Professor Ediberto Roman responds to Aníbal de Castro’s – the Dominican Republic’s Ambassador to the United States  – January 23rd, 2014 op-ed piece in The Miami Herald. Read the blog here.

Professor Cyra Choudhury was given a substantial grant by the Harvard Institute of Global Law and Policy to co-organize a two-day conference on June 2-3 entitled, Critical Approaches to Islamic Law and Policy. The conference will bring together leading senior scholars as well as junior scholars from Asia, Africa, Europe and North America to explore current thinking in the field of Islamic Law and Policy. Professor Choudhury will also be organizing and leading a three-day workshop for the Islamic Law and Policy research group to collaborate on a joint publication and to explore ongoing research in the upcoming year. The research group was organized at the IGLP 2014 Workshop in Doha earlier this year and Professor Choudhury, who leads the research group, will continue to foster collaborative research and publication amongst workshop participants and alumni.

Professor M.C. Mirow recently published two chapters in a book on law and globalization entitled Globalización, Derecho Supranacional e Integración Americana (México: Porrúa/Escuela Libre de Derecho, 2013).   One chapter, “Globalización y la educación legal en los EE.UU.,” criticizes the tepid attempts by the American Association of Law Schools to address globalization at its annual meeting in 2013, and the other, “Épocas en la historia del derecho de los EE.UU.,” provides a brief introduction to United States legal history.  The volume was the result of a conference celebrating the centennial anniversary of the Escuela Libre de Derecho, and Mirow was one of only two scholars from the United States who presented at the conference.   The chapters may be read at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2188959  and http://ssrn.com/abstract=2188981.

In response to increased awareness about and the development of legislation to combat workplace bullying, a panel of three prominent practitioners will examine this complex and growing issue. Recognizing and addressing workplace bullying as well as the enforcement of laws and regulations under the NLRA and OSH will be discussed.

March 11, 2014 2:00 PM – 3:00pm ET (60 minute duration) Register here.

Moderator:      Lindsey Wagner, Cathleen Scott & Associates, Jupiter, FL
Speakers:         Monique Gougisha Doucette, Ogletree Deakins, New Orleans, LA,  Dr. Gary Namie, The Workplace Bullying Institute, Bellingham, WA and Kerri Stone, Florida International University, Miami, FL

Professor Cyra Choudhury has been invited to join the editorial board of the Journal of Research in Gender Studies. The journal is a double-blind, peer-reviewed bilingual interdisciplinary journal that aims to publish critical and theoretical constructive contributions across the large spectrum of humanities – literature, law, history, philosophy, religion, and visual and performing arts (including music and theatre), anthropology, area studies, communication studies, cultural studies, and linguistics, social sciences, behavioral sciences, medicine and public health, science and technology, democracy studies, women’s studies, men and masculinity studies, and queer studies. In joining the board, Prof. Choudhury will help to shape decisions about the journal’s editorial policy and will read scholarly contributions for inclusion in the journal.

On Saturday, March 15, 2014 the Haitian Lawyers Association (HLA) recognized three individuals with ties to FIU Law. During their 16^th annual Scholarship Gala, alumna Fritznie Jarbath ’11 was recognized as HLA’s incoming president; Professor Ediberto Roman was honored for his impact on immigration reform; and for his academic achievements, second-year FIU Law student Guybert “Jimmy” Paul, received one of four scholarships. Congratulations, to the honorees!

The Haitian Lawyers Association (HLA) is a non-profit membership organization whose mission is to promote excellence, professionalism, equality and diversity in the legal profession and among our members and to facilitate the administration of justice while striving to protect and promote the general welfare of the Haitian-American community and other minority residents in the South Florida area.

On March 20, 2014, Visiting Professor Charles C. Jalloh’s edited book, The Sierra Leone Special Court and Its Legacy: The Impact for Africa and International Criminal Law (Cambridge University Press, 2014) will be launched at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

See the event announcement here.

FIU Law Professor Kerri Stone’s recent article, “Teaching the Post-sex Generation” in the Saint Louis University Law Journal is available here.

On March 25, 2014, as part of the IPCLS panel at St. Thomas University College of Law, Professor OseiTutu presented on hot topics in intellectual property and pathways to a career in intellectual property.

Professor H. Scott Fingerhut has been appointed by Florida Bar President-Elect Gregory W. Coleman to serve as Vice Chair of the Bar’s Criminal Procedure Rules Committee, for a one-year term, and to the Bar’s Student Education & Admissions to The Bar Committee, for a three-year term.

The scope and function of the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee is to carry out the mandate of the Florida Rules of Judicial Administration to propose new procedural rules, along with changes to existing rules, in order to foster a criminal justice system that fairly adjudicates the guilty while doing its level best to extricate the innocent.

The Bar’s Student Education & Bar Admissions Committee determines whether law schools are adequately preparing their students for the practice of law – and if it is concluded they are not, to make specific recommendations to the Bar’s Board of Governors and law school deans.  The committee also monitors and reviews proposed legislation affecting legal education and establishes a means to track the success of minority scholarships in an effort to help institutions maximize program benefits.

Professor Fingerhut previously served three terms as Vice Chair as well as Chair of the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee. He has also served on The Florida Bar Journal & News Editorial Board.

Professor Fingerhut teaches Trial Advocacy, Pretrial Practice and Criminal Procedure.

In April 1994, the hard line elements of the Hutu-dominated Rwandan government incited the population to commit one of the most ruthless genocides in history. The 1994 genocide was no spontaneous outburst of tribal hatred in the heart of Africa but a carefully planned and orchestrated bloodbath. It was engineered for years by extremist political and military élites who did not want to share power or to reach a reasonable political compromise with their compatriots.

In just 100 days, starting on the night of April 6, 1994, between an estimated 800,000 and 1,000,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were slaughtered. They were assisted, and sometimes coerced, by military and paramilitary groups following government orders. As genocide took place right under its watch, the UN peacekeeping force stationed in Rwanda was ordered to stand down, its numbers reduced instead of increased. The Uganda-based Rwandan Patriotic Front, a military organization of mostly Tutsi refugees, eventually managed to take control of the country and end the mayhem.

April 2014 marks the 20^th anniversary of the Rwanda Genocide. The FIU College of Law, in cooperation with the International Law Students Association and the Jewish Law Students Association, are co-sponsoring an event on Tuesday, April 8, 2014, from 2 - 4 p.m., to commemorate the genocide. The purpose is to remember the genocide, consider what the international community has learned from it and what lessons have failed to take root. These lessons are especially pertinent in light of allegations of genocide and mass atrocities elsewhere – from Darfur to Syria to North Korea and beyond.

The FIU College of Law has a number of scholars with expertise on various aspects of the genocide and international criminal justice. Professor Charles Jalloh, who has recently accepted a permanent position on the FIU law faculty, is the convener. The faculty participants will include Professors Tay Ansah, Megan Fairlie, Matthew Mirow, Hannibal Travis, Noah Weisbord and, from the College of Arts and Sciences, Harry Rhea. Also invited, for the UN perspective, is Claudia Diaz, who works for the UN Office of the Special Advisor for Genocide Prevention.

The lessons of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide span several areas of law and the social sciences. The event is relevant and educational even to future attorneys and other FIU students who plan to work in areas of domestic practice as well as those from other departments interested in foreign policy, criminal justice, and African Studies. As the College of Law accentuates international law in the curriculum, an event on the 20^th anniversary seems particularly appropriate.

The event is free and open to the public; lunch and refreshments will be served.

The Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners has appointed Professor Laverne O. Pinkney to the Miami-Dade County Youth Crime Task Force (YCTF). Since 1197, YCTF has provided recommendations to the County Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners to address youth crime and violence programming needs, and has coordinated juvenile justice activities throughout the county.

Professor Pinkney serves as the director of FIU Law’s Family and Education Law Clinic.

In celebration of February’s Black History Month, Professor George Knox was recognized by Miami-Dade County Commissioner Jean Monestime for being an outstanding Miami-Dade citizen. Professor Knox, Dr. Shirley Johnson and former North Miami City Councilman Jacques Despinosse were presented with proclamations commemorating their important contributions to the community during the February 19th County Commission meeting.

According to a press release issued by the commissioner: “Professor Knox  is one of Miami’s most respected business community leaders and has been instrumental in shaping South Florida’s diverse economic landscape. A founding member of the Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority, he participated in the effort to attract and secure an NBA franchise for Miami (the Miami Heat) and was also part of the team that helped to bring major league baseball to South Florida. Mr. Knox, who was the first African American to join the faculty of the University Of Arkansas School Of Law and the first person of color to serve as a Department Head and as City Attorney for the City of Miami, now works as a visiting faculty member at the Florida International University College of Law and Director of Non-Litigation Advocacy Programs with the Center for Professionalism and Ethics.”

Professor M.C. Mirow recently published two chapters in a book on law and globalization entitled Globalización, Derecho Supranacional e Integración Americana (México: Porrúa/Escuela Libre de Derecho, 2013).   One chapter, “Globalización y la educación legal en los EE.UU.,” criticizes the tepid attempts by the American Association of Law Schools to address globalization at its annual meeting in 2013, and the other, “Épocas en la historia del derecho de los EE.UU.,” provides a brief introduction to United States legal history.  The volume was the result of a conference celebrating the centennial anniversary of the Escuela Libre de Derecho, and Mirow was one of only two scholars from the United States who presented at the conference.   The chapters may be read at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2188959  and http://ssrn.com/abstract=2188981.

Professor M.C. Mirow will receive the Golden Quill Award, Outstanding Florida History Article, for 2014 from the Florida Historical Society at the Society’s annual meeting next month.  The article “The Constitution of Cádiz in Florida” explores the constitutional history of St. Augustine and East Florida from 1812 to 1821, during Spanish rule of the region.  The article was published last year in the Florida Journal of International Law and may be found here. Mirow is also the author of the book Florida’s First Constitution, The Constitution of Cádiz: Introduction, Translation, and Text (2012).  “I am honored to have my scholarship recognized by the premier historical society of Florida.  While legal historians know a great deal about the colonial legal history of New York or Massachusetts for example, the materials for Florida have been unexplored and are equally as fascinating, complex, and integral to the legal, constitutional, and political history of United States.  Because a lot of the materials are in Spanish and deal with colonial Spanish law, special training is needed to read and to understand what you are looking at,” said Mirow.   He added, “I’ve been fortunate to have studied legal and Spanish palaeography at various stages in my career through York University’s Borthwick Institute and Cambridge University in England, and here in the States at the Newberry Library in Chicago.  All of this work has brought me back to the unexplored materials of colonial Florida.  It is, for me, my Atlantis, an undiscovered colonial legal world.”

Professor J. Osei-Tutu presented her new research project on the global criminalization of intellectual property at the 2014 Intellectual Property Scholars Roundtable at Drake Law in Des Moines, Iowa. The conference, which was held March 28 and 29, was attended by intellectual property academics from across the United States as well as from Canada, India and China.

Associate Professor Charles C. Jalloh has just published a comment on the Special Court for Sierra Leone’s last judgment in Prosecutor v. Charles Taylor in the American Journal of International Law (AJIL), January 2014, Volume 108, Number 1 at pp. 58-66. AJIL is widely considered the number 1 peer-reviewed international law journal in the world. The piece is posted on SSRN here.

You could have heard a pin drop inside FIU Law’s large courtroom as appellate attorneys, dressed in full military regalia, were preparing to argue the case of United States v. Jones before the five federal appellate judges that make up the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

There was one person in the courtroom who wasn’t dressed like the others.

He was Rey Martinez – a third-year FIU Law evening student – who was playing the part of amicus curiae (or friend of the court). As amicus, Martinez is not a party to the case but offers information that may assist the court in its final decision. 

It was an experience of a lifetime and one he volunteered to take on.

“This was one of the best experiences of my life. I was humbled and honored to be able to represent FIU Law in front of a federal court of appeals,” Martinez shared. “I felt like all of my hard work and time had paid off – and for those very brief 10 minutes, I was an attorney.”

FIU Law Professor Eric Carpenter, who teaches Evidence and Military Justice, is a former Judge Advocate and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel. With his ties to the military, Carpenter helped bring the hearing to FIU Law, which included an invitation for one student to serve as amicus. Martinez was inspired to take on the challenge while taking Carpenter’s Military Justice course.

The opportunity to use a law school student in a real-life hearing is part of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces’ Project Outreach program. The program allows law schools, military bases and other public facilities to be used as the courtroom for these hearings.

Unlike cases in traditional law school moot court competitions where the case in question is fictional, this case was real.

“[It’s] a real life federal bench, where someone’s life is at stake, someone who is facing real consequences.  This case has the potential to rewrite military law,” said Martinez.

Under the supervision of Professor Carpenter, Martinez wrote and submitted a 15-page brief. Although Martinez is not yet a licensed attorney, he argued confidently during his 10 minute presentation in court – which was often interrupted by questions fired by the judges.

“You could not tell that Mr. Martinez was a student rather than an experienced appellate litigator. He is an example of the great students that we have at FIU Law, and his performance should make us all proud,” said Carpenter.

“I spent hours reading any case the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces had written on the matter and studied the opinions. I had so much help from Professor Carpenter, my classmates, as well as other professors, namely, Professors Klion, Walter, Wasserman and Rickard, in mooting me and preparing to appear before the five judges. The professors asked the tough questions, and I felt confident standing in front of the court that I was prepared.”

The judges will issue an opinion within the next few months.

Judge Scott W. Stucky, who has served on the court since 2006, believes that moving from their home courthouse in Washington, D.C. to other locales and allowing law students to participate in the hearing is unique.

“I don’t know another court that does this,” said Judge Stucky.

For Martinez, appearing in front of a federal court won’t be a once in a lifetime experience – he hopes to one day achieve his dream of becoming a JAG officer.

“After the conclusion of the hearing, I was honored to receive a military challenge coin from the Court as well as to receive kind words from the judges and many high ranking military personnel from the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Professor Noah Weisbord designed and moderated a panel discussion at the 108th annual meeting of the American Society of International Law in Washington DC. The theme of the meeting was the effectiveness of international law and Professor Weisbord’s panel, addressing a packed room, compared law enforcement in the fields of international human rights and international trade. The speakers were Chantal Thomas (Cornell), Marco Bronkers (Leiden) and Jim Goldston (Open Society Justice Initiative).

Professor Mirow will speak in England next month on topics related to the legal history of colonial Spanish Florida.  The talk in Oxford, “Translating in Stone: The Monument to the Constitution of Cadiz in St. Augustine, Florida (1813-1814),” will place Florida’s unique monument to the constitution into legal, constitutional, and political context.  The talk is part of a conference of the University of Oxford’s Interdisciplinary Research Network Translations in Transnational Context. Mirow is one of 17 speakers from around the world and only one of two invited from the United States to present at the conference. 

The talk in Cambridge, “Law and Constitution in Spanish St. Augustine, 1783-1821,” addresses his attempts to reconstruct the legal and constitutional world of the city from primary sources, especially the East Florida Papers held in the Library of Congress.  The talk is part of the University of Cambridge Centre of Latin American Studies’ Easter Term Research Seminar. 

“I’m really happy to share my ideas about Florida’s colonial legal history with Latin Americanists in England.  We often forget that Florida has been Spanish longer than it has been part of the United States and that East Florida was the fourteenth loyal British colony from 1763 to 1783.  This gave the city and region a wonderfully mixed and complex population.  I’m interested in how law worked in this environment.  Although my focus is legal history, this work engages the scholarly community and all communities seeking to understand legal pluralism in pluralistic societies.  There are interesting parallels between St. Augustine two hundred years ago and Miami today,” said Mirow.