-Chun Steven Chien has published an article in the University of Pennsylvania Asian Law Review discussing Taiwan’s use of a Miranda-like interrogation system. The article convey a cautionary tale from the Taiwan experience. It explains that under “Taiwan’s abbreviated Miranda system, suspects are encouraged to cooperate and give statements under the perception that they have been, and will continue to be, treated with politeness, dignity, and respect.” The article identifies concerns that “police and prosecutors can utilize the appearance of fair procedure (providing dignity, respect, and voice to suspects) by manipulating the Miranda mechanism to build rapport with suspects and distract them from the actual consequences of their full cooperation.” The article also explores “the effectiveness of alternative innovations beyond Miranda that could potentially reduce false confessions and minimize the risks caused by current interrogation practices.” 

The article citation is: Shih-Chun Steven Chien, Miranda in Taiwan: Why It Failed and Why We Should Care, 17 University of Pennsylvania Asian Law Review 1 (2022) (lead article).

Professor Shih-Chun Steven Chien has co-authored an article published in the Howard Law Journal.  The article, co-authored with Stephen Daniels (Senior Research Professor, American Bar Foundation), explores the “progressive prosecutor” movement.  Using data from the Law School Survey of Student Engagement, the article “investigates the importance of student motivations for attending law school and the connections to students’ career aspirations – in particular, the expectation of working as a prosecutor.” The article proposes “several policy recommendations about potential collaborations between prosecutors and law schools and between prosecutors and non-profits that may expand the presently small pool of potential hires,” and “discusses the importance of experiential learning opportunities that connect law students with reform prosecutors and the criminal justice system.” 

The article citation is: Shih-Chun Steven Chien & Stephen Daniels, Who Wants to be a Prosecutor? And Why Care? Law Students’ Career Aspirations and Reform Prosecutors’ Goals, 65 Howard Law Journal 173 (2021).

Professor Christa Laser’s law review article, “The Scope of IPR Estoppel,” is cited by Apple in its petition asking the Supreme Court to intervene in its $1 billion legal dispute with CalTech. Professor Laser’s article is Christa Laser, The Scope of IPR Estoppel: A Statutory, Historical, and Normative Analysis, 70 Fla. L. Rev. 1127 (2018). 

The petition was highlighted by Professor Dennis Crouch in a PatentlyO blog post. The blog post points out that “Apple’s petition relies heavily on the work of Cleveland-Marshall Prof. Christa Laser and her 2018 Florida Law Review article,” while the opposing view is articulated by Professor Greg Dolin (University of Baltimore), who “penned a responsive article concluding that Laser’s approach is too narrow.”