Faculty Notes: June 2017

Faculty Forum is a monthly feature written by Teri Baxter highlighting the achievements of faculty at UT Law including publications in academia and the media, speaking engagements, interviews, awards, and other accomplishments. 

The Wisconsin International Law Journal recently published Professor Robert Blitt’s article Equality and Nondiscrimination through the Eyes of an International Religious Organization: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Response to Women’s Rights. The article addresses the Organization for Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) engagement with international human rights norms relating to equality and nondiscrimination. After sketching a history of the OIC’s early interactions in the field of international human rights, the article turns to examine the organization’s contemporary practices as manifested in debates surrounding women’s rights as well as the relevance and impact of “Islamic family values” on the scope of those rights. This exploration of “family values” also serves as a pivot point to begin framing rights issues related to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) individuals and related SOGI issues that will be addressed in a forthcoming article.

On June 8-9, Professor Joan Heminway gave, moderated, and attended presentations at the 2018 National Business Law Scholars Conference, held in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Her presentation, entitled “With Friends (and Family) Like This . . . : Tipping and Misappropriation in Personal Networks,” focused on an ongoing project relating to insider trading misappropriation and tipping cases involving friends and family—people in close personal relationships.  The panel she moderated featured scholarly projects at the intersection of business law and social activism.  Professor Heminway serves on the planning committee for the conference, which will be held at the University of Georgia School of Law in 2018.

 Last month Professor Brian Krumm facilitated the Business Transactional Law breakout sessions at the AALS Clinical Conference. He also served as a discussant on trademark and consumer protection panels.  More recently, Professor Krumm was a moderator for the panel Establishing and Evaluating Core Skills and Competencies for Transactional Clinics, at the Transactional Clinical Conference held at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, June 2, 2017.

Professor Bill Mercer recently appeared on Professor Stewart Harris’ radio program (Your Weekly Constitutional) to promote his book, Diminishing the Bill of Rights: Barron v. Baltimore and the Foundations of American Liberty. It appears as a two-part episode, available on iTunes and here: Part I and Part II.

A recent opinion issued by Judge John Tharpe, Jr. in the Northern District of Illinois cited Professor Gary Pulsinelli’s article Happy Together? The Uneasy Coexistence of Federal and State Protection for Sound Recordings, 82 Tenn. L. Rev. 167, 200-204 (2014). Judge Tharpe identified Professor Pulsinelli as one of the scholars who has “noted the potentially devastating consequences of a regime in which national broadcasts generate liability in some states and not in others.”

Professor Greg Stein’s review article, The Sticks in the Chinese Property Rights Bundle, has been published in Jotwell.  The article reviews Professor Shitong Qiao’s chapter, The Evolution of Chinese Property Law: Stick by Stick?,  which appears in Private Law in China and Taiwan: Legal and Economic Analyses (Yun-chien Chang et al. eds., Cambridge University Press 2017). Professor Stein’s article comments on the many ways in which Qiao’s chapter contributes to property scholarship, including Qiao’s reminder “that scholarship focusing on Western attitudes toward property can easily overlook non-Western cultures and legal systems.”

Dean Melanie Wilson was featured in the Knoxville News-Sentinel story: “Meet the Knoxville members of Leadership Tennessee’s 2017-18 class.” Leadership Tennessee is a program that aims to create a network of business, nonprofit and education and government leaders across the state. Dean Wilson is one of 42 members of the 2017-2018 class, which “provides collaborative learning and dialogue spanning the state and opportunities to affect change.”