Mortimer Caplin Awarded the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Law

Mortimer Caplin, University of Virginia alumnus and former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, received the 2001 Thomas Jefferson Medal in Law. The Thomas Jefferson Medals in Architecture and Law are the highest outside honors bestowed by U.Va., which grants no honorary degrees.

Sponsored jointly by the University and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Inc., the non-profit organization that owns and operates Monticello, the awards are part of the University's annual Founder's Day celebration. In his medal lecture, delivered in the Law School's Caplin Pavilion at 3:30 p.m., on Thursday, April 12, Caplin spoke on "The State of Lawyering". See Inside UVa article.

Law School Campaign Far Surpasses Original Goal And All Expectations

Law School Dean Robert E. Scott announced the close of the school’s seven-year fund-raising campaign with a record-setting $202 million. That number, which far exceeds the campaign’s original $50 million goal, places the U.Va. Law School at the top of law school fund-raising efforts nationwide. For details, see the Richmond Times-Dispatch article.

Donna Brazile Reviews the Gore/Lieberman 2000 Campaign

In a talk delivered on March 28 in Caplin Pavilion, Donna Brazile suggested that if Gore and Lieberman had moved their campaign to Tennessee earlier, they might have won Tennessee and Arkansas. Florida would then not have been so important to the outcome. The Gore campaign lost money in its early days to the high overhead expense of maintaining headquarters in Washington, D.C. Brazile noted that the right wing of the Repulican party decided to support Bush early on, without subjecting him to a litmus test, which combined with Bush's $100,000,000 coffer to give him an early advantage. By March 2000, Bush was already able to begin blurring the differences between himself and Gore. more . . .

Yes, Juries Sometimes Talk About Things They're Told Not To

Empirical evidence says that some attempts by judges to control jury deliberations fail, Shari Diamond, professor of law at Northwestern University told other legal scholars at a conference February 23 and 24 that examined new perspectives on evidence. Diamond and Neil Vidmar of the Duke University law school are researching how juries deliberate civil cases in Arizona. They are especially interested in the results of judges' efforts to enforce their jurisdiction's evidence rules by "blindfolding" juries -- excluding evidence that might influence their decisions in legally unacceptable ways. They presented a draft version of their study findings that blindfolding often doesn't work. more . . .

Are Private Security Forces Sometimes Preferable to National Military Forces?

The supply of private security forces and the demand for them are growing by leaps and bounds. Trying to eliminate them is like trying to eliminate prostitution, said Herbert Howe, a professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. We can ignore them or ban them (which pushes them into the shadows) or we can regulate them. Howe's remarks came during a panel discussion on February 24, as part of the Fiftieth Anniversary Symposium of the John Bassett Moore Society of International Law. Joining Howe were Frank Fountain, a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, and Christopher Coker, of the London School of Economics. All three panelists considered the use of market-driven, private security forces an acceptable alternative to the use of national military forces. more . . .

Weddington Calls Upon Law Students to Be Public Citizens

"I know I can't solve the problems I have been working on for 30 years, and you are the ones who will inherit my issues and many others," Sarah Weddington, who argued Roe vs. Wade before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973, told an eager crowd of law students at this year's Conference on Public Service and the Law. more . . .

International Disputes Should Be Steered Into Legal Forums, Berger Says

America must rely more on persuasion to have its way in the world since the end of the Cold War, former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger told a student crowd in Caplin Pavilion February 26 in a visit arranged by the Law Democrats. Berger encourages young lawyers to pursue diplomatic careers, where their training in analytical thought can help pinpoint and resolve international problems. more . . .

John Jeffries to be Dean of UVa Law School

Constitutional law expert John C. Jeffries Jr. will be the next dean of the School of Law, U.Va. President John T. Casteen III announced February 22. Jeffries, who joined the Virginia law faculty in 1975, is the Emerson Spies Professor and the William L. Matheson and Robert M. Morgenthau Distinguished Professor. He served as academic associate dean from 1994 to 1999, and as acting dean in the fall of 1999. He will become the Law School's tenth dean when he takes over on July 1 from Robert E. Scott, dean since 1991. more . . .

Seek Justice,
Rescue the Oppressed

American lawyers are rescuing vulnerable and powerless people held in slavery, sexual bondage or false imprisonment in countries around the world by applying their law school training, according to Gary Haugen, president and founder of the International Justice Mission. A studious, intentional investigation of facts -- techniques taught in law school -- can bring the simple power of truth to bear on victims' behalf, he told a mainly student audience February 20. more . . .

"New Perspectives on Evidence:
Experts, Empirical Study and Economics"
Olin Conference February 23-24

The John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics and the Virginia Law Review will host a conference at the Law School on "New Perspectives on Evidence: Experts, Empirical Study and Economics." In recent years, interest has grown in analyzing evidentiary rules with interdisciplinary techniques and insights from fields as varied as law-and-economics, philosophy and behavioral psychology. There has also been renewed interest in the empirical study of juries and the practical effects of evidentiary rules. In the last decade, expert evidence and the dilemmas raised by the use of specialized knowledge within a lay system of justice have gained more practical and intellectual significance. This year’s Olin conference will give leading evidence scholars, psychologists, sociologists, and philosophers an opportunity to illustrate and reflect upon these varied developments in evidence scholarship. Schedule

Human Rights and Psychiatry:
The Totalitarian Experience

Soviet use of psychiatry for political repression was a predictable symptom of totalitarianism, according to celebrated Ukrainian human rights leader Dr. Semyon Gluzman. Dr. Gluzman delivered the ninth biennial Hoffman Memorial Lecture at the Law School February 15. more . . .

U.Va. Law Student to Show Award-Winning Bosnia Video

Interests in justice and filmmaking led Cristian DeFrancia, a third-year U.Va. Law student, to make "Mirror to History: Confronting War Crimes in Bosnia." The film was named Best Political Documentary by the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival last July. Inside UVa article

1929 And All That: Revisiting the New Deal Securities Reforms

The conventional notion that the stock market's infamous crash in October 1929 was caused by its own corrupt habit of withholding critical information from investors, or flat out lying about it, is "demonstrably false," according to professor Paul G. Mahoney, who went on to demonstrate the point in a lecture to a packed house in Caplin Pavilion January 29. more . . .