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Faculty News & Briefs

Kenneth AbrahamIn May Kenneth Abraham delivered two lectures at Tel Aviv University Law School in Israel: "Long-tail Liability and Insurance" and "Insurance of Liability for Offshore Oil Pollution." Abraham also published "Strict Liability in Negligence," in the DePaul Law Review (2012) (Symposium in honor of Robert L. Rabin).

Kerry AbramsIn June Kerry Abrams presented an article called “What Makes the Family Special?” at a University of Chicago Law Review Symposium on Immigration and Institutional Design. It will be published by the Chicago Law Review. She also presented an essay,“Recognizing Polygamy,” at the International Society of Family Law Annual Conference.

In July, Abrams presented an article, “Plenary Power Preemption,” at a Law School faculty workshop. She presented it again at the University of Iowa Law School faculty workshop in September and will present it at the University of Baltimore Law School in October. It will be published next year by the Virginia Law Review.

Also in September Abrams participated in a panel with David Martin, Anne Coughlin, and John Harrison, in which they discussed the implications of Supreme Court's recent decision in Arizona v. United States. The panel was sponsored by the J.B. Moore Society and the Immigration Law Program. Abrams discussed the Arizona decision again in late September at the Supreme Court Roundup, sponsored by the Student Legal Forum. Other panelists were A.E. Dick Howard and Mimi Riley.

In October Abrams helped organize a Feminist Legal Network conference at the University of Baltimore Law School, and presented a paper, “A Legal Home: Derivative Domicile and Women's Citizenship.” She also presented the same paper in workshops at Berkeley and University of Southern California law schools, and moderated a panel for students at the Law School called “Becoming a Law Professor” with Risa Goluboff, John Duffy, and Deena Hurwitz.

Margo BagleyIn March Margo Bagley presented “Changing Tides or a Drop in the Bucket? Issues in Plant Patent Litigation in the U.S. and Abroad,” at the Seyfarth Shaw - Emory Law School IP CLE Program in Atlanta.

In May she gave a lecture on “International Patent Law and Policy” at Singapore Management University; and in June she delivered a talk on the “Protection of Biotechnological Inventions and Pharmaceuticals and IP” at the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center of the Max Planck Institute.

In September Bagley presented “Biotech Patent Eligible Subject Matter in the U.S. and Abroad: A Moving Target?” at the University of Leuven in Belgium; and in October delivered the same presentation at the University of Dayton Scholarly Symposia in Dayton, Ohio.

Richard BonnieIn November the National Academy of Sciences released a report on Juvenile Justice Reform prepared by a committee chaired by Richard Bonnie ’69. The two-and-a-half-year study, Reforming Juvenile Justice: A Developmental Approach, was requested by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. The committee’s charge was to take stock of the juvenile justice reforms undertaken over the past 15 years in light of current knowledge about adolescent development.

Bonnie made presentations to the Virginia General Assembly’s Joint Commission on Health Care in June and October in support of legislation recommended by the Commission on Mental Health Law Reform and the Virginia College Mental Health Study, both of which he directed. In October he spoke to the American Academy of Neurology in Minneapolis on impediments to the use of advance directives in health care.

Bonnie has been appointed to an American Bar Association multidisciplinary task force charged with updating the highly influential Criminal Justice Mental Health Standards approved by the ABA in 1984 after a after a three-year process in which Bonnie played a principal role. The new task force is chaired by Christopher Slobogin of Vanderbilt University Law School.

Bonnie co-authored an amicus brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in July with Stephen Morse of the University of Pennsylvania Law School on behalf of 53 law professors in Delling v Idaho. The brief urges the Court to grant certiorari and rule that abolition of the defense of insanity, which four states have done, violates the due process clause.

Whit BroomeIn May Whit Broome was honored by the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants with their “2012 Outstanding Member of the Year” award. This award is given to just one of the organization’s 12,000 members each year, and it is rarely awarded to an educator.

Kevin CopeKevin Cope presented his paper, “The Intermestic Constitution: Lessons From the World’s Newest Nation,” at the Law and Society Association's annual conference this summer in Honolulu. The article will be published in the Virginia Journal of International Law. A related piece focusing on foreign and domestic influences on South Sudan’s constitutional drafting process will appear as a chapter in a volume due out next year published by Cambridge University Press.

This summer, Cope began a project that measures quantitatively the relationship between the American constitutional text and its judicial interpretations, comparing the latter with other countries’ constitutional provisions. Cope, together with Mila Versteeg, is now seeking funding to expand the project to study the various sources of recognized rights in national constitutional systems around the world. They hope to use the data to learn more about the role of courts and other institutions in shaping rights globally.

Based on data he gathered from 80 years of federal appeals court decisions involving the foreign affairs political question doctrine, Cope is preparing a paper arguing that circuit courts' treatment of the doctrine has diverged from the Supreme Court's approach. The paper will explore that phenomenon’s bases and implications and show how the trend undercuts the conventional wisdom that the political question doctrine is losing clout in federal jurisprudence.

Cope will participate in the Law School’s annual Gustave Sokol Colloquium on Private International Law next April. Earlier this year he was appointed visiting assistant professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law. He will teach a first-year course in transnational law during the spring semester.

Brandon GarrettBrandon Garrett recently published “Introduction: Symposium on ‘Convicting the Innocent,’” in the New England Law Review for a symposium issue discussing his book, Convicting the Innocent.

In August Garrett co-organized and co-moderated a panel on remedies and constitutional rights at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools conference in Amelia Island, Fla. He presented a paper titled "Aggregation and Constitutional Rights" which is forthcoming in Notre Dame Law Review.

In September Garrett presented two chapters on how corporations are prosecuted at a faculty workshop at the University of Maryland School of Law. The chapters are from a manuscript in progress to be published by Harvard University Press. He presented additional chapters at a faculty workshop at the Law School in November. Garrett also wrote a three-part series of short pieces for the Huffington Post on the importance of proposed federal legislation to improve forensic science.

In October Garrett gave a talk to the Charlottesville Bar Association on his wrongful convictions research. In November he presented a short paper titled "Validating the Right to Counsel" at a symposium on the 50th anniversary of the Gideon v. Wainwright decision at Washington & Lee School of Law , and talked to and the Virginia Capital Defenders Association about his research on wrongful convictions.

risa goluboffIn November Risa Goluboff gave a lecture at Yale for their research initiative on the history of sexualities, entitled "Sexuality and the Demise of Vagrancy Law," and appeared on a panel on constitutional history at the annual meeting of the American Society for Legal History.

Next March, she will be giving a faculty workshop at Brooklyn Law School.

thomas l. hafemeisterTom Hafemeister has had three law review articles accepted for publication since the beginning of the year. The first, entitled “The Ninth Circle of Hell: An Eighth Amendment Analysis of Imposing Prolonged Supermax Solitary Confinement on Inmates with a Mental Illness” (with Jeff George ’13), will appear as the lead article in volume 90(1) of the Denver Law Review, with a commissioned response provided by a pair of faculty members associated with the University of Denver School of Law. The second, entitled “Don’t Let Go of the Rope: Recognizing Hospitals’ Fiduciary Duties to Their Discharged Patients” (with Joshua Hinckley Porter ’10), will appear in volume 62(3) of the American University Law Review. The third, entitled “Parity at a Price: The Emerging Professional Liability of Mental Health Providers” (with Leah Gail McLaughlin ’11 and Jessica Smith ’12), will appear in volume 50(1) of the San Diego Law Review.

Hafemeister also served as a contributing editor for the HealthLawProf Blog and posted a number of entries. He also published or has had accepted for publication (with Shelly L. Jackson) a series of elder abuse articles in various peer-reviewed journals in 2012. They include: “APS Investigation Across Four Types of Elder Maltreatment” in the Journal of Adult Protection, “Assessing the Safety of Elderly Victims After the Close of an APS Investigation” in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, “Elder Financial Exploitation vs. Hybrid Financial Exploitation Co-Occurring with Physical Abuse and/or Neglect” in Psychology of Violence, “How Case Characteristics Differ by the Type of Maltreatment Experienced: Implications for Intervention” in the Journal of Applied Gerontology, “How Do Elderly Persons Who Have Been Abused and the APS Caseworkers Who Handle Their Cases View Law Enforcement and Criminal Prosecution and What Impact Do These Views Have on the Processing of These Cases?” in the Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, and “Research in Brief: New Directions for Developing Theories of Elder Abuse” published by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

Rachel HarmonIn February Rachel Harmon presented “The Limits of Liability” at the Saint Louis University School of Law Public Law Review symposium on Control of Police Misconduct in a Post-Exclusionary Rule World: Can it Be Done?” The article will publish later this year as “The Limits of Liability: Federal Influence on Policing Reform," 32 St. Louis University Public Law Review (symposium issue).

In August Harmon spoke at the Virginia Chiefs of Police Annual Conference in Roanoke about best departmental practices and policies for responding to videotaping and for managing protests.

In October Harmon presented “Information and Effective Governance of the Police: Wickersham and Beyond,” at the Marquette Law School Conference on America’s First National Crime Commission and the Federalization of Law Enforcement. That talk will be published as an article early next year in the Marquette Law Review.

Harmon also wrote the entry "Policing the Police," for the Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Gerben Bruinsma & David Weisburd, eds.). A profile of Harmon’s work entitled “Promoting Policing at Its Best” appears in this year’s Virginia Journal.

a.e. dick howardA. E. Dick Howard ’61 spoke on "Documenting America's Constitutional History" to the board of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. He identified seminal documents in Anglo-American history, both before and after the writing of the Constitution, that illuminate the main themes in American constitutionalism.

In Washington, Howard talked about "The Emerging Roberts Court" at the Cosmos Club. Sponsored by the Club's Legal Affairs Committee, Howard highlighted the changes brought about since President Bush's appointment of John Roberts and Samuel Alito and President Obama's naming of Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the Court.

In Richmond Howard gave the inaugural lecture launching the Library of Virginia's new exhibit on Law and Justice. Howard spoke on "The Earth Belongs Always to the Living Generation: The Constitution of Virginia – Past, Present, and Future." His theme was the tension in Virginia's constitutional history between continuity, as reflected in George Mason's reference to a "frequent recurrence to fundamental principles," and change, as exemplified in Jefferson's call for each generation to rewrite the Constitution. Howard then moderated a discussion with Virginia Supreme Court Judge Elizabeth Lacey and Richmond attorney Lane Kneedler ’69.

At the Law School, Howard spoke at and moderated the annual Supreme Court Roundup. He looked at the Roberts Court through the lens of its most recent term. He was followed by Kerry Abrams and Mimi Riley, who analyzed the Arizona immigration case and the health care decision.

Also in Charlottesville, Howard addressed the University’s Thomas Jefferson Society of Alumni on "The Changing Face of the Supreme Court." He focused on what has changed – both in the cases and in how the Court does its business – since the days of the Warren Court.

During the Law School's reunion weekend, Howard spoke at the Class of 1962's 50th reunion dinner. Also, under the auspices of the National Security Law Institute, Howard lectured on "Revolutions and Constitutions," including a look at developments since the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt and other countries in the region.

Among Howard's recent publications is "The Constitution and the Role of Government," in the Charleston Law Review. In this article, based on his keynote address at a conference in Charleston on "The Role of Government," Howard explores the ways in which conservatives have sought to roll back the legacy of the Warren Court, including the emergence of conservative public interest law firms, the doctrine of originalism, and networking through such groups as the Federalist Society. Another article, this one on the Supreme Court's 2010-11 term and the emerging Roberts Court, appears in the online version of the Virginia Law Review.

John JeffriesIn October John Jeffries ’73 served as senior scholar for the Fifth Annual Federal Courts Junior Workshop in Williamsburg. Junior federal courts scholars submit papers and the senior scholars comment on them. He also spoke in Washington, D.C., at the presentation of the Lee Integrity Award to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Jeffries’ article, "The Liability Rule for Constitutional Torts," has been accepted by the Virginia Law Review for publication next spring and is available now via SSRN.

Edward KleesMIT Press just published a book that Edward Klees co-wrote (with Nobel Prize winning scientist Bob Horvitz) on biomedical consulting. Science magazine published in October an article by Klees and Horvitz on the same topic.

douglas laycockIn May Douglas Laycock spoke in Washington, D.C., on “No Exemption to the Rule? A Debate on Religious Liberty,” co-sponsored by the American Constitution Society and the American Jewish Committee; on “Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly,” co-sponsored by the Federalist Society and the American Enterprise Institute; and on “Religious Liberty in 2012: Still the First Freedom?,” sponsored by Catholic University.

In September Laycock delivered the Constitution Day Lecture at Mercer University Law School on “The Constitution and the Culture Wars – With Special Attention to the Religion Clauses;” spoke to the UVA Wesley Foundation onReligious Liberty and the Culture Wars;” and commented for the UVA Federalist Society on Timothy Carney’s presentation, “How Government Intervention Rewards Lobbyists and Lawyers and Punishes Entrepreneurs and Innovators – Thus Hurting the Whole Economy.”

In October Laycock spoke on “European and American Models of Religious Freedom: The Future of Religious Autonomy” at a conference in Washington jointly sponsored by the Georgetown and Brigham Young Law Schools. That evening, he received the J. Reuben Clark Society’s International Religious Liberty Award. In November Laycock gave the David C. Baum Memorial Lecture on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, at the University of Illinois Law School, on “Religious Liberty Through the Right End of the Telescope.”

He recently published “Restoring Restitution to the Canon” in the Michigan Law Review; “Hosanna-Tabor and the Ministerial Exception” in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy; “RLUIPA: Necessary, Modest, and Under-Enforced” in the Fordham Urban Law Journal (co-authored with Luke Goodrich); and “Clause for Concern” in the Cavalier Daily. He was on the brief for the University of Texas in Fisher v. University of Texas in the Supreme Court, yet another case challenging affirmative action in university admissions.

David MartinDavid A. Martin completed, with his co-authors, the seventh edition of Immigration and Citizenship: Process and Policy, a leading casebook in the field. It was published by West in early 2012.

Martin published a brief essay titled “Reading Arizona” in the Virginia Law Review on the Supreme Court’s decision that struck down three of the four challenged provisions of Arizona’s restrictive immigration legislation. (As principal deputy general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security, while on leave from the Law School in 2009-10, Martin had been involved in the federal government’s early decisionmaking on the case.)

Martin also participated in three Law School panels over the spring and fall semesters regarding the case, and he was invited to address the ABA’s Winter Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas in January on similar issues as part of a panel on “Legal Challenges to State Immigration Legislation.”

In March Martin appeared as an invited speaker at the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law on a panel addressing “An Emerging International Law of Migration.” An essay based on his remarks will be published in the Proceedings as “Human Rights and Migration Management: Of Complexity, Balance, and Nuance.”

In May Martin was the dinner speaker for the Five-Country Conference, a periodic gathering of government officials who deal with migration and border security issues from the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. It was hosted by the Department of Homeland Security at the Boar’s Head Inn.

In June and July, Martin was often contacted and quoted by journalists analyzing the Obama Administration’s policy giving “deferred action,” a quasi-official immigration status, to so-called Dream Act kids – persons who came to the United States illegally before age 16 and who have been living here for at least five years. His analysis of the legal validity of the policy, “A Lawful Step for the Immigration System,” was published as an op-ed in the Washington Post.

In August Martin took part in an extended program on the deferred action policy, hosted in Washington, D.C., by the Migration Policy Institute. Martin also rejoined MPI that month as a nonresident fellow.

Dan MeadorIn July Dan Meador addressed the annual meeting of the Alabama State Bar on restructuring the U.S. Supreme Court.

greg mitchellGregory Mitchell is publishing chapters on the methods and limitations of behavioral law and economics in the Oxford Handbook of Behavioral Economics and Law (Eyal Zamir & Doron Teichman, eds., forthcoming 2013) and the Research Handbook on Behavioral Law and Economics (Joshua C. Teitelbaum & Kathryn Zeiler, eds., forthcoming 2013). In addition, Mitchell co-authored (with Philip Tetlock and Jason Anastasopoulos) an article titled "Detecting and Punishing Unconscious Bias," which was published in the Journal of Legal Studies.

john norton mooreJohn Norton Moore announced that the proceedings volume from the 2011 Sokol Colloquium, International Arbitration: Contemporary Issues, has gone to press. Papers from the 2012 Sokol Colloquium are currently under preparation and will be published early next year under the title Foreign Affairs Litigation in U.S. Courts. Just released is Maritime Border Diplomacy (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers). Co-edited by Moore and Myron Nordquist, the volume contains the papers from the 35th annual conference sponsored by the Center for Oceans Law and Policy which Moore directs. The papers examine critical issues in international maritime boundary disputes together with the important global role of Indonesia, whose maritime boundaries are imperative to its sovereign status identity.

This summer Moore published two articles underscoring the importance that the Senate give advice and consent to the Law of the Sea Convention. His rebuttal of Donald Rumsfeld’s anti-treaty statements was published as “Conservatives and the Law of the Sea Time Warp,” in the Wall Street Journal in July; and later that month in the Huffington Post his piece “Restoring America’s Oceans Leadership.”

John MorleyIn 2012 John Morley presented papers at American Law and Economics Association annual meeting; Colorado Law School Junior Business Law Conference; Columbia Law School Blue Sky Workshop; Harvard Law School Law and Economics Seminar; UCLA Junior Business Law Faculty Forum; Yale Law School Weil Gotshal Corporate Law Roundtable; Yale Law School Law Economics and Organization Workshop.

Morley’s “An Empirical Study of Mutual Fund Excessive Fee Litigation: Do the Merits Matter?” (with Quinn Curtis) will be published in the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization (forthcoming 2014); and “The Regulation of Mutual Fund Debt” in the Yale Journal of Regulation (forthcoming 2013), also featured in the Financial Times.

tom nachbarThis fall Tom Nachbar’s second paper on counterinsurgency, “The Use of Law in Counterinsurgency” will be published in the Military Law Review. A paper he wrote in conjunction with his service as an Army Reserve judge advocate, “Executive Branch Policy Meets International Law in the Evolution of the Domestic Law of Detention,” will be published in the Virginia Journal of International Law.

Dotan OliarEarlier this year Dotan Oliar published “The Copyright-Innovation Trade-Off: Property Rules, Liability Rules, and Intentional Infliction of Harm” in the Stanford Law Review. The article studies the recurring pattern in which new technologies of copying and dissemination – such as radio, TV, Xerox machines, VCRs, and the internet – disrupt preexisting business models in the entertainment industry, and how copyright law should deal with it. In June he presented this paper in the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzlia, Israel.

Dan OrtizDan Ortiz will be publishing “El Procedimiento Administrativo en los Estados Unidos de América: una introducción a la Administrative Procedure Act” in Ensayos sobre el Procedimiento Administrativo: Procedimiento administrativo en el derecho comparado (Héctor M. Pozo Gowland et al. eds. 2013) (with Juan Cruz Azzarri); “Discrimination in Employment—Description and Legal Responses” in the Wiley Encyclopedia of Management (forthcoming 2013).

Ortiz has also published “The Informational Interest” in the Journal of Law & Politics; “Recovering the Individual in Politics” in the New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy; “Doctrina CHEVRON: Su Significado en el Derecho Estadounidense y su aplicabilidad en la Argentina” (with Juan Cruz Azzarri) in El Derecho.

Saikrishna PrakashSaikrishna Prakash published a book review with Mike Ramsey called “The Goldilocks Executive” in the Texas Law Review reviewing “The Executive Unbound” by Eric Posner and Adrivan Vermeule; an article with Neal Devins, “The Indefensible Duty to Defend” in the Columbia Law Review; and has two articles forthcoming in the Chicago Law Review, “Missing Links in President Obama's Evolution on Gay Marriage” and “Reverse Advisory Opinions” in the Chicago Law Review (with Neal Devins).

George RutherglenGeorge Rutherglen has published a book this fall with Oxford University Press entitled, Civil Rights in the Shadow of Slavery: The Constitution, Common Law, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866. A related article of his, "The Thirteenth Amendment, the Power of Congress, and Shifting Sources of Civil Rights Law," is coming out at the same time in the Columbia Law Review.

Jim RyanJim Ryan ’92 continues to serve on the Equity and Excellence Commission, appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education, which is examining ways to make the nation’s education system more equitable and efficient. He also remains a board member on the Maya Angelou Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville, and the Tapestry Project in New York City (the last is dedicated to promoting integrated charter schools).

In May Ryan published an op-ed in the New York Times, entitled "Romney's School Surprise," which analyzed Mitt Romney's education plan; and is publishing an article next year in the Georgetown Law Journal, entitled "Poverty as Disability and the Future of Special Education Law."

Next March Ryan will participate in two conferences at the University of Richmond. The first addresses the legacy of San Antonio v. Rodriguez, a 1973 Supreme Court decision regarding school funding, and the second addresses school desegregation in the Richmond schools in the early 1970s. He is also giving a talk on Neuroscience and Special Education Law at the Florida State University College of Law.

This marks Ryan’s fourth year as director of the Law School’s Program in Law and Public Service.

Gil SiegalGil Siegal is chairing the organizing committee of the Third National Conference on Genetics, Ethics and the Law, to be held at the Law School next May.

He has also published (with Mark Rothstein) “The Duty to Notify” in the Houston Journal of Health Law & Policy; “Jump-Starting Telemedicine” in the Ear, Nose & Throat Journal; “Enabling Globalization of Health Care in the Information Technology Era” in the Virginia Journal of Law & Technology; and (Richard J. Bonnie and Paul S. Appelbaum) “Personalized Disclosure by Information-on-Demand: Attending to Patients’ Needs in the Informed Consent Process” in the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics.

Chris SprigmanIn September Oxford University Press published the new book Chris Sprigman has co-authored with Kal Raustiala of UCLA – The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation. The Knockoff Economy has been covered in the Wall Street Journal, NPR's Morning Edition, Marketplace Radio, NPR's All Things Considered, the Los Angeles Times, The Daily Beast, Time Magazine, the Freakonomics blog, Bloomberg Law, the New York Times Magazine, NPR's Planet Money, ABC News, Fast Company, Wired, WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show, Forbes, and a number of other media outlets.

In November Sprigman also presented a new paper, "What's a Name Worth? Experimental Tests of the Value of Attribution in Intellectual Property" (co-authored with Chris Buccafusco and Zach Burns), at the annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies at Stanford.

Paul StephanAt the midyear meeting of the American Society of International Law, hosted by the University of Georgia Law School, Paul Stephan ’77 moderated a panel on new approaches to international and transnational litigation.

In October Stephan participated in a panel for international law weekend in New York City, organized by the American Branch of the International Law Association, on the constitutional issue left open by the Supreme Court’s decision in Zivotofsky v. Clinton.

At a meeting in November of the International Economic Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law, hosted by the George Washington University Law School, Stephan will be on a panel on the extension of permanent normal trade relations to Russia. He will also be presenting a paper on international lawmaking by domestic courts and international tribunals, and will give a talk at Seville University in Spain on the role of tax policy in addressing a financial crisis.

Pierre-Hughes VerdierPierre-Hugues Verdier completed an article entitled “The Political Economy of International Financial Regulation,” which will appear in the Indiana Law Journal in 2013. The article examines the evolution of the current system of international financial regulation, from its beginnings with informal meetings of regulators in the 1970s to today’s elaborate “network of networks” coordinated by the Group of 20 and the Financial Stability Board. It argues that despite the adoption of many new standards after the recent financial crisis, the current system remains constrained by history and politics and its success varies considerably across areas of financial regulation.Verdier also wrote a chapter on U.S. implementation of the Basel II international bank capital accord for a book published by Oxford University Press, which will appear in late 2012.

In addition to his work on international financial regulation, Verdier is also working on other international law issues. He is currently working, along with Erik Voeten of Georgetown University, on the first systematic empirical study of customary international law. The study examines how the customary rule of foreign state immunity evolved over the course of the 20thcentury, based on a new survey of the practice of over 100 states. The article will propose a novel theory of compliance with, and change in, customary international law that is supported by the empirical findings. The paper was accepted for the American Political Science Association’s 2012 Annual Meeting, and Verdier and Voeten will be presenting it this year at conferences sponsored by the Wharton School, the University of Colorado, and the American Society of International Law, and Brooklyn Law School, among others.

Mila VersteegOver the past year, Mila Versteeg has prepared several papers in the field of comparative constitutional law, which were published – or are now forthcoming – in the NYU Law Review (2012), the Journal of Legal Studies (2012), California Law Review (2013), UCLA Law Review (2013), NYU Law Review online (2012), and in three edited volumes (all with Cambridge University Press). One article, "The Declining Influence of the United States Constitution" (co-authored with David S. Law), was featured on the front page of the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, and in other media.

Over the past year, Versteeg collaborated with University of Oxford to host a series of workshops on the "Social and Political Foundations of Constitutions," which culminated in an edited volume now forthcoming with Cambridge University Press (edited with Denis Galligan). Versteeg organized a conference hosted at the Law School this February on "Constitution-Making and the Arab Spring." Versteeg also presented papers at the annual Conference for Empirical Legal Studies, the International Conference on Law and Society, the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, a workshop on constitution-making in authoritarian regimes at the University of Chicago Law School, the University of Texas School of Law's Workshop on Law and Economics, the faculty workshop of IMT Lucca (Italy), the University of Wisconsin's "Con Law Schmooze," and the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.

This year, Versteeg is working on the issues involving the rise of populist movements around the world and how those movements utilize constitutions to advance their agendas. She is also working on a project addressing the relationship between international human rights law and comparative constitutional law.

Together with Kevin Cope, Versteeg is exploring funding options for a new data project on constitutional interpretation (both judicial and administrative) around the world.

Ted WhiteIn February Ted White’s book, Law in American History: From the Colonial Years Through the Civil War was published (Oxford University Press). The Law School held a panel discussion of that book, featuring Tomiko Brown-Nagin, currently of the Harvard Law School faculty, Alfred S. Konefsky of the Buffalo Law School faculty, and John Witt of the Yale Law School faculty. Liz Magill ’95 served as moderator.

In March and April White was the Legal Research Foundation Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Auckland Law School in New Zealand. While there he gave two public lectures and a staff seminar. The lectures were a comparison of the New Zealand and United States experience with no-fault insurance and a survey of the historical context of bicameralism in America. The staff seminar was on "Pitfalls for Judicial Biography."

In September his article, "West Coast Hotel's Place in American Constitutional History," appeared in volume 122 of the Yale Law Journal online.

His book, American Legal History: A Very Short Introductionis scheduled to be published by Oxford University Press later this year or in early 2013.

Next January White will be presenting a paper, "The Origins of Civil Rights in America," at New York University Law School. Next April he will give a talk about his Law and American History volume at Case Western Reserve Law School.

Ethan YaleIn January Ethan Yale presented his paper “Defining ‘Partnership’ for Federal Tax Purposes” at Northwestern. In September he presented at a Harvard colloquium on tax law and policy his work in progress tentatively entitled “Taxing Market Discount on Distressed Debt.”

George YinGeorge Yin completed a draft article on the origins of the Joint Committee on Taxation, a Congressional committee whose staff has played a prominent role in the tax legislative process for over 85 years. The staff, which Yin headed from 2003-05 while on leave from the Law School, helps conceive, analyze, and evaluate many tax policy options for Congress, provides the official revenue estimates for all proposed tax changes, and assists with all of the legislative tasks necessary for enactment of a bill. The article shows how creation of the committee and its staff developed from a feud between James Couzens (a Republican Senator from Michigan) and Andrew Mellon (then Secretary of the Treasury), which led to an investigation of the tax agency by Couzens and a tax lawsuit (characterized by one newspaper as the “greatest tax suit in the history of the world”) filed against Couzens. The events – filled with political intrigue, backstabbing (real or imagined), and unintended consequences – antagonized Congress’s relationship with the executive branch, but improved cooperation between the House and Senate, and both were instrumental in the committee’s creation.

This fall Yin presented the draft to a tax symposium in New York City (jointly sponsored by the NYU and UCLA law schools) on “The Internal Revenue Code at 100;” and to a tax policy workshop at Boston College Law School. Yin presented an earlier draft at Duke Law School and to the UVA law faculty.

Yin also presented a paper on “Legislative Gridlock and Nonpartisan Staff” to a symposium at Notre Dame Law School this fall. His paper explores a proposal to reduce gridlock by using nonpartisan staff in Congress (as one way to diminish the role of the political parties in the legislature). He explains some of the theoretical and practical issues that would arise with such a change.

Yin’s article, “Principles and Practices to Enhance Compliance and Enforcement of the Personal Income Tax,” was published in 2012 by the Virginia Tax Review. He presented a draft of the paper last year to a tax conference in China involving many representatives of the Chinese government.

Finally, Yin will be participating in a conference early next year sponsored by the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.