Teddy Norris is a federal prisoner. In 2016 he filed, and won, a motion to vacate his sentence under Section 2255. Last year, representing himself, he wanted to file again. Believing that his subsequent motion was “second or successive,” he filed it first with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking permission to do so.

The Court appointed the Appellate Practice Clinic to answer the question of whether this subsequent motion was, indeed, “second or successive.” The Clinic argued it was not. 

Three students — Oluwatoni Kolawole, Jeffrey Andrews, and Mickey Isakoff — wrote an exceptional brief. The students exhaustively researched every case ever decided in this area, and they developed a novel theory regarding the Court’s jurisdiction on the issue. The students argued that this subsequent motion was not “second or successive,” and therefore that Norris could — and should — refile it in District Court without a need to ask leave from the Court of Appeals. 

The Government, in its response, agreed with every word. 

Thus, without a real “case or controversy,” the Sixth Circuit agreed with the Clinic in full. The Court held that the motion was not “second or successive,” and thus did not require authorization. The Court then transferred the case to the District Court. 

Professor Doron Kalir supervised the work and served as Counsel of Record. 

Professor Milena Sterio published a blog post on Just Security, a prominent international law-focused blog, on the topic of the possibility of the U.S. contribution to the International Criminal Court’s Trust Fund for Victims.  Professor Sterio’s post (co-authored with Professor Yvonne Dutton) is part of a Symposium titled “U.S. Support for the ICC’s Trust Fund for Victims.”  Professor Sterio and Professor Dutton’s co-authored piece is titled, “The United States Can and Should Broadly Contribute to the Trust Fund for Victims.”

CSU Law’s Cybersecurity programs were featured in an article in Bloomberg’s “Law School Innovation Program,” in an article titled, “How Innovative Law Schools Foster Student Development.” The article highlights CSU Law’s Cybersecurity and Data Privacy certificate program, as well as the Masters of Legal Studies in Cybersecurity and Data Privacy. The article notes that CSU’s programs “provide students the chance to acquire mastery of the technical aspects of cybersecurity and to work together with students from other disciplines on real-life situations where the legal and technical issues intersect.”

The article quotes Professor Brian Ray, Director of CSU Law’s Center for Cybersecurity and Privacy Protection. Professor Ray explains, “Our faculty and staff are constantly working to develop new programs and identify outside opportunities for our students to develop skills and engage in experiences to prepare them for existing and new careers in law and law-related fields.”

Professor Shih-Chun “Steven” Chien has published an article in the Minnesota Journal of International Law titled, “Cultivating Sense: Cultural Change in the Prosecutor’s Office.”

Professor Chien’s article constructs a new paradigm for the understanding of cultural change within prosecutors’ offices. It reveals a troublesome paradox about modern prosecutorial power. The article argues that to transform organizational culture, prosecutors need to forge a new type of power based on their “sense-making authority.” Meanwhile, the same power enables prosecutors to create an opaque process that bypasses organizational structure and reduces external accountability. To build the theory of cultural change, Professor Chien relies on a comparative case-study approach based on ethnographic research. Professor Chien conducted extensive research on site at a group of district attorneys’ offices led by “progressive prosecutors” across the United States and a district prosecutor’s office located in a metropolitan area of Taiwan. 

Professor Chien proposes a contested cultural change model and explores ways in which the model could contribute much-needed theoretical and strategic groundings to the comparative study of prosecutorial reforms across different jurisdictions.

Professor Milena Sterio participated as a panelist in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe conference in Warsaw, Poland, on October 5, 2022.  Professor Sterio spoke on a panel entitled “Establishment of a Tribunal on Russian Aggression Against Ukraine: High Level of Responsibility as a Safeguard Against New Conflicts in Europe.”  In addition, Professor Sterio was a participant in the Warsaw Security Forum, in Warsaw, Poland, on October 4-5, 2022.  

Professor Christa Laser participated in the Three Rivers Colloquium at the University of Pittsburgh. She presented her work-in-progress paper, “Legal Issues in Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).”

Professor Milena Sterio participated in the American Society of International Law, International Courts and Tribunals Interest Group Workshop on February 3, 2023, where she presented her paper, “The Ukraine Crisis and the Legitimacy of the International Criminal Court.” This paper will be published by the American University Law Review.  

Professor Sterio also moderated a webinar entitled “Ukraine: Destruction of Cultural Heritage and Property,” which was organized by the Public International Law and Policy Group on February 2, 2023.

Legal Educator in Residence Howard E. Katz and Professor Kevin Francis O’Neill signed a contract in December for their book, Strategies and Techniques of Law School Teaching, to be translated into Chinese. The translation was requested and is being organized by Dean Jiang Huiling of the Tongji University School of Law in Shanghai, China. The book will be published by People’s Court Press.

Legal Educator in Residence Howard E. Katz made two presentations about law school teaching at the 2023 AALS annual meeting. The first was for the Section on New Law Professors, at a session called Beginnings, Middles, and Endings: Ideas for Your Classes and Courses. The second was for the Section on Property Law at a session called Stuff You’ll Want to Steal: Ideas for Teaching Topics in Property Law. Howard will continue to serve on the executive committee of both sections in the coming year. 

On Jan. 12, Professor Sterio moderated a webinar on the topic of “International Criminal Court: 21st Session of the Assembly of States Parties – Key Takeaways from the PILPG Team.” The webinar was organized by the Public International Law and Policy Group.