Archive for 'Faculty News'

In a recent Miami Herald article, Florida International University College of Law Professor George Knox is quoted on how contemplative activities that allow people to focus upon the moment and release internal stress, reduce anger and allow for civil behavior.

George Knox is the Director for Professionalism and Ethics at FIU Law, and will lead a conference on mindfulness titled “Professionalism Matters” on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013.

Mindfulness making its way into the mainstream

By Marcella McCarthy

Scott Rogers’ office isn’t that of a typical law professor. A bookshelf is piled high with books on meditation rather than legal tomes. A round table is surrounded by bamboo chairs, where Rogers invites students to sit for 10 minutes to quiet the mind.

Rogers practices mindfulness, which involves paying attention in a particular way, on purpose and in the present, often through breathing techniques. The practice, which has roots in Buddhism and spiritual growth, is increasingly being studied by scientists and the medical profession as a way to reduce stress and enhance one’s health…

Read more at MiamiHerald.com »

In the following op-ed that appeared in the January 22, 2013, edition of the JURIST, Florida International University College of Law Professor Megan A. Fairlie makes the case that the  International Criminal Court (ICC) will ultimately delay pursuing an investigation into the effect of Palestine’s non-Member Observer State status on the Court’s jurisdiction…

Palestine’s Upgraded Status and the International Criminal Court

by Megan A. Fairlie

Almost immediately after the UN General Assembly voted to give Palestine non-Member Observer State status, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) at the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced its plan to “consider the legal implications” of Palestine’s upgrade. In theory, OTP’s assessment could lead to a blockbuster result: an ICC investigation into the serious crimes alleged to have been committed on the territory of Palestine, and the subsequent prosecutions of the perpetrators deemed responsible, whether Palestinian or Israeli. In reality it seems more likely that OTP will opt to remain silent about its assessment for some time, and that it ultimately will delay pursuing an investigation.

The 2009 Declaration

The Palestinian Authority began its efforts to accept the ICC’s jurisdiction in 2009, when it lodged a declaration under Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute of the ICC. This provision allows a State that is not a party to the Rome Statute to consent to the retroactive jurisdiction of the court over all ICC crimes (genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity) committed on its territory. Written in the wake of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, the declaration aims to grant the ICC jurisdiction over persons alleged to be responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza and the West Bank since July 2002.

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Florida International University College of Law Professor Cyra Choudhury has been awarded a Santander & IGLP (Institute for Global Law & Policy) Doha Collaborative Research Grant from Harvard Law School to support her research initiative,”Avenues of Legal Reform of Transnational and International Labor Laws in the Gulf and Saudi Arabia.”

The grant will enable Professor Choudhury to travel to South Asia to study male and female laborers who work in the Middle East, with a particular purpose of describing these experiences in order to inform a legal reform proposal.

“I’m delighted to receive this grant from Harvard which will allow me to travel to do field work on the legal framework regulating labor migration from India and Bangladesh to the Middle East.  Receiving a grant given on a competitive basis is an honor and I hope that it will spark an ongoing collaboration with other IGLP scholars working in the same vein,” said Choudhury.

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Recently, the selection committee for the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) accepted Professor Robert K. Savage’s proposal for a concurrent session at the 2013 Conference on Clinical Legal Education in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Savage, the Director of the Investor Advocacy Clinic at Florida International University College of Law, will be collaborating on this project with the director of the University of Miami’s Investor Rights Clinic, Teresa J. Verges.

Their proposal was selected from what was, according to the selection committee, ”an unprecedented number of proposals.”

“Our selection is exciting for various reasons, including that it is another chance to highlight the FIU College of Law at a national conference, as well as because it highlights the great work our students are doing in the Investor Advocacy Clinic.  Additionally, I have invited Univ. of Miami’s law clinics to participate in this presentation, and that collaborative effort is another reason why we were selected to present,” said Savage.

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To the trained eye of Elizabeth Price Foley, life and death aren’t as clear cut as, well, life and death. The professor specializes in constitutional law, healthcare law and bioethics, and has studied life and death extensively. Her findings may surprise you: Life and death aren’t opposites according to the law. In fact, they aren’t even related, legally speaking.

Foley focused on death in her TEDxFIU talk, which asked the audience “When are you really dead?”

This issue comes to the forefront as the demand for organ donation continues to rise. It more important than ever to standardize how and when death is legally declared.

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Pictured, back row, left to right: Genevieve Timmerman, Professor Carol Needham, Professor Kerri Stone, Professor Susan Heymann, and Professor Wendy Greene. Front row, left to right: Professor Naomi Cahn, Professor Nancy Lovitt, Professor Linda Jellum, Professor Danne Johnson, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Professor Marina Angel.

Professor Kerri Stone and the rest of the officers of the Section on Women in Legal Education of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (a former president of the section) on Dec. 17th.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is bestowed upon an individual who has had a distinguished career of teaching, service, and scholarship for at least 20 years, and has had a significant impact on women, the legal community, and the academy through mentoring, writing, speaking, activism, and by providing opportunities to others.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the first ever recipient of the award.

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Before joining the Florida International University College of Law, Professor José Gabilondo served in the Department of the Treasury’s Office of the Assistant General Counsel for Banking and Finance, where he advised the Bureau of Public Debt, the Social Security Trust funds, and other executive departments on a variety of legal matters.

We caught up with him to get his views on the fiscal matters that have been in the headlines.

FIU Law: What is the “fiscal cliff?”

Gabilondo: This an alarmist metaphor that refers to a package of statutorily-required federal tax increases and spending cuts that kicks in January 2^nd of next year, unless Congress can come up with another fiscal plan.  Ironically, this was the solution to a more serious problem: gridlock in Congress over raising the federal debt limit while curbing run-away spending.  A divided Congress punted until after the election by agreeing tax increases and spending cuts that were never expected to see the light of day.  So the package is remarkably fair because it spreads the fiscal burden broadly, balancing conservative and liberal values and putting in place some sound reforms.  Congress didn’t mean to act responsibly, effectively, and in the public interest, but they did.

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On the 125th anniversary of its founding, FIU Law Professor H.T. Smith gave the keynote address at the fall commencement ceremony of his undergraduate alma mater, Florida A&M University.

Speaking to a capacity crowd at FAMU’s 9,000-seat Alfred Lawson Jr. Multipurpose Center and Teaching Gymnasium, Professor Smith celebrated the more than 700 graduates who walked across the stage. He described for them his childhood education in Miami’s then-segregated public school system, and that when it came time for him to be the first person in his family to go to college, FAMU “opened the vaults of educational opportunity.”

His address, “There is Greatness Within You,” encouraged the graduates to believe in themselves as precious resources; to search for their passion and dedicate themselves to it; to “do all the good they can in all the ways they can.”

“In life, a person occasionally gets the opportunity to do something great,” Professor Smith said, quoting baseball legend Hank Aaron.  “And when that time comes, only two things matter: Being prepared to seize the moment, and having the courage to take your best swing.”

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FIU Law Professor J. OseiTutu presented her current scholarship at the ASU Conference on the International Aspects of IP Law held on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. The global conference, sponsored by the Center for Law, Science & Innovation and the Center for Law and Global Affairs at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, together with the American Society of International Law and the International Law Association (American Branch), was attended by experts on international intellectual property from South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and across the United States.

As part of a panel on intellectual property enforcement, OseiTutu focused her presentation on counterfeit medicines and intellectual property rights.“Through multilateral and bilateral trade-related treaties we have seen increased intellectual property rights, and a trend towards a greater role for governments in enforcing these private intangible rights, rather than leaving it to the rights holders,” she said. Using counterfeit medicines as an example, she continued by advocating greater transparency in the discussions relating to increased government enforcement of private intellectual property rights.

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Professor M.C. Mirow has recently been appointed to serve another five-year term on the Editorial Board of the Law and History Review, the official peer-review journal of the American Society for Legal History.

Law and History Review, published by Cambridge University Press, is internationally recognized as the leading journal in the field and examines the history of law from ancient to modern times. The journal’s purpose is to further research in the fields of the social history of law and the history of legal ideas and institutions. The Review features articles, essays, commentaries by international authorities, and reviews of important books on legal history.

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