ASU News - Law + Law

Kornhauser involved in Tel Aviv law conference

lfaling — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:23:28 -0600

Professor Marjorie Kornhauser, of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, participated in a Research Workshop of the Israel Science Foundation and the Marc Rich Academic Workshop on Comparative Perspectives on Tax Law and Culture at Tel Aviv University's Buchmann Faculty of Law.

Kornhauser moderated a discussion on "Critical Tax Theory" and presented a research project, "Wedded to the Joint Return: The Persistence of the Married Couple in the American Income Tax," on Aug. 19-20.

Judy Nichols, judith.nichols@asu.edu
(480) 727-7895
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

Sylvester speaks at science/tech conference

lfaling — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:14:11 -0600

Douglas Sylvester, Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, recently lectured at a Gordon Research Conference on Science and Technology Policy in Big Sky, Mont.

Sylvester a professor and Faculty Fellow in the College's Center for the Study of Law, Science, & Technology, on Aug. 21 delivered a talk, "The Coming Regulation of Nanotechnology: National and International Prospects."

Janie Magruder, Jane.Magruder@asu.edu
(480) 727-9052
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

Kittrie gives expertise at ABA meeting

lfaling — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:32:39 -0600

Professor Orde F. Kittrie of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law spoke about Arizona's strict new employer sanctions law, the Legal Arizona Workers Act, at the American Bar Association Annual Meeting in New York City on Aug. 8. Kittrie spoke as part of a panel "The New Immigration Cops: How New State and Local Laws Challenge the Status Quo." The other two panelists were senior officials from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Kittrie discussed the Act's impact on Arizona's 150,000 licensed businesses, on the Arizona economy, on unauthorized immigrant workers in Arizona, and on Latino citizens living in Arizona. Although there has yet to be a prosecution of an Arizona employer for violation of the Act, Kittrie said, the law has nevertheless had a significant impact on Arizona businesses and residents. Maricopa County has reported receiving hundreds of tips alleging violations, said Kittrie, and prosecution of at least one employer seems likely before the end of 2008. Many Mexican restaurants and several Spanish language radio stations have gone out of business, Kittrie said, adding that a number of Arizona companies are reportedly moving operations across the border to Mexico.

Kittrie said it is difficult to separate the effects of the Act from the effects of the downturn in housing construction and the effects of aggressive enforcement of immigration laws by some Arizona police officials. Together, these factors have contributed to a reported decrease of 18 percent - or 90,000 - in the number of unauthorized immigrants in Arizona since mid-2007, when the Act was passed. Kittrie said the Act also may be connected to the precipitous downturn in the Arizona economy, with taxable sales down some 25 percent between the first quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008. The Act was upheld by the U.S. District Court for Arizona in February, and an appeal to the 9th Circuit is pending.

Judy Nichols, judith.nichols@asu.edu
(480) 727-7895
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

Two professors present at writing conference

lfaling — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:23:38 -0600

Two Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law legal writing professors participated in the 13th Biennial Conference of the Legal Writing Institute, which drew more than 600 participants on July 14-17 at Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis.

Amy Langenfeld led a session with Professor Richard K. Neumann Jr. of Hofstra Law in Hempstead, N.Y., titled "Developing a Methodology for Comparing Discourse Communities." The session proposed a hypothetical linguistic study of academic discourse, such as a study that would transcribe and code faculty meetings. Using academic satire as a starting point, the discussion focused on skills in active listening, informal oral communication, and group problem-solving.

Susan Chesler, who joined the College's legal writing faculty this fall, worked with two others on a presentation, "Engaging, Entertaining, and Effective: Using Handheld Response Pads in the Legal Methods Classroom," which focused on the use of an interactive teaching technology that uses handheld response pads, or "clickers," to permit the students to anonymously participate in the classroom discussion.

Judy Nichols, judith.nichols@asu.edu
(480) 727-7895
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

Faculty participate in Empirical Legal Studies conference

lfaling — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:17:47 -0600

Several Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law faculty will be participating in the Conference on Empirical Legal Studies at Cornell University on Sept. 12-13.

Professor Ira Mark Ellman will present a paper, "Converting Sentiments to Dollars: Scaling and Incommensurability Problems in the Evaluation of Child Support Payments," with co-authors Robert MacCoun, a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Sanford L. Braver, a psychology professor at Arizona State University.

Professor David Kaye will present a paper, "Where Have all the Women Gone? The Gender Gap in Supreme Court Clerkships," with co-author Joseph L. Gastwirth, a professor of statistics and economics at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Professor Linda Demaine will serve as a discussant for the paper, "Mandated Justice: The Potential Promise and Possible Pitfalls of Mandating Procedural Justice," written by Yuval Feldman and Tom Tyler.

Judy Nichols, judith.nichols@asu.edu
(480) 727-7895
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

Dickinson, Berman participate in international conference

lfaling — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:04:22 -0600

Foundation Professor of Law Laura Dickinson and Dean and Foundation Professor of Law Paul Schiff Berman from the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law will participate in a two-day conference on Sociolegal Methods in International Law, to be held September 4-5 at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Dickinson was editor of a recent book on Sociolegal Approaches to International Human Rights (Ashgate), and Berman's forthcoming book, Law Beyond Borders: Jurisprudence for a Hybrid World (Cambridge) draws on anthropological theories of legal pluralism.

Judy Nichols, judith.nichols@asu.edu
(480) 727-7895
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

Saks to deliver lectures in Oslo

lfaling — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:00:52 -0600

Professor Michael Saks will give two lectures about forensic science at the University of Oslo this fall.

Saks, a professor of law and psychology at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and Faculty Fellow in the Center for the Study of Law, Science, & Technology, will speak on "Problems and Prospects for Making Forensic Science Scientific" at the Seminar in Science Studies on Sept. 3 and "The Individualization Fallacy" at the Institute of Public and International Law on Sept. 4.

Janie Magruder, jane.magruder@asu.edu(480) 727-9052Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law

LL.M. student presents at UNESCO conference in Tokyo

lfaling — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:33:39 -0600

Breann Yoshiko Swann, an LL.M. student in the Indian Legal Program at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, will give a presentation on Aug. 28 in Tokyo as part of the United Nations University/UNESCO 2008 Conference on Globalization and Languages. The conference will explore the contribution of linguistic diversity and multilingualism to development and their value for dialogue, social cohesion and peace.

Swann will speak on "Changing the Language of Industry: Setting Standards for the Protection of Indigenous Languages in the Workplace."

Swann's presentation explores the role that language use in the workplace plays in preserving indigenous languages.

"Research suggests that, absent revitalization efforts, 155 of the approximately 175 extant Native American languages in the United States will die by the year 2060," according to Swann's presentation abstract. "The prognosis for the remaining indigenous languages in other parts of the world is, for the most part, equally grim."

While there are some efforts to preserve indigenous language, those efforts are focused on education and domestic and social use, Swann writes. Meanwhile, industry and employers in the United States are moving to a largely monolingual workplace. Swann argues that the presence of indigenous language in the workplace may be crucial to its survival and analyzes different instruments that could be used to protect language in the employment sphere.

The conference is organized by the United Nations University, established by the United Nations, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Swann is a licensed attorney practicing in the areas of federal Indian law and labor and employment law. She currently works for the Office of the General Counsel of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, where she provides strategic advice and counsel regarding various aspects of tribal governance. Her work with the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community focuses primarily on tribal labor and employment matters and the development of tribal ordinances and policies.

Building upon her practical legal experience, she has concentrated her recent scholarship on the social and political ramifications of language policies and practices in the workplace. She received her J.D. from the University of Southern California and her B.A. from Yale University. She will receive her LL.M. in Tribal Policy, Law and Government from the College of Law in May 2009. Prior to entering the field of Indian law, she was a practitioner of labor and employment law in the Los Angeles office of Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner LLP.

Judy Nichols, judith.nichols@asu.edu
(480) 727-7895
College of Law

Herrera authors book on legal research

lfaling — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:59:33 -0600

Professor Tamara Herrera, who teaches first-year Legal Writing and Method at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at ASU, recently authored a book, "Arizona Legal Research." The book was published as part of the state-law legal research series from Carolina Academic Press, which includes 12 books on legal research in states from Arkansas to Washington. Herrera’s book is being used in legal writing classes by first-year students at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. Herrera also teaches upper-level writing classes, including the Fundamentals of Legal Drafting, Appellate Advocacy, and others.

“The goal of each book is to provide law students, practitioners, paralegals, college students, and laypeople with the essential elements of legal research in each state,” according to a series note. “Unlike more bibliographic texts, the Legal Research Series books seek to explain concisely both the sources of state law research and the process for conducting legal research effectively.”

Herrera, who graduated from the University of Nebraska School of Law, finished her Master’s degree in Library and Information Science at the University of Arizona in December. Before coming to the College of Law in 2001, Herrera practiced law at the firm of Ryley, Carlock & Applewhite in Phoenix, where she concentrated on the areas of natural resources and environmental law, as well as Indian law, performing complex legal research in water and Indian law, among other work.

Weinstein article to be included in handbook of year's most notable First Amendment pieces

lfaling — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:27:45 -0600

An article by James Weinstein, professor of law at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at ASU, “Institutional Review Boards and the Constitution,” will be reprinted in The First Amendment Law Handbook, published by Thomson Reuters/West.

“The First Amendment Law Handbook is a compendium of the year’s notable articles on First Amendment matters,” according to the editor Rodney Smolla.

Weinstein is the Amelia D. Lewis Professor of Constitutional Law and a Fellow with the Center for the Study of Law, Science, & Technology.