First Monday - December 1, 2008

In this issue:

• Notable Speakers Bring Diverse Perspectives to College of Law
• “Second Century” Update: Idaho Supreme Court Submits Budget Request for Continued Planning of Idaho Law Learning Center

Notable Speakers Bring Diverse Perspectives to College of Law

As befits an open and vigorous academic community, the College recently has welcomed guest speakers on topics ranging from international human rights to federal judicial selection and to the rapidly growing science of comparative genomics. Here are a few examples of special lectures enriching our students’ education and their professional development:

• During the week of the University of Idaho’s 2008 Borah Symposium, Dr. Kenneth Attafuah spoke in the College of Law courtroom on "The Role of Law in Post-Conflict Reconciliation in Ghana and Liberia.” A lawyer and human rights leader, Dr. Attafuah served as Executive Secretary of Ghana’s National Reconciliation Commission from 2002 to 2004. During the same week, F. W. deClerk, past president of South Africa, spoke at the University of Idaho Student Union Building on the end of apartheid and the process of reconciliation in that country. In 1993 President deKlerk, who is also a lawyer, shared the Noble Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela for his role in creating an apartheid-free South Africa. The Borah Symposium is co-sponsored by the College of Law.
• The Federalist Society, which maintains an active branch at the College of Law, recently hosted Professor Tuan Samahon of the William Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada/Las Vegas. A nationally recognized scholar on constitutional law, Professor Samahon is a graduate of Brigham Young University and the Georgetown University Law Center (where he was co-awarded the Olin Prize in Law & Economics). He spoke in Moscow on federal judicial appointments and the future of the “advise and consent” process.
• Our on-line student publication “the crit,” a forum for critical legal studies, celebrated its inaugural edition this fall. The celebratory event was keynoted in the College of Law courtroom by Karen Engle, Cecil D. Redford Professor of Law at the University of Texas. Professor Engle is the director and a co-founded of the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice. She also is a senior fellow at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law.
• Congressman Bill Sali (UI Law ’84) provided guest remarks in the Administrative Law course taught by Professor/Associate Dean Richard Seamon. He focused on statutory delegation of authority to federal administrative agencies and on legislative oversight of those agencies. Congressman Sali has served as a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
• Susan Nathan, author of “The Other Side of Israel: My Journey Across the Jewish-Arab Divide,” spoke in October at UI Administration Building Auditorium. In her appearance, co-sponsored by the College of Law along with several colleges of the University of Idaho and Washington State University, Ms. Nathan described Israeli-Palestinian relations from the unique on-the-ground perspective of a Jewish Israeli living in a Palestinian town in Israel. She also discussed upcoming testimony on the same topic that she will present at the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
• In September our Professor Angelique EagleWoman convened a special session of her Native American Law course featuring a panel of four distinguished tribal court judges: Hon. Fred Gabourie, Sr. (Retired Chief Judge of the Kootenai Tribal Court), Hon. Cynthia Jordan (Chief Judge of the Kootenai Tribal Court), Hon. Earl McGeoghen (Judge of the Nez Perce Tribal Court), and Hon. Mary Pearson (Chief Judge of the Coeur d’Alene Tribal Court). The panel discussed issues in tribal justice and multicultural understanding as well as processes for law graduates to become licensed to practice in the tribal courts.
• In October, Paul C. Feinberg, Managing Counsel in the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s regional Office of Chief Counsel at Las Vegas, traveled to Moscow and conducted an on-site colloquium with students in the College of Law low-income taxpayer legal clinic. In the course of his presentation on practical aspects of litigation in the U.S. Tax Court, Mr. Feinberg commended the quality of work performed by Idaho students.
• Also in October, Dr. Tibor Fedke, a corporate attorney specializing in mergers and acquisitions at the Berlin office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (one of the world's leading firms focusing on international business law) spoke to students on the topic “International Law & Corporate Law Practice: What Challenges (and Opportunities) are Posed by the Crisis in Financial Markets?”
• In November, the College of Law joined the UI Department of Biological Sciences in presenting an interdisciplinary lecture by Dr. Jacques Ravel, nationally renowned forensic science expert from the University of Maryland. Dr. Ravel spoke on anthrax terrorism and the genomics study commissioned by the FBI in response to the anthrax attacks that occurred after September 11, 2001. Dr. Ravel, who led that effort, discussed the impact of comparative genomics on the investigation and its role in assisting the FBI in ultimately identifying the individual responsible for the attacks. The methods developed by Dr. Ravel are expected to have significant implications for criminal and civil litigation in the coming years.
• And today (December 1), William Schurtman, Of Counsel to the international law firm of Alston & Bird (New York City office), spoke to faculty and students on international arbitration and mediation. Mr. Schurtman, formerly an active litigator in commercial, product liability, and intellectual property cases, now devotes his time to resolution of international disputes and to pro bono litigation.

“Second Century” Update: Idaho Supreme Court Submits Budget Request for Continued Planning of Idaho Law Learning Center

The Idaho Supreme Court has submitted the Judicial Branch’s budget request for funding in Fiscal Year 2010 to continue planning an Idaho Law Learning Center in conjunction with the “second century” initiative of the College of Law. The College was authorized by the Idaho State Board of Education (the University’s Board of Regents), on August 21, 2008, to engage in this collaborative process with the Supreme Court. Planning for the Learning Center, a multipurpose facility, has been supported by the Permanent Building Fund. The Supreme Court’s budget request contains the following description of the Learning Center’s purposes and components:

“… to enhance legal and judicial education in Idaho, to provide law related educational outreach to all Idaho communities and other colleges and universities, and to relocate and upgrade the State Law Library among other important goals. The proposed Idaho Law Learning Center will include a Law Library shared by the College of Law, its faculty and students, the Supreme Court, and its law clerks and court staff, legislators, members of the bar, and the general public, as well as education and training classrooms for shared use by the Law School, courts, libraries, and other public groups, to include state-of-the-art distance learning and on-line learning capabilities, and faculty and staff offices, work centers, and requisite office, gathering, and storage spaces.”