Faculty News

Professor Heidi Kitrosser will testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, in a hearing entitled "Secret Law and the Threat to Democratic and Accountable Government." The hearing will take place at 9am on Wednesday, April 30th.

Read Heidi Kitrosser's Faculty Profile

Professor Claire Hill was quoted in "Cleared for Takeoff?", an article in Minnesota Lawyer that discusses the Northwest-Delta merger. Hill also discussed the merger on "Minnesota This Week", a public affairs radio program. The thirty-minute interview covered subjects such as the likely legal, regulatory and political trajectory for the merger. The interview is available online (RealAudio media stream).

Read Claire Hill's Faculty Profile

The Office of International Programs has awarded Professor Ní Aoláin an Interdisciplinary International Institutional Partnership Grant for 2008-09. The award is for a proposal entitled "Transitional Justice Partnership." The funding will enable and deepen a sustained research partnership with the Transitional Justice Institute in Belfast Northern Ireland where Professor Ni Aolain holds a dual appointment. The amount of the award is $24,900. Other faculty involved in the collaboration include: Professor Hiromi Mizuno, (History Department); Professor Kathryn Sikkink (Political Science); Professors Michael Barnett and Barbara Frey, (Humphrey Institute); Professors Oren Gross, David Weissbrodt and Dean David Wippman (Law School).

Read Fionnuala Ní Aoláin's Faculty Profile

Professor Stras was quoted in the April 2008 issue of the ABA Journal regarding Justice O'Connor's decision to sit on panels of a number of United States Courts of Appeals after her retirement from the Supreme Court in 2005. He discusses the value of circuit riding based on an article he wrote for the Minnesota Law Review in 2007.

Read David Stras's Faculty Profile

Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin was awarded a British Academy Research Grant award to further a project she is working on with Professor William Twining (UCL & Miami Law School), Professor An-Na'im (Emory Law School), Professor Baxi (Warick Law School), Professor Yash Ghai (UNDP Advisor) and Dr. Francis Deng (Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General on the Prevention of Genocide) amongst others on the question of Southern Voices in Human Rights discourse.

Part of the grant award will support a symposium on Human Rights and Southern Voices arising from a scholarly awareness that Western human rights theorising, despite claims to universality pays little systematic attention to the views and interests of non-Western societies as articulated in the writings of leading “Southern” intellectuals.

The British Academy, established in the United Kingdom by Royal Charter in 1902, is the national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It is an independent, self-governing fellowship of more than 800 scholars, elected for distinction and achievement in one or more branches of the academic disciplines that make up the humanities and social sciences.

Read Fionnuala Ní Aoláin's Faculty Profile

Professor Daniel Schwarcz was recently selected to be a funded consumer representative for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a voluntary organization of the chief insurance regulatory officials of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories.

Read Daniel Schwarcz's Faculty Profile

Affiliated faculty member Prof. Jane Kirtley was quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times discussing measures taken in the prosecution of R&B star R. Kelly for child pornography in Chicago. The presiding judge has sealed multiple documents in the case, but the total number is also sealed. A closed hearing is scheduled and participating lawyers are forbidden to talk with the media about the case. Prof. Kirtley said, "They're running the risk of, in effect, creating a secret proceeding."

Read Jane Kirtley's Faculty Profile