The Faculty Lounge

My Slate Article on the Importance of Replicating Science

I have a long article in Slate (with Chris Chabris) on the importance of replicating science. We use a recent (and especially bitter) dispute over the failure to replicate a social psychology experiment as an occasion for discussing several things of much broader import, including:

• The facts that replication, despite being a cornerstone of the scientific method, is rarely practiced (and even less frequently published) not only in psychology but across science, and that when such studies are conducted, they frequently fail to replicate the original findings (let this be a warning to those of you who, like me, cite empirical literature in your scholarship);
  
  
• Why replications are so rarely conducted and published, relative to their importance (tl;dr: it's the incentives, stupid);
  
  
• Why it's critical that this aspect of the academic research culture change (because academic science doesn't only affect academic scientists; the rest of us have a stake in science, too, including those who fund it, those who help researchers produce it (i.e., human subjects), those who consume and build on it (other scholars and policy-makers), and all of us who are subject to myriad laws and policies informed by it); and
  
  
• Some better and worse ways of facilitating that cultural change (among other things, we disagree with Daniel Kahneman's most recent proposal for conducting replications).

Regulating Reproduction. Or Not . . .

The N.Y Times had a (somewhat) interesting front-page article on commercial surrogacy a few days ago.  I add the qualifier “somewhat” because the article is factually interesting, detailing the scandal associated with Rudy Rupak’s Planet Hospital, a California-based medical tourism company.  But the article, while implying that regulation is needed to stop these sorts of abuses in the future, doesn’t explore what I think is the far more interesting question of the trade-offs that are often politically necessary when it comes to regulating reproduction, including commercial surrogacy. 

The article describes Mr. Rupak’s dealings as an international surrogacy intermediary, connecting prospective parents with surrogates and clinics in surrogacy hotspots like India, Mexico, and Thailand.  Among other offenses (including egg splitting and failing to adequately screen surrogates), Rupak apparently accepted payments for surrogacy services and kept the payments without performing the agreed services.  According to the story, Rupnak is now bankrupt and under investigation by the FBI. 

As the article notes, this is only the latest in a series of scandals, some of which I’ve written about before.  And such scandals are likely to continue as prospective parents seek to avoid onerous home country regulations or avoid the high cost of surrogacy services in the United States.  The article continues:

In fact, hundreds of new surrogacy businesses advertise their services on the Internet because anyone can establish an agency, regardless of background or expertise. Agencies are started and disappear, sometimes reappearing under a new name.

I’m sympathetic to this complaint, and have previously argued that greater regulation could improve many aspects of the surrogacy market.  What the article doesn’t acknowledge, however, are the costs that would likely accompany grater oversight of the commercial surrogacy market.  As I discuss in prior work on “baby markets” more generally (which include, but are not limited to, commercial surrogacy):  

The failure to acknowledge the full breadth of the legal baby market imposes severe costs on the market and its participants. Those costs include the forgone opportunity to develop legal policies designed to improve the functioning of the market, as discussed in Part II.A., and forgone opportunities to further particular public policies unlikely to be advanced solely through the goal of profit-maximization, as discussed in Part II.B. 

This is not to suggest that legal oversight is a panacea without costs of its own. Greater government involvement means that costs are likely to rise, some services that people desire may be prohibited, and certain types of customers -- for example, older parents, single parents, and gay and lesbian parents – risk being legislated out of the market. These are the costs that must be weighed against attempts to improve the baby market.

With time, I suppose I’ve become even less optimistic (or, one might argue, more realistic) about the possibility of effective “baby market” regulations that do not eliminate large sectors of the marketplace.  For some that would obviously be a welcome outcome.  But it would not be welcome by many of those who argue for greater regulation of the surrogacy, ART, and gamete markets, suggesting, perhaps, that such advocates should be careful of what they wish for.

AALS Call For Papers: The Higher Education Act At 50

The AALS Section on Education Law is soliciting papers analyzing current legal problems relating to the Higher Education Act of 1965, including its amendments, past and future. The author of the selected paper will be invited to join the panel at the Education Law program at the Annual Meeting in January. The author of the selected paper will also be invited to publish the paper in the Kentucky Law Journal.

Individuals wishing to be considered should submit an abstract of 200-350 words and a draft paper evidencing substantial work towards a final product. Preference will be given to scholarly contributions that offer a novel insight on issues that relate to the program topic. The expectation is that the paper will be completed by January 1, 2014.

Only full-time faculty members of AALS member schools are eligible to submit papers. Faculty at fee-paid schools, foreign, visiting, and adjunct faculty members, and graduate students and fellows are not eligible to submit.

Deadline Date for Submission: September 1, 2014. Please submit by email to Prof. Scott R. Bauries, Chair of the Section, at scott.bauries@uky.edu.

Valparaiso Law Seeks Two Tenure Track Faculty - Business/Contracts And Externship Director

This just in from the folks at Valpo:

VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL (VULS) is seeking to fill a full-time, tenure track position with someone interested in teaching contracts and business courses. Applications from entry level and experienced teachers are welcome.

The Law School is also seeking a full-time Director of its externship program. This is a new, tenure track position. Applicants should have practice experience, and teaching experience is preferred. VULS intends to expand its externship program as part of its increasing emphasis on practical learning. 

Valparaiso University is located in Valparaiso, Indiana, a small college town near the southern shore of Lake Michigan that is approximately fifty miles from downtown Chicago.  Please contact Professor Ivan E. Bodensteiner, Chair of the Appointments Committee, at Valparaiso University Law School, 656 Greenwich Street, Valparaiso, Indiana, 46383; e-mail: facultyrecruitment@valpolaw.net.

Western State Law Seeks A Dean

Western State College of Law at Argosy University is seeking a new Dean of the College and Vice Chancellor of the University.  For more details, see  this position announcement.

Hiring Announcement: Pittsburgh (Health Law Clinic)

From an email message that I received earlier today:

The University of Pittsburgh School of Law invites applications for a full-time faculty position at the rank of Assistant, Associate or Full Clinical Professor to teach in and direct the School’s Health Law Clinic. While this position is not in the tenure stream, it is part of a system of contracts progressing to renewable long-term contracts. The position will begin on July 1, 2015.

The Clinic’s primary mission is to provide an experiential learning opportunity for our students, while also providing legal services to low-income individuals involved in health-related litigation or advocacy. Duties of the Clinical Professor include classroom teaching, including the possibility of teaching doctrinal courses; supervision of second- and third-year law students as they represent clients and participate in community projects; administrative duties relating to the Health Law Clinic; community outreach and fundraising; and participation in faculty governance of the School of Law.  The candidate hired for the position will have the opportunity to shape the future direction of the Clinic.  Therefore, all candidates should be prepared to present a vision of the type of clinic that they would hope to implement. Examples might include a medical-legal partnership, a clinic focusing primarily on representation of applicants for disability benefits in Medicaid or Social Security administrative hearings, or other focused areas of representation or advocacy.

Qualifications include admission to practice in Pennsylvania or willingness to seek admission to the Pennsylvania bar; substantial experience in the field of health law and, preferably, clinical pedagogy; excellent supervisory and communication skills; the ability to work effectively with students, clients, and other constituents; and an interest in developing clinical experiences for students in the Health Law Clinic within a community that supports interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative teaching opportunities.

To apply, please submit a letter of interest, resume, and list of two or three references to Professor Ben Bratman, Chair, Clinical Appointments Committee, at  beb9@pitt.edu.  Write “Health Law Clinic Application” in the subject line of the email. The deadline for applications is September 4, 2014.

The University of Pittsburgh is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and values equality of opportunity, human dignity, and diversity.  Recruitment is subject to approval by the University’s Provost. 

Hiring Announcement: Pittsburgh (Environmental Law Clinic)

From an email that I received earlier today:

The University of Pittsburgh School of Law invites applications for a full-time faculty position at the rank of Assistant, Associate or Full Clinical Professor to teach in and direct the School’s Environmental Law Clinic. While this position is not in the tenure stream, it is part of a system of contracts progressing to renewable long-term contracts.  The position will begin on July 1, 2015.

The mission of the Environmental Law Clinic is to serve the educational needs of our students and the needs of individuals, community groups, and conservation organizations, particularly those in Western Pennsylvania, for legal services relating to environmental issues.   Funding for the Clinic is provided by an endowment from the Howard and Vira I. Heinz Endowments. Duties of the Clinical Professor include classroom teaching, including the possibility of teaching doctrinal courses; supervision of second- and third-year law students as they represent clients and participate in community projects; participation in activities related to the School of Law’s Environmental Law Concentration; administrative duties relating to the Environmental Law Clinic; community outreach and fundraising; and participation in faculty governance of the School of Law.  The Environmental Law Clinic was founded in 2000.  The candidate hired for the position will have the opportunity to shape the future direction of the Clinic.

Qualifications include admission to practice in Pennsylvania or willingness to seek admission to the Pennsylvania bar; substantial experience in the field of environmental law and, preferably, clinical pedagogy; excellent supervisory and communication skills; the ability to work effectively with students, clients, and other constituents; and an interest in developing clinical experiences for students in the Environmental Law Clinic within a community that supports interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative teaching opportunities.

To apply, please submit a letter of interest, resume, and list of two or three references to Professor Ben Bratman, Chair, Clinical Appointments Committee, at beb9@pitt.edu. Write “Environmental Law Clinic Application” in the subject line of the email. The deadline for applications is September 4, 2014.

The University of Pittsburgh is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and values equality of opportunity, human dignity, and diversity.  Recruitment is subject to approval by the University’s Provost.

Plagiarism and Ghostwriting

Observers are right to criticize U.S. Senator John Walsh for the rampant plagiarism in his Army War College final paper. As the New York Times reported last week, Walsh appears to have committed academic fraud.

Generally, social mores treat plagiarism appropriately. We warn students not to pass off the writing of others as their own, and we censure scholars, journalists, and other authors who do the same. If you are going to use other people’s work, you need to acknowledge their contributions.

But there is a curious exception to the prohibition on plagiarism. Among his many violations, Senator Walsh lifted passages from an essay by Harvard scholar Sean Lynn-Jones without proper attribution. Suppose instead of using Lynn-Jones’ work in his War College paper, Walsh had hired Lynn-Jones as a speechwriter for his Senate office. Walsh could deliver remarks written by Lynn-Jones without any acknowledgment of Lynn-Jones’ contribution, and we would not accuse him of plagiarism. Or suppose that Walsh hired Lynn-Jones to ghostwrite his autobiography. Some prominent persons do not acknowledge their ghostwriters; other leaders bury the acknowledgment where most readers won’t see it. Yet we do not condemn the failure to recognize the contributions of speechwriters and other ghostwriters as a form of plagiarism. Is there a good reason for this double standard?

We cannot justify these arrangements because ghostwriters agree to them. Plagiarism is a fraud not only on the person whose ideas are misappropriated but also on other people, who are misled as to the authorship of the words they hear or read. Thus, it is still plagiarism when students pay for a paper written by someone else.

One might say that ghostwriting is permissible because the writers are guided by the ideas of the people for whom they work, that the writer is essentially a translator rather than an author. But the value of a speech or book lies just as much in how its ideas are conveyed as in the substance of those ideas. Indeed, speakers and writers often are judged more on their style than on their substance. President Kennedy’s inauguration speech might not be especially memorable if he had simply encouraged people to commit more time to public service. But we remember it well because he called on Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

University of Pittsburgh Seeking Visiting Faculty for 2015-16

The University of Pittsburgh School of Law invites applications for 2015-2016 visiting faculty positions. The positions would include teaching one-term first-year courses in Civil Procedure, Contracts, or Property and, depending on the length of the visit, one or more courses in associated areas. We particularly welcome applicants who teach in the associated areas of employment discrimination, energy law, estates and trusts, health law, or intellectual property. Applicants should submit a letter of interest, resume, and a list of three references—preferably before November 1, 2014. In furtherance of our strong institutional commitment to a diverse faculty, we encourage applications from minorities, women, and others who would add to the diversity of our faculty. Please contact: Professor George Taylor, Chair, Faculty Appointments Committee, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, 3900 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Email: gtaylor@pitt.edu. Email submissions are preferred.

Cheryl Hanna (1966-2014)

It is with sadness that I note that beloved Vermont Law School Professor Cheryl Hanna passed away on Sunday.  Hanna's webpage at Vermont Law School gives a sense her passion for law and teaching.  Cribbing now a little from it:

Growing up in the 1970s, Cheryl Hanna was able to watch the women's movement unfolding, and she developed an early interest in women's issues. "My mom was single and working at a time when this wasn't the norm," she says. "We used to watch people on TV marching in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment, and we'd talk about how women weren't treated fairly. But my mother would tell me that marching in parades probably wouldn't change the world. Instead, she told me that if I wanted to make a difference, I should do well in school and find a good profession."  

She attended Kalamazoo College and Harvard Law School, then later worked as a lawyer in Baltimore.  She joined the Vermont faculty in 1994.  The Vermont Law School press release is here.  The law school reports that she is survived by her husband and two children.  "Professor Hanna was a beloved teacher and role model to many within and beyond the Vermont Law School community. It is with heartache that we share this loss. She will be deeply missed by our faculty, staff, students, and alumni."  A news report on her passing is here.  

Vermont Law School's remembrance page for Professor Hanna is here.

In Memoriam: Cheryl Hanna

Vermont Law School Professor Cheryl Hanna died on Sunday.  She was 48.  She is survived by a husband and two children.  At this point, details of her passing have not yet been made available. 

The Constitutional Significance of the 1815 Toasts

One of the real pleasures of blogging is meeting like-minded people through cyberspace. Over the years I've meet a fair number of people who share my interests in cemetery and monument law and occasionally people who are related to some of my subjects -- most often Tulsa riot victims and at other times testators, judges, and orators from the old south.  The furthest connection comes with a descendant of one of my favorite historical figures, Francis Daniel Pastorius (though these days I'm the one reaching out to Pastorius descendants!)  One of my favorite interactions was with a descendant of two of my subjects from pre-War Alabama, who sent me portraits of them.  It was really quite exciting and amazing to be able to see them and because the portraits are held by the family I'd never have been able to see them otherwise.  

So ... I was very excited to get an email yesterday from Bob Tate, a collector of rare documents in New York, asking what I thought of one of his documents, which lists a series of toasts for what appear to be a July 4, 1815 celebration -- and maybe they were reused around the time of Andrew Jackson's triumphant journey through Virginia in December 1815 (less sure about this).  As I've said before, toasts are a grossly under-utilized source of insight about the ideas of pre-Civil War Americans.  Sort of twitter for the antebellum era.  In a short compass you can learn a lot.

One of the toasts refers to Washington Academy (later Washington College, now Washington and lee university).  I'm a huge fan of W&L's history -- especially the shifts in ideology that took place on that campus from the late eighteenth century to the Civil War.  I'm guessing these were delivered by a Washington Academy alumnus in the presence of other alums, so perhaps in Lexington?  That would make a lot of sense.  And it would fit with some of the Enlightenment ideas and the broad horizons and the focus on Washington, Union, and Constitutionalism that appear in the toasts.  Here they are:

Hiring Announcement: Montana

From an email message that I received earlier today:

The University of Montana School of Law, a school with a long-time emphasis on the integration of theory and practice, beautifully situated in the recreational center of Western Montana, invites applications for tenure-track, Assistant Professor of Law positions for: (1) property law and (2) Indian law/clinic supervisor. Positions are ten-month contracts, beginning fall semester 2015. Starting salary: $72,000 - $76,000. To view full job descriptions, minimum requirements needed, and to apply, go to http://university-montana-hr.silkroad.com/epostings/.   ADA/EOE/AA/Veterans’ Preference

Fourth Circuit Declares Virginia's Ban on Same Sex Marriage Unconstitutional

This is not really breaking news at this point as it is all over my Twitter feed (@BClarke_LawProf), but the Fourth Circuit released its opinion in Bostic v Schaefer a little while ago, which was the case challenging the Constitutionality of Virginia's ban on same sex marriage. In short, the court applied strict scrutiny because the Virginia law abridges the fundamental right to marry (see Loving v. Virginia) and found Virginia's law unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment (on the 146th birthday of the 14th Amendment no less).  The opinion is here.  [The caption is 19 pages long, so keep scrolling to p. 20 to get to the actual opinion.]

My very first Faculty Lounge post -- back in 2012 -- focused on the then-pending vote to amend North Carolina's Constitution to add a prohibition on same sex marriage.  Obviously the Fourth Circuit's opinion today calls N.C.'s ban into serious question (NC's ban is actually quite a bit broader than Virginia's ban).   [Hooray!].

I am currently finishing up a draft of a paper for presentation at SEALS next Monday entitled (rather clunkily I admit): "The Near Term Impact of Judicial Nominations on Court Ideology: A Comparative Study of the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Eighth Circuit Before and During President Obama’s First Term."  

In it I prove, quantitatively, that President Obama's successful nominations to the Fourth Circuit during his first term had a pronounced near-term impact (within 0-2 years) on the Fourth Circuit's collective judicial ideology and shifted the Fourth Circuit toward the "liberal" end of the spectrum from 2010 to 2012 as his 6 successful nominees took their seats (in reality, this means the court shifted from "conservative" to fairly moderate).  While my paper is based on a quantitative study of the Fourth Circuit's labor & employment cases from 2004 to 2012 (using the Eighth Circuit's cases over the same period as the control) that I (and my RAs) have spent hundreds of hours conducting, today's opinion supports my original hypothesis and findings:  This is not the Fourth Circuit of just a few years ago.  

The panel consisted of Judges Floyd, Gregory and Neimeyer.  Judge Floyd, an Obama nominee, wrote the opinion, which Judge Gregory (a Clinton recess appointment, re-nominated by G.W. Bush as part of an early first term political bargain) joined.  Judge Neimeyer (a G.H.W. Bush nominee) dissented.

Twenty-Two Months a Slave

In August 1825 a ten year old African American child went looking for work along the Philadelphia waterfront. An African American man offered the child, Cornelius Sinclair, a small wage for unloading water melons from a sloop anchored nearby.  The two paddled out to the sloop; but upon arriving, Cornelius was bound and held along with several other young free people.   Soon the sloop began sailing south into the Delaware bay.  Thus began Sinclair's odyssey that took him far from home, into the depths of slavery in the south, as a slave to a tin smith in the state's capital, then to a courtroom in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and many moons later, back home to Philadelphia.

The first stop was Delaware's southern shore.  Sinclair and other kidnapping victims were held at the house of the  kidnappers along the Delaware-Maryland border for a short while.  The kidnappers brought their human cargo to Maryland's chesapeake bay, where another ship took the captives further south.  Then followed a journey on foot across Georgia, to Indiana territory in Alabama, and to Tuscaloosa -- the state's capital at the time -- where Sinclair was sold to one James Paul.  The rest of the kidnapped people were brought to Mississippi.  In a most improbable turn of events Sinclair was rescued by two Methodist ministers.  One of them filed a lawsuit on his behalf, while one of their congregants posted an enormous bond.  This set in motion a series of lawsuits -- one by James Paul alleging that the ministers had stolen Sinclair -- and defamation suits by both of the ministers against Paul.  The lawsuits pitted a violent and misanthropic man, disliked by the community, against two ministers.  

In April 1827 Sinclair's freedom suit came to trial before a justice on the Alabama Supreme Court, John Gayle, sitting as a circuit judge.  John Gayle is now remembered as the Alabama governor who tried to prosecute a New York abolitionist for sending antislavery literture to Alabama in July 1835.   But in April 1827 Gayle was an actor in favor of freedom.  Sinclair won his freedom, but it came at an enormous price in time and money.  And it seems to have divided the community.  As Sinclair departed for Philadelphia, to face down one of his kidnappers in a criminal prosecution there, one of the Methodist ministers headed north to Ohio to live. 

Judson Crump and I have our paper about Cornelius Sinclair's twenty-two month odyssey, from free person in Philadelphia to kidnapping victim and enslaved person in Tuscaloosa, back to freedom in Philadelphia, up on ssrn.  It is an extraordinary tale and a most unexpected one.  This is a story that has been written about only from the perspective of what happened in Philadelphia; no one has, so far as I can tell, yet talked about the constellation of lawsuits in Tuscaloosa.  There has been no discussion of what this means for our understanding of the rights of free people in the pre-Civil War south, a topic of growing interest these days from historians like Melvin Ely and Kirt von Daacke, to legal historians like Martha Jones, Judith Schafer, and Leah VanderVelde.  Over the next couple of weeks I hope to talk about a lot of different pieces of this puzzle -- from what happened and who the players were in this drama, to its implications for our understanding of the southern legal system, how this case fits into the recent literature on slaves and free people in the southern legal system, and what this says about the meaning of the rule of law in the old South.  If you'd like the full story right now, you can read the paper, which we're calling "Cornelius Sinclair's Odyssey," here.

The illustration is Philadelphia's Independence Hall, which I'm using for its connections to the American Revolution rather than Cornelius Sinclair's odyssey.

I have a podcast of a talk I gave at UGA Law School on Twenty-one months a slave.

Another Segregated War Memorial

Very soon I'm going to be posting a paper I'm writing with Judson Crump about a freedom suit in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the 1820s.  Much to talk about there and how this fits with the work that legal historians such as Melvin Ely, Kirt von Daacke, and Martha Jones are doing now on free people's access to the southern courts.  But right now I want to talk about race in the twentieth century.  Yesterday I saw a  war memorial  in Warren County, North Carolina.  Warrenton is rapidly becoming one of my favorite spots in North Carolina.

Close readers of the faculty lounge may recall that I was floored by Governor Romney's speech accepting the Republican nomination back in 2012.  He spoke about monuments:

Everywhere I go in America, there are monuments that list those who have given their lives for America. There is no mention of their race, their party affiliation, or what they did for a living. They lived and died under a single flag, fighting for a single purpose. They pledged allegiance to the UNITED States of America.

Since I write about monuments,monument law, and the constitutional significance of monuments, I was super excited to hear this talk of monuments from a presidential candidate.  But I thought that I'd seen some segregated monuments.  And over time I've been collecting examples of monuments that are segregated.  Back in May I posted an image of a segregated monument in Yanceyville, North Carolina, which is in front of the late antebellum Caswell County Courthouse.  And now I have another one from Warrenton, North Carolina.  (You'll probably have to click on the image to see this well.)  I'm not sure when this monument was put up, but I'm going to say that it's a safe bet sometime after August 1945.

Diane Curtis stepping into faculty lounge

I am writing to welcome Diane Curtis, senior lecturer in political science and director of pre-law planning at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, to the faculty lounge.  She'll be sitting with us for a spell.  Curtis' teaching interests are primarily in the fields of Constitutional, Family, and Privacy Law.  Her courses in the political science department include "Family and the State,"  "The Body Politic," "Privacy Law," and "Introduction to Legal Reasoning."  She has also taught in the law schools of Western New England and the University of Connecticut and in the legal studies department at Bay Path College.  She was educated at New York University's law school and before NYU Law she studied comparative literature at NYU. 

I'm very much looking forward to Diane Curtis' posts; she has a vantage we do not hear enough about here in the lounge.  Welcome, Diane.  Dan Filler and I are pushing a chair into the lounge for you.

The image is the WEB DuBois library at U.Mass. Amherst, courtesy of wikipedia.

CFP: Journal of Islamic State Practices in International Law

Cribbing from an email I received:  

*****

The Journal of Islamic State Practices in International Law (JISPIL) is pleased to announce a Call for Papers for its December 2014 edition.

JISPIL is a peer reviewed electronic journal (available at: www.electronicpublications.org) and will soon also be available on Hein Online.

Topics of particular interest include:

Islamic State application of International law; Comparative Islamic State practice; Law Reform in the Muslim world; The application of Sharia in Muslim or Non Muslim states; The accommodation of Muslims in non-Muslim states.

Articles

The journal comprises of three sections – (1) ‘Articles’ (2) ‘Recent Developments’, and (3) Book Review.

Submissions for ‘Articles’ should be between 8,000-10,000 words. Submissions to ‘Recent Developments’ should be between 3,000- 5,000 words.

Editorial Correspondence, including submissions to journal should be made electronically to the Editors Journal of Islamic State Practice in International Law. E-mail:  javaid.rehman@brunel.ac.uk and ayesha.shahid@brunel.ac.uk

All submissions must be original, unpublished works, not under consideration elsewhere and will be peer-reviewed. Publication is subject to transfer of copyright to the publisher. 

Book Reviews and Recent Developments

Those interested in undertaking a book review should contact Dr Eleni Polymenopoulou to receive an up to date list of received books. Contributions to Recent Developments sections should also be sent to her at Eleni.Polymenopoulou@brunel.ac.uk

The deadline for submitting papers for the June edition is 15^th September 2014. Submissions received after this date will only be considered for the following edition.

For further information, including submission criteria and style guidelines please refer to: http://www.electronicpublications.org/catalogue.php?id=46

 

New Hampshire Law Seeks a Director of its Criminal Practice Clinic

The University of New Hampshire Law School seeks to fill the position of Director of its well-established and successful Criminal Practice Clinic.  The prior Director has departed to become a judge.  The position announcement follows: 

The University of New Hampshire School of Law, a national leader in clinical education, is looking to hire a practitioner with expertise in criminal law to direct our criminal practice clinic.  The director represents, and supervises students who represent, indigent defendants in felony and misdemeanor prosecutions.  The director also may teach associated courses such as criminal law, criminal procedure, and trial advocacy.  The director must be a member of, or eligible for admission to, the New Hampshire bar, and must be sufficiently experienced in criminal practice to garner the approval of the New Hampshire Judicial Council, which oversees the contract that funds the clinic.  The successful candidate may begin employment as early as January 2015. 

 

The appointments committee welcomes applications from both lateral and entry-level candidates.  The successful candidate will be hired on a track leading to an alternative form of security within the meaning of ABA Standard 405(c) or, if the candidate has a demonstrated record of and interest in producing scholarship, tenure.

 

UNH Law is an equal opportunity employer.  The law school is situated in Concord, the capital of New Hampshire.  Concord is approximately an hour’s drive from Boston, the beautiful New Hampshire seacoast, and the White Mountains.  To apply, please email a letter of interest and a CV (listing references with contact information) to faculty.appointments@law.unh.edu. Or you may mail your materials to Professor John Greabe, Chair, Appointments Committee, UNH School of Law, 2 White Street, Concord, NH 03301. Applications by email are preferred.

    

Intergenerational Justice in the Law and Ethics of Human Rights

I'm delighted to report that the current issue of Law and Ethics of Human Rights, has a symposium on inter generational justice.  The papers look terrific. Here is the table of contents:

David Heyd,  Parfit on the Non-identity Problem, Again

Gregory S. Alexander, Intergenerational Communities (also available at ssrn here)

Daphna Hacker, Intergenerational Wealth Transfer and the Need to Revive and Metamorphose the Israeli Estate Tax

Elizabeth Bartholet, Intergenerational Justice for Children: Restructuring Adoption, Reproduction and Child Welfare Policy

Shelly Kreiczer-Levy, Intergenerational Relations and the Family Home

 This is a topic that interests me greatly.  (And here.)  The trusts and estates professor in me is deeply interested in the idea that there may be a duty (more likely moral than legal) to future generations.  And the legal historian in me is interested in that idea over time.  Previous generations have done a heck of a lot for us, no doubt.  And they did so in part, perhaps large part, because they were building something better for the future.  I've mentioned before that Emerson has an apt quote in "The American Scholar," that insects store up for future generations.  He found the common elements of the human mind to store up knowledge "like the fact observed in insects, who lay up food before death for the young grub they shall never see."  There's a great tradition in America--and in human society more generally, I suppose, though I don't have the expertise to testify to it--of making sacrifices for future generations, of doing something so that people whose names we will never know can have a better life.  One thinks, of course, of the American Revolution here -- and of course the Puritans' Errand into the Wilderness.  And this is apparent particularly in the nineteenth century when so many made so great sacrifices to move our coutry forward, from the anti-slavery movement to the settlement of the continent.  In that a lot of people were dispossessed and there are critical questions about how fairly past generations have treated current ones.  Lord is there a lot to talk about in the ways the past burdens the present.  But there's also something to talk about in terms of what previous generations thought about their debts to the future, to people whose names they would never know -- and people to whom they were not closely related.  For the antebellum era there is a lot of writing on this -- and one very explicit engagement with those questions.  William B. Sprague's The Claims of Past and Future Generations on Civil Rulers presents a very thoughtful defense of considering the future on the present.  One very rich source for pre-Civil War talk of the duties to the future appears in (you may think oddly) cemetery dedication addresses.  They're obsessed with the questions about the future and how to inspire people to create a Christian, commercial republic.