C|M|LAW and Levin College of Urban Affairs Professor Dennis Keating presented on the development and effectiveness of local land banks at the 7th International Planning, Law, Property Rights Association Conference, in Portland, Oregon, on February 14.   He had authored the initial report, in 2011, on the activities of the new Cuyahoga County land bank.

In addition, Dr. Keating participated in a Symposium: “Saving the Cities: How to Make America’s Urban Core Sustainable in the Twenty-First Century,”at St. Louis University School of Law on March 1.

C|M|LAW Professor Kevin Francis O’Neill has contributed four entries to a new two-volume Encyclopedia of the Fourth Amendment (John R. Vile & David L. Hudson Jr. eds., 2013) (Congressional Quarterly Press).  The entries he authored were Vernonia School District v. Acton, Board of Education v. Earls, Palmer Raids, and Dog-Sniffing Searches.  The Encyclopedia of the Fourth Amendment has arrived and is available through the C|M|LAW Library.

C|M|LAW Professor David Forte was recently re-appointed to a third two-year term to he Ohio Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

In addition, the Ohio State Law Journal has accepted Professor Fore’s article entitled, Life, Heartbeat, Birth: A Medical Basis for Reform.  It is due out this spring.

C|M|LAW Professor and Associate Dean Heidi Gorovitz Robertson appears as a Guest Blogger in this week’s Crain’s Cleveland Business.  Her post, Lessons from the Gulf: The Value of Emergency Planning suggests that emergency planning and preparedness for disaster was woefully inadequate in the Gulf of Mexico.  The shortcomings there have been well documented.  Robertson suggests that as Ohio rushes to develop its potentially lucrative shale oil and gas resources, it learn from the Gulf and make appropriate site specific plans for emergency response.

The post appears as part of Crain’s Ohio Energy Report.  See the post here:

http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20130208/BLOGS05/130209796/1241/newsletter04

C|M|LAW Professor Patricia J. Falk’s article, Rape by Fraud and Rape by Coercion, 64 Brook.L.Rev. 39, (1998), was cited by the California Court of Appeals in  The People v. Morales.  The court is discussing whether fraudulent impersonation in the inducement of intercourse constitutes fraud in fact, and vitiates consent.

The court first references Falk’s article at page 9.  See the opinion here: http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/B233796.PDF

On January 30, 2013 a team of C|M|LAW students supervised by C|M|LAW Professors Jonathan Witmer-Rich and Doron Kalir filed a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari with the United States Supreme Court. The petition seeks review of State v. Emerson, a recent Ohio Supreme Court decision holding that no person has standing under the Fourth Amendment to challenge the government ‘s use of his or her DNA profile, provided the DNA material was obtained lawfully.  The C|M|Law team filed the petition in collaboration with Mr. Emerson’s lawyer, Brian Moriarty (C|M|Law class of 1994), who represented Mr. Emerson before the Ohio Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. While the Supreme Court accepts less than 2% of the petitions it receives, the educational experience was extremely rewarding to all involved. The students on the team were Jamie Ganner, Brendan Heil, Jackie Staple, and Sarah Kendig.

C|M|LAW Professor Milena Sterio is heading to Azerbaijan on a Fulbright grant.  Read an interview with her about her upcoming adventure here: http://clevelandstate.tumblr.com/post/40179194338/q-a-csu-law-professor-milena-sterio-heads-to

C|M|LAW Professor Milena Sterio presented her article, The United States’ Use of Drones in the War on Terror: The (Il)legality of Targeted Killings Under International Law, at the International Criminal Law Interest Group Annual Workshop, at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago on December 14, 2012.  This article will be published in the Case Western Journal of International Law; it examines the legality of the United States’s use of drones in places abroad.  The article raises questions about the CIA’s covert drone operations, and in particular how the US defines the battlefield (where suich drones can be used), the legality of drone targets, and the issue of the identity of drone operators and their location (in offices in the US).

In addition, Sterio submitted an article entitled The Future of Ad Hoc Tribunals: An Assessment of Their Utility Post-ICC to the ILSA Journal of International and Comparative Law.   This paper, which will be published by the ILSA journal in 2013, examines the future of ad hoc tribunals in light of the presence of the International Criminal Court and raises the question of whether ad hoc tribunals will ever be useful or necessary in the future, when cases can be sent to the ICC.  Professor Sterio presented a paper on this topic at the International Law Weekend conference in New York City in October 2012 (at Fordham Law School).