MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia University College of Law is hosting a series of lectures October 28-31 that will explore Mexican law, politics, and social policy. The discussions will be led by three visiting professors from the University of Guanajuato in Mexico.
Admission is free and the public is invited to attend. All lectures will be held in the Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom at the College of Law.
Law professor Jim Friedberg is organizing the Mexico Week lectures. He hopes they will provide insight into Mexican society and dispel some of the myths surrounding the country that shares a 2,000 mile border with the United States.
“Mexico has a rapidly expanding economy and population,” he said. “It’s a country with immense human and natural resources and significant problems. We have to be partners in solving the problems of our North American continent.”
Patricia Begné, a law professor at the University of Guanajuato, will discuss the Mexican legal system at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, October 28.
Katya Rodriguez will speak on Mexican poverty, welfare, and law reform at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 29. She is a social sciences research professor at the University of Guanajuato.
Professor Fernando Patron will address law, politics, and constitutional evolution in Mexico at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 30. Patron is the Director of the Department of Public Management at the University of Guanajuato.
The lecture series concludes with a panel discussion about meeting Mexico’s challenges in law, politics, and social policy at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 31. In addition to the Guanajuato professors, the panel will feature WVU professors Michele Stephens (history), Victor Mucino(engineering), and Arthur Rizer (law).
The University of Guanajuato, established in 1732, has had an academic relationship with WVU and the College of Law for over two decades.
Located in the highlands of central Mexico, Guanajuato was founded in 1559. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it has been Morgantown’s sister city since 2008.
“The relationship between the two universities and cities has provided exceptional cultural and intellectual opportunities,” said Friedberg, who leads a biennial study abroad trip to Guanajuato with law professors Gregory Bowman and Jena Martin. The next trip will be in May 2014 and it’s open to all WVU graduate students.
Mexico Week at the College of Law is supported by the Archibald McDougall Visiting Lectureship in International Law, which explores diverse points of view on issues critical to the global legal community. It is co-sponsored by WVU Latin American Studies.
Morgantown, W.Va. – Before he was the iconic leader of nonviolent political resistance, Mahatma Gandhi was a lawyer.
A new book by West Virginia University College of Law professor Charles DiSalvo is the first biography that explores Gandhi’s transformative early years as a practicing attorney.
In M.K.Gandhi, Attorney at Law: The Man Before the Mahatma(University of California Press, 2013), DiSalvo traces Gandhi’s journey of self-discovery from his education in Britain, to the failure of his first law practice, and his migration to South Africa.
Based on exhaustive research, including rare archival material, DiSalvo focuses on the relationship between Gandhi’s practice of law and his embrace of civil disobedience. He illustrates how Gandhi’s background and experiences as a lawyer, particularly in racially segregated South Africa from 1893 to 1914, helped develop what would ultimately become the philosophy and practice of nonviolent civil disobedience.
“Gandhi became a civil disobedient, conscientiously breaking of the law, while he was a member of the legal profession,” said DiSalvo. “That’s a significant transformation for a lawyer and it put Gandhi on a path that would change the world.”
The Indian edition of the book was released last year to critical acclaim. The Asian Review of Books called it “a very powerful and original contribution to Gandhian studies.”
DiSalvo was invited to India to speak about the book at the Jaipur International Literature Festival – the largest book festival of Asia-Pacific. In addition, he has delivered lectures on the book around the world.
DiSalvo is the Woodrow A. Potesta Professor of Law at WVU and teaches one of the few law school courses in the country on civil disobedience—inspired by Gandhi and others. He is also an expert on bioethics and the law, civil procedure, and trial advocacy. DiSalvo joined the College of Law in 1979 and he is co-founder of the West Virginia Fund for Law in Public Interest.
M.K.Gandhi, Attorney at Law: The Man Before the Mahatma is available now in bookstores and online.
Robinson & McElwee celebrates 30th Anniversary and honors the memory of a founding member Glenn Robinson with two WVU Law Scholarships
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In honor of the firm’s 30th anniversary, Charleston-based Robinson & McElwee has established a $100,000 scholarship award program with the West Virginia UniversityCollege of Law. The firm has also created the E. Glenn Robinson Memorial Scholarship in memory of a founding member of the firm, E. Glenn Robinson.
The Robinson & McElwee Scholarship will benefit first and a second year law students, while the E. Glenn Robinson Scholarship will be granted to third year law students.
“Robinson & McElwee is pleased to celebrate our 30 year anniversary with the establishment of this new scholarship program, but we were saddened by the loss of our founding partner, Glenn Robinson, earlier this year,” said Kent J. George, managing member of Robinson & McElwee. “This gift ensures that Glenn’s legacy and commitment to excellence in the legal profession will live on in future generations of lawyers. It is a fitting tribute to a distinguished attorney.”
The College of Law has received a $1.3 million gift from a trust established by former Secretary of Defense Louis Arthur Johnson. The gift creates the Louis A. Johnson Scholarship Fund at the law school.
Col. Johnson, who passed away in 1966, was a leading figure in the presidential administrations of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Born in 1891 in Roanoke, Va., Johnson received his law degree from the University of Virginia. He began his legal career in Clarksburg, forming a partnership with Phillip Steptoe and John Rixey. After Rixey’s departure in 1916, the firm became known as Steptoe and Johnson.
Johnson was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates and served in World War I, seeing action in France. Following the war, he became involved in veteran affairs and helped found the American Legion. He rose to the rank of Colonel in the Army Reserve in the 1920s.
Serving as the assistant secretary of war for Franklin Roosevelt from 1937-40, Johnson advocated rearmament and the expansion of military aviation in the years leading up to World War II. His tenure as Harry Truman’s secretary of defense from 1949-50 was marked by the so-called Revolt of the Admirals, the founding of NATO, and the beginning of the Korean War.
“After decades of service to his country, Colonel Johnson had the foresight to establish a trust in 1960 that would benefit legal education,” said attorney Robert M. Steptoe, Jr. “His legacy will now live on in the future graduates of the WVU College of Law and the important work they will do throughout their careers.”
“We are deeply grateful for this gift from the Johnson Trust and privileged to use it in a way that memorializes such a distinguished lawyer and leader,” said Joyce McConnell, dean of the College of Law.
After leaving the Roosevelt administration, Col. Johnson opened the Washington, D.C. office of Steptoe & Johnson in 1945. In 1980, the Washington and West Virginia offices separated amicably, creating Clarksburg-based Steptoe & Johnson and Washington, D.C. Steptoe & Johnson, Chartered, which both continue to operate today.
The Johnson gift to the WVU College of Law is part of A State of Minds: The Campaign for West Virginia’s University, a $750 million fundraising effort the WVU Foundation is conducting on behalf of the University.
The conference, which is supported by the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights, will offer an in-depth examination of the issues and highlight advances in the field with leading experts from around the world.
Business and Human Rights: Moving Forward, Looking Back will be held in The Erickson Alumni Center at Statler Wilson Commons on September 23 and 24. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend. Registration on the conference website required.
Bill Richardson, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, will close the first day of the conference with remarks at 7:30 p.m. on September 23. He is speaking at WVU as part of the annual David C. Hardesty Jr. Festival of Ideas. Admission is free and open to the public.
“As the global economy becomes increasingly interconnected, there’s a vital need to establish a balance between businesses and basic human rights,” said Jena Martin, WVU Associate Professor of Law. “This conference will explore the roles that corporations and civil society should play in ensuring and advancing the cause of human rights.”
Cambridge University Press has announced its interest in publishing papers developed at the conference in an edited volume, subject to peer review.
Roger D. Branigin, the Executive Director of the Global Corporate Community of Practice for Business & Human Rights, is facilitating the first day of the conference. Featured speakers include Dr. Michael Addo, a member of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights; Larry Catà Backer of Penn State Dickinson School of Law; Faith Stevelman of the University of Washington School of Law; and Karen Bravo of the Robert H. McKinney School of Law at Indiana University.
At least two dozen panelists are participating in the conference. These include Atabong Tamo from the Universiteit Antwerpen (Belgium), Humberto Cantú Rivera of the Université Panthéon-Assas Paris II (France), and Nwamaka Okany of the Amsterdam Center for International Law (The Netherlands).
A conference session at 9:30 a.m. on September 23 will specifically spotlight West Virginia business and human rights issues. Other session topics will focus on the history and relationship of business and human rights, due diligence, and identifying risks and impacts.
“For many countries and businesses, the discussion has only just begun even though this is a topic that effects every producer, consumer, and worker on the planet,” said Martin.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va.—West Virginia University has reappointed
Joyce E. McConnell as Dean of the College of Law for another five years.
“Joyce McConnell is commended for an excellent first term as dean,” said
Michele G. Wheatly, WVU Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
“Under her leadership, the future of the College of Law is very bright.”
Since being named Dean in 2008, McConnell has spearheaded a
$25 million fundraising campaign to invest in the future of legal education
at WVU. This includes the construction of a 20,000-square-foot addition to
the law school as well as improvements to teaching facilities, resources, and technology.
Throughout her tenure as dean, McConnell has sought to increase WVU Law’s
national prominence. Results of this effort include
high rankings by U.S. News & World Report, preLaw Magazine, and The
National Law Journal, among other publications.
Amidst DOMA, Fisher, and Shelby this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court decided an important land use case that did not quite get the same national attention: Coy A. Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District.
In a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled in favor of Koontz, a Florida property developer, in what some legal scholars see as blow to sustainable development.
WVU Law land use attorney Jesse Richardson, however, sees Koontz as an affirmation of sound land use planning practices.
In the case, Koontz sought a permit to develop a portion of land and place a conversation easement on several additional acres. Much of the Koontz property includes wet lands. St. Johns countered with two alternative options conditional to granting a permit. Koontz did not agree to either option.
“The Koontz ruling merely confirms the Nollan/Dolan test and holds that its principles of proportionality and rationality also apply to cash exactions,” said Richardson.
The so-called Nollan/Dolan Test is based on two precedent-setting cases—Nollan v. California Coastal Commission in 1987 and Dolan v. City of Tigard in 1994. In both, it was found that the local governments had attached irrational and disproportionate conditions to granting land use permits.
In Shelby County, AL v. Holder, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision split on ideological lines, declared unconstitutional the formula used under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to determine which states and localities must receive pre-approval of their voting rights laws. This decision, which effectively ends the preclearance practice meant to preserve minority voting rights, will transform the right to vote for years to come. Once again, relying on the myth of racial progress, the Supreme Court failed to confront the racial balkanization in voting that exists, and it ultimately crippled the role that Voting Rights Act has in limiting it.
This lawsuit was brought by Shelby County, AL. This county, along with the rest of Alabama, as well as Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Alaska, Arizona, and parts of seven other states (known as the “covered jurisdictions”) was required under Section Five of the Voting Rights Act to have any change in their election laws approved (or “precleared”) by the U.S. Department of Justice. The covered jurisdictions were selected for the preclearance requirement according to a formula set out in Section Four of the act. The formula considered the jurisdiction’s past history of voting rights violations, current violations, white and minority voting rates, and other factors. Shelby County argued that both Section Five’s preclearance requirement and Section Four’s coverage formula were unconstitutional. The Court struck down the Section Four formula.
Chief Justice Robert’s opinion for the five-justice conservative majority relied on two premises. First, the opinion stated that each state is due “equal sovereignty,” that is each state has power to regulate matters left to the states, including voting, to the same extent as other states. As innocuous as that might sound, consider Roberts’s second premise: “the conditions that originally justified [the preclearance measures that justified differing treatment of states] no longer characterize voting in the covered jurisdictions.” Slip op. at 2. Roberts pointed to substantial progress in voter participation and the increase in minority elected officials in the time from the passage of the act until now. Id. at 13-15. Yet, Roberts continued, the current coverage formula does not reflect this reality. “Coverage today is based on decades-old data and eradicated practices.” Slip op. at 18. “Racial disparity in those numbers was compelling evidence justifying the preclearance remedy and the coverage formula. There is no longer such a disparity.” Id.
In Fisher v. University of Texas, the United States Supreme Court decided by a 7-1 vote to send the case back to the Fifth Circuit to reconsider its decision. The Court held that the Fifth Circuit applied the wrong standard in evaluating the University of Texas’s affirmative action program. The Court held that the “strict scrutiny” standard for Equal Protection cases applies to how to judge such programs.
This case stems from the efforts of Abigail Fisher, a Caucasian female, to have the affirmative action programs at the University of Texas declared unconstitutional. Fisher alleged that she was denied admission to the undergraduate program at the University of Texas because of its affirmative action program. The lower courts upheld the University of Texas program. The Fifth Circuit stated that some deference was due to the judgment of the University of Texas in evaluating whether its affirmative action programs were constitutional.
Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy held that this element of deference to the university’s judgment was incorrect. Kennedy analyzed the strict scrutiny analysis applicable to these equal protection cases. Under that analysis, Kennedy first reaffirmed the basic proposition that seeking racial diversity may constitute a compelling governmental interest that the government may pursue. Kennedy also stated settled law in finding that once a compelling governmental interest is demonstrated, the state must narrowly tailor its policies to achieve that interest.
MORGANTOWN, WV – Los Angeles-based Scrappy Cat Productions will screen their new film, “Angel’s Perch,” on Tuesday, July 2 at 7:30 p.m. at Carmike Morgantown Mall 12.
“Angel’s Perch” was filmed in West Virginia, showcasing the state’s people and natural beauty in partnership with the WV Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. The project has also provided members of the West Virginia University College of Law community with a unique opportunity to assist in the production of a feature-length film. WVU College of Law students, alumni and faculty have provided legal services to the film, making the production a uniquely West Virginian project.
Set in the historic logging town of Cass, WV, “Angel’s Perch” is the story of a Pittsburgh architect who returns home to help his grandmother, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The film deals with the relationship between past and present, memory and loss. It stars Ally Walker (“The Protector,” “Sons of Anarchy,” “Moon Over Miami”); Joyce Van Patten (“Marley and Me,” “Grown Ups”); Ashley Jones (“The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Trueblood”); and Ellen Crawford (“ER,” “Desperate Housewives”).
The filmmakers are using an innovative screening tool called Tugg that allows communities to request screenings in their towns. Admission to the screening is $10, and can be reserved by visitingwww.tugg.com/events/4407.
