Two Cleveland-Marshall Law professors were quoted in a recent Cleveland.com article titled “FirstEnergy hack is cyber-thieves’ latest effort to swipe personal info.”

Professor Brian Ray noted that large hacks of customer data are increasingly common. He explained, “The more connected we are, the more we put online, the bigger the surface area becomes and the harder it is to protect it all.”

The article also quotes C|M|LAW Adjunct Professor Tim Opsitnick, general counsel for TCDI, a legal technology and information security firm. Professor Opsitnick explained how cyberattacks and ransomware is becoming more common, as it has become less and less expensive. He explained, ““There are a lot of people participating, including state-sponsored entities and organized crime. There is a lot of money in it.”

Professor Ray is the Director of C|M|LAW’s Center for Cybersecurity and Privacy Protection. Professor Opsitnick teaches a variety of cybersecurity courses at C|M|LAW.

Legal Educator-in-Residence Howard Katz made two presentations at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) annual conference. As part of the Newer Law Teachers Workshop, Howard spoke about “Teaching Law: The Essentials.” As part of the Prospective Law Teachers Workshop, he met with aspiring candidates to review their CVs.

Professor Katz also was a participant in the discussion group on “How to Assure Effective Formative and Summative Assessment.” He presented his draft article Teaching Legal Analysis Using the “Unified Field Theory”, focusing on how this method of teaching legal analysis in first-year courses (which he has developed with the help of Professor Kevin O’Neill), incorporates formative assessment into daily class discussion. 

Professor Mark Sundahl was quoted in a recent Forbes article titled “Russian Space Junk Slammed Into A Chinese Satellite, Says U.S. Space Force.”

The U.S. Space Force reported that a Chinese weather satellite collided with remnants of a Russian rocket that had been launched in 1996. The article noted that the “incident raises an interesting question: can China sue Russia for damaging its spacecraft? This could be the first time such a claim has been pursued.”

For an answer to this novel legal question, Forbes turned to Professor Sundahl, a leading international expert on Space Law, and the Director of C|M|LAW’s Global Space Law Center.

Professor Sundahl explained, “An international treaty, the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, applies when the ‘space object’ of one country causes harm to the ‘space object’ of another country. However, in order to find liability under the convention, there must be a determination of ‘fault’ on behalf of the offending country.” He noted that “What exactly would constitute ‘fault’ has not been settled under international law. China would have to prove negligence or similar bad behavior.”

Professor Christa Laser is currently ranked in the top ten percent of all authors on SSRN for downloads in the past 12 months. SSRN, the Social Science Research Network, is a repository for preprints devoted to the rapid dissemination of scholarly research in the social sciences and humanities.

Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson recently published Strategies and Techniques for Teaching Environmental Law.  The book is part of a Wolters Kluwer law book publishing series on law teaching.  The series intends to provide insight and information for new law teachers generally and for seasoned law professors new to individual subject areas.  The original book in the series was the general guide to law school teaching for new (or not so new) law faculty by Cleveland-Marshall Professor Kevin O’Neill and Legal Educator-in-Residence Howard Katz (who also serves as series editor). 

In addition to the new volume on environmental law, the Strategies and Techniques series includes books on teaching civil procedure, constitutional law, contracts, criminal law, property, torts, administrative law, evidence, criminal procedure, professional responsibility, family law.  It also includes guides to teaching legal writing, academic success, and on integrating diversity and inclusion into core law school courses.  Law professors can access and download the individual books in the series at: https://www.wklegaledu.com/resources/law-school-faculty/law-school-faculty.   

Professor Robertson was selected to produce the volume on environmental law based both on her 1999 Columbia Environmental Law Review article “Methods for Teaching Environmental Law: Some Thoughts on Teaching Law Students to Practice” and her 25 years of experience in the field.  

Professor Milena Sterio has been selected, from a competitive call for papers, to contribute a chapter to the book project, “Reimagining Judging in Interntational Criminal Courts: A Gendered Approach.” The project is run by Professors Louise Chappell (UNSW Sydney, Australia), Rosemary Grey (University of Sydney), and Dr. Kasey McLoughlin (University of Newcastle, UK). Professor Sterio will contribute a chapter titled “The ICC Ongwen Sentencing Judgment Through a Feminist Lens.”  Professor Sterio’s chapter will re-write the ICC’s Ongwen case sentencing judgment from a feminist perspective.  Dominic Ongwen was a Lord’s Resistance Army senior leader in Uganda, and was recently sentenced by the ICC for various charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. 

Information about the project is available here.

Professor Sterio moderated a panel discussion on June 28 convened by the International Criminal Court Moot Court competition organizers. The panel centered around developing the ICC Moot Court problem and was attended by existing and future moot court judges, lawyers, and students.  The panel discussion was hosted by Leiden University Law School (in the Netherlands). 

Professor Sterio also moderated a panel discussion on June 17 entitled “Practicing and Teaching Law in the New Normal.”  This panel discussion was convened by the International Bar Association and centered around issues regarding the practice of international law and international criminal law during the pandemic.  Panelists included Professor Carsten Stahn (Leiden University, The Netherlands), Fabricio Guariglia, Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court, and Annalisa Reale, Chiomenti (Italian law firm).

Professor Sterio contributed a book review (by invitation) to the Israel Law Review (a peer-reviewed journal published by Cambridge University Press).  Professor Sterio reviewed a recent book by Professor Timothy William Waters, “Boxing Pandora: Rethinking Borders, States, and Secession in a Democratic World.”

Professor Christa Laser was featured in an extended interview on Cleveland 19 News to discuss the trademark issues involved in the new “Guardians” name selected by the Cleveland baseball team. Potential trademark problems have arisen due to the fact that there is a Cleveland roller derby team called the Cleveland Guardians.

Professor Laser explained that “both sides are trying to position themselves to get the trademark for this Cleveland Guardians trademark.” She observed that the trademark issue will ultimately come down to the question of “which company has the first bona fide use?”

The full interview can be viewed here.

Professor Mark Sundahl has published an op-ed in SPACE NEWS titled “The Success of Artemis Hinges on NASA’s Commitment to Competition.” Professor Sundahl argues that NASA should not rely solely on one company to implement the Human Landing System (HLS), but should grant a second award for the HLS program to ensure ongoing healthy competition. He states, “Our capitalist system, defined by healthy competition, is the greatest advantage that the United States has as other countries, including China and Russia, jostle in space for geopolitical supremacy.”

Professor Sundahl is the director of C|M|LAW’s Global Space Law Center.