News

MORGANTOWN, W.Va — The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has placed a renewed focus on the human right to health, a protection provided by numerous international declarations. 

To address health as a human right and the legal obligation it creates, the West Virginia University School of Public Health and College of Law are hosting an international human rights and law scholar for two online lectures. 

David H. Moore, professor of law at Brigham Young University, will present “Interpreting Human Rights” and “The International Human Right to Health” from noon to 1 p.m. on October 6 and October 13, respectively.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia is teaming up with the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, the FBI, and West Virginia University to hold a symposium discussing the cutting-edge methods used to convict a serial killer who preyed on veterans at a VA hospital.

“The Medicolegal Symposium on the Serial Murder Case of Reta Mays” will be webcast from the WVU College of Law on October 14 from 9:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Registration is free and required by October 12. For more information or to register, go to justice.gov/usao-ndwv.

In May 2021, Reta Mays, a former nursing assistant at the VA hospital in Clarksburg, West Virginia, was sentenced to seven life terms in prison plus 20 years for murdering seven patients with insulin and attempting to murder an eighth veteran. The two-year investigation that preceded the July 2020 guilty pleas was highly complex.

The symposium will examine the clinical, forensic, psychiatry, and legal prosecution techniques used to ensure justice for Mays’ victims and their families. The prosecution team, investigators, and experts from around the globe will be presenting.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Consumers in West Virginia and nationally are concerned about their digital data privacy, and there are few and often inconsistent laws to protect them — these are the findings of new research funded by the Center for Consumer Law and Education, a joint program between the West Virginia University College of Law and Marshall University.

WVU law professor Jena Martin is the author of “Data Privacy Issues in West Virginia and Beyond,” which is available online at SSRN. Martin has also adapted her paper for an article on the West Virginia Law Review Online that focuses primarily on how these issues affect West Virginians.

As a result of Martin’s research, the CCLE is calling for new data privacy laws that include:

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia University College of Law professor S. Sean Tu has been named a scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University.

The O’Neill Institute brings together experts from public health and legal fields to help create innovative solutions to the most pressing global health concerns. It works to end pandemics, ensure human rights and build the right to health for people across the globe.

Tu is currently working on several research papers dealing with the intersection of patent law and FDA law, with the goal of finding solutions to provide better access to cheaper life-changing medicine.

“I am excited and honored to be named a scholar at the O’Neill Institute because it gets my patent law work in front of health law scholars,” he said.

UPDATE: Professor Robert Bastress and Jones Day partner Lawrence Rosenberg will join the panel discussion. (9/16/21)

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — An innovative program at the West Virginia University College of Law exposes students to real-world experiences in the court system while earning course credit.

Elizabeth Walker, a Justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, is one of several female judges across the state who helped develop the summer externship program.

“We came up with this idea to expose students directly to the important work in state courts and to pair our state’s female judges with law students,” she said. “We were thrilled with the opportunity to work with the College of Law on this initiative and look forward to offering similar programs in the future.”  

Professor  Jessica Haught is the director of WVU Law’s Fitzsimmons Center for Litigation and Advocacy, which facilitated the externship program.