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Professor and Associate Dean Milena Sterio presented at a conference entitled “The Centennial of the Independence of the Three South Caucasus States: Historical Background, Contemporary Developments and Prospects of Peace and Prosperity” in Ankara, Turkey, on November 9.  The conference was organized by the Center for Eurasian Studies as well as the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Republic of Turkey.  Professor Sterio presented on a panel entitled “Contemporary Political, Humanitarian and Legal Scenery in the South Caucasus and Conflict Resolution Initiatives,” and her remarks focused on “Statehood, Recognition, and Prospects for Peace in the Caucasus.”

Ankara City View

Participants of Workshop at Hebrew University

Professor and Associate Dean Milena Sterio presented at a workshop at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, on November 5th.  The workshop was entitled “Recognition in the Context of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” and Professor Sterio’s presentation was on the topic of “Recognition of Palestinian Statehood.”  The workshop assembled experts in international law from Hebrew University, from the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry, as well as from the United States and the United Kingdom.

Jerusalem

The Notre Dame Law Review Online just published Professor Doron Kalir’s comment on last Term’s case of Artis v. D.C. In it, Kalir argues in essence that the dissent – authored by Justice Gorsuch -failed to understand the rule articulated by the Court.

Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich is teaching a new course next semester built around the current season of the popular Serial podcast.  Season 3 focuses on stories from the Cleveland criminal justice system, and Professor Witmer-Rich recognized that the podcast could serve as an excellent teaching tool, helping students to examine how the criminal justice system actually functions.  The course—titled “Understanding and Reforming the Criminal Justice Process”—will use the podcast episodes to explore issues such as the power of prosecutors, the costs and fees of the criminal justice process, the distrust between police and some urban communities, accountability for police misconduct, and the voice of victims in the criminal justice system.

Professor Witmer-Rich’s course has caught the attention of state and national media outlets.  It was recently featured on Law.com’s “Ahead of the Curve” series, which focuses on notable innovations in legal education.  The course has also been highlighted on public radio programs and newspapers around the state, as well as Cleveland’s News Channel 5.

Each week students will listen to one episode of the podcast and read additional materials such as the 2014 Department of Justice Report on the Cleveland Division of Police.  The course will feature regular guest speakers—including some of the lawyers and judges featured on the podcast.  For their main project in the course, each student will complete a Criminal Justice Reform project that analyzes one of the problems highlighted on the show and proposes a solution.  The course begins in January.

Chris Sagers, the James A. Thomas Professor of Law, gave recent presentations to the faculties and students a the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property at the University of New Hampshire College of Law, and at the West Virginia University School of Law, concerning his new book, “The eBooks Case: United States v. Apple and Competition in America.” The book, which will be published by Harvard University Press in 2019, concerns a Justice Department antitrust action against the Apple computer corporation and several publishing firms for fixing the prices of electronic books. As he explains, the book really takes the case only as a case study, to examine deeper problems in the having of a competition policy at all, and as an explanation for why antitrust has so often been frustrated and disappointing.

Sagers has presented the book to a number of other faculties and groups, including American, Case Western, Villanova, and Elon universities, the New York Law School, and the Antitrust Sections of the American Bar Association and the New York Bar Association. He will present it at other universities in coming months, including the University of Kentucky in early spring 2019.

Professor and Associate Dean Milena Sterio published a chapter entitled “United States legal and policy approaches in the Global War on Terrorism” in an edited volume entitled “Human Rights and America’s War on Terror” (Satvinder S. Juss edition, with a foreword by Richard Falk).  The volume was published by Routledge, in the Routledge Research in Human Rights Law series.

Clinical Professor of Law Doron Kalir’s article, Rethinking Legal Objections to Same-Sex Marriage (forthcoming in Vol. 33 of the Notre Dame J. of Law, Ethics & Public Policy) was featured in Legal Theory Blog, hosted by Professor Lawrence B. Solum of Georgetown Law.

On October 4, 2018, Professor Kevin O’Neill appeared on WCPN-FM’s “Sound of Ideas” show to discuss First Amendment history, focusing on an anti-war speech delivered in Canton, Ohio 100 years ago by Socialist leader Eugene V. Debs. President Woodrow Wilson’s Justice Department sought to punish Debs for that speech, which opposed U.S. intervention in World War I. Debs was criminally prosecuted under the Espionage Act and given a ten-year jail sentence that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in Debs v. United States, 249 U.S. 211 (1919). On October 5, 2018, Professor O’Neill spoke at a CLE seminar, “The Eugene V. Debs Centennial,” on the differing modes of legal analysis that courts employed in deciding Espionage Act cases during the World War I era.

Professor and Associate Dean Milena Sterio presented at International Law Weekend, a prominent international law conference in New York City jointly organized by the American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA) and the International Law Students’ Association (ILSA).  International Law Weekend is held every year at Fordham Law School and at the Association of the Bar of New York City.  Professor Sterio is a member of the ABILA Board of Directors.

Professor Sterio served as International Law Weekend Co-Chair this year.  In addition to her duties as conference Co-Chair, she moderated a panel entitled “Does International Criminal Justice Work? Syria, North Korea and the Role of International Criminal Justice in Resolving Global Crises” on October 20.  In addition, Professor Sterio presented on a panel entitled “Legacies and Memories of International (Criminal) Law” also on October 20.  Finally, she organized an “Emerging Voices in International Law” panel which took place on October 20.