Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich

Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich was interviewed by WCPN/ideastream, for a story that aired on January 22, regarding the use of police body cameras and possible privacy issues (“Cleveland Must Balance Transparency, Privacy as it Equips Cops with Cameras”).  The story and the audio clip are available here.

Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson

On January 13, 2015, C|M|LAW’s Steven W. Percy Professor of Law, Heidi Gorovitz Robertson, was appointed by Gates Mills’ Mayor Shawn Riley, and the Gates Mills Village Council, as an inaugural commissioner in a newly created regional commission.  The Regional Commission was convened and organized in Gates Mills to study and address issues concerning shale oil and gas exploration and development in the region.  Robertson was invited to co-chair the commission’s committee on legal and legislative issues.  The Regional Commission includes land conservancy representatives, experts in science, finance, and law, local government representatives, public safety officials, and others. Its mission is to consider legal, political, educational, sociological and legislative issues of concern to Gates Mills Village and the broader region within the Marcellus, Utica, and other geological formations, and to recommend prudent and legal actions.​

C|M|LAW Associate Dean Mark Sundahl has just published an article entitled “The Cape Town Convention and the Law of Outer Space: Five Scenarios” in the Cape Town Convention Journal.  The Journal is published jointly by Oxford University and the University of Washington.  The paper explores the intersections between the new Space Assets Protocol to the Cape Town Convention and the existing body of space law.  The article can be accessed on the Journal website here:  http://cdm15895.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/journal

Dean Sundahl was also recently reappointed by Anthony Foxx, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, for a second two-year term on the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC).  The COMSTAC advises the FAA regarding new regulations to ensure the continuing competitiveness of the U.S. space launch industry.

Professor and Associate Dean published a post on Communis Hostis Omnium (an academic blog devoted to a discussion of legal issues related to maritime piracy), which was cross-posted on Intlawgrrls, entitled “European Court of Human Rights Orders France to Pay Damages to Somali Pirates.”  In this post, Professor Sterio discusses the recent European Court of Human Rights decision, ordering France to pay damages to Somali pirates, who had been held for 48 hours on French soil before being officially charged before judicial authorities.  The pirates had been held for multiple days overseas, by French authorities, but the European Court of Human Rights found that this delay was justified because of exceptional circumstances.  However, the Court found that the additional 48-hour delay on French soil could not be justified under article 5(3) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Professor Brian Glassman’s article, “In the Mind’s Eye: Visual Lessons for Law Students,” was published by Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research & Writing, the online legal writing journal.  In this article, Professor Glassman explores the use of works of visual art as a tool in teaching writing lessons.  The article is available here.

Alan Miles Ruben, Emeritus Professor, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, and Advisory Professor of Law, Fu Dan University, Shanghai, PRC, was appointed to an Arbitration Tribunal by the International Court of Arbitration to adjudicate a dispute between a Bolivian and an American Corporation.

Professor Ruben also lectured this fall on “The Past Practice Puzzle” at the San Francisco, California and Cleveland, Ohio Programs presented by the Labor Arbitration Institute.

Professor Gwendolyn Majette presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools in Washington, D.C. on January 3.  Professor Majette presented on a panel entitled “Health Law Works-in-Progress,” which was organized by the Law, Medicine and Health Care section.

Professor and Associate Dean Milena Sterio presented at the 2015 Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools.  Professor Sterio presented on January 3, at a session organized by the International Law section, entitled “Adding Foreign and Comparative Law to Your Course: Guidelines, Materials, and Practical Advice for New Law Professors.”

In addition, Professor Sterio was elected Secretary of the International Human Rights Law section, and Treasurer of the International Law section.

Professor Mickey Davis, with co-author Peter Arno, published an op-ed entitled “The New Face of U.S. Health Care: $1,000 Per Pill.”  Davis and Arno argue in this op-ed that the federal government should also regulate pharmaceutical prices, for products developed through federal funding, because unregulated prices have been sky-rocketing and have precluded thousands of patients from benefitting from life-prolonging medications.  The op-ed is available here:

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/28171-the-new-face-of-us-health-care-1-000-per-pill

Professor Karin Mika presented at the Legal Writing One Day Workshop held at Miami School of Law on December 6th. The title of her presentation was “The Dreaded Assumption: How Failure to Accept Generational Differences Makes for Bad Teaching and Poor Learning.”

The focus of Professor Mika’s presentation was on the fact that law professors must be hyper aware of how different students are from students of yesterday and ourselves. Students come from many diverse cultural backgrounds than ever before, and the information age has made it so that students no longer relate to any of the same common references that could be made in a classroom setting even a decade ago. It is not so much that professors need to be attuned to pop culture, or even present their material in a visually entertaining manner, but do need to understand that changes in the world have made it so a lot of elements of law instruction considered to be common knowledge are simply not common knowledge. Professors need to take the time to explain the context for case references in a way that students can relate and must be more attuned than ever before to references that can be construed to be offensive or degrading. Professors also need to be attuned to the fact that the informational age has lessened everyone’s attention span and that, after a certain point, information conveyed by pure lecture can no longer be absorbed.