Professor Milena Sterio published a blog post about the recent conviction of Dominic Ongwen, former leader in the Lord’s Resistance Army (Uganda), by the International Criminal Court. The post, part of an online symposium hosted by the blog “Armed Groups and International Law,” focuses on the issue of mitigation of punishment, as Ongwen was a child soldier. Ongwen’s sentencing hearing is taking place this week at the ICC.  Professor Sterio’s post is titled, “Precedent on the Prosecution of Juvenile Offenders for International Crimes.”

Professor Milena Sterio presented at the International Studies Association Annual Meeting on April 7th.  Her paper was titled “Women at the International Criminal Court” and it focused on the under-representation of women as judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys at the ICC.

Professor Sterio also presented to a cohort of Ukrainian politicians and lawyers (representatives from the Ukrainians Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Reintegration, as well as other government entities) on the topic of “Human Rights Documentation and Transitional Justice in Ukraine” on April 8.  Professor Sterio had been working with the Ukrainian ministries as an expert on the drafting of their new transitional justice laws.

Finally, Professor Sterio moderated a closed roundtable expert discussion on April 9 on the topic of the Special Court for Darfur.  The roundtable discussion was convened by the Public International Law and Policy Group, which has been working with the Sudan government on the creation of the Special Court for Darfur, an accountability mechanism whose establishment is part of the Juba Peace Agreement.  Professor Sterio has been working as an expert with the PILPG and the Sudan government on these efforts.  The roundtable discussion was attended by experts in the U.S. and Europe, as well as from Sudan.  

Cornell Tech’s Critical Reflection’s blog published a post, “Privacy and Digital Contact Tracing,” co-written by Professor Brian Ray and Professor Jane Bambauer (University of Arizona). The post expands the argument that privacy critiques of digital contact tracing apps ignored long-standing public health norms, which they first developed in their article, “COVID-19 Apps Are Terrible: They Didn’t Have to Be.”

The Wake Forest Law Review Online has published an article by Clinical Professor of Law Doron Kalir. The Article, titled “The Inner Logic of Bostock,” suggests that the Supreme Court’s seminal opinion in Bostock — which protects LGBTQ in the workforce from discrimination “based on [their] sex” — should be read as a product of formal logic, rather than as a product of statutory interpretation theory (such as textualism).

In the article, Professor Kalir thanks his colleagues who read the article carefully and made excellent suggestions during the faculty presentation a month ago. 

Prominent media recently covered a Supreme Court amicus brief written by Chris Sagers, the James A. Thomas Professor of Law (along with Michael Carrier of the Rutgers Law School), and signed by 65 other law and business professors. The case is Alston v. NCAA, and will consider whether the NCAA’s rules constraining compensation to college athletes violate federal antitrust law. The brief was covered in the Washington Post and the legal report Law 360, and Sagers discussed the case on a podcast produced by the prominent sports law attorney Mike Meltser.

The Ohio House Technology and Innovation Committee asked Professor Brian Ray to submit testimony on House Bill 220, which permits governmental entities in Ohio to use distributed ledger technology, including blockchain. Ray testified that the legislation would pave the way for modernizing public services and create the infrastructure for public-private collaborations using these new technologies.

Professor Milena Sterio participated as an expert, on behalf of the Public International Law and Policy Group, in the review of Ukrainian draft laws on Reintegration (of Crimes and other occupied territories) and on Transitional Justice.

Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson and NY-based attorney Corinne Snow spoke to the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law’s Federalist Society regarding the current and emerging state of environmental law in the new administration. 

Ms. Snow, counsel in the environment and natural resources group at Vinson & Elkins LLP, previously served as Counsel and Chief of Staff in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.  Robertson and Snow presented their thoughts and predictions regarding potential changes in the regulatory state including discussion of specific areas of law and regulation that are likely to be revisited or revised.

Robertson is the Steven W. Percy Distinguished Professor of Law at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and Professor of Environmental Studies at the Levin College of Urban Affairs.

Professor Milena Sterio delivered a guest lecture at the Washington University School of Law on March 16, in Professor Leila Sadat’s class on International Human Rights.  Professor Sterio’s guest lecture was on the topic of Syria and the possible accountability models for prosecuting Syrian perpetrators of atrocities.

Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich was quoted in a Cleveland.com story on plans by the Cleveland Division of Police to begin using drones sometime later this year. He noted some of the Fourth Amendment risks created by digital surveillance tools such as drones: “There are additional privacy risks by the fact you’re using a digital surveillance to do that and that may violate the Fourth Amendment even though a police officer doing the same thing might not.”

In addition, Professor Witmer-Rich urged the police to seek public input on developing new policies governing the use of drones before beginning to use them.