From the Director
Best wishes from the Stewart Center on the Global Legal Profession. With the global pandemic continuing, we hope that all of you are keeping healthy and safe during these trying times.
Of course, this summer has been one like no other; nevertheless we at the Stewart Center have sought to adapt and stay as productive as possible over the last three months. Below are some of the key highlights since we last connected. Stay safe and well,
Jayanth Krishnan
Milt and Judi Stewart Professor of Law
Director, Milt and Judi Stewart Center on the Global Legal Profession
Continued Focus on Immigration
In March, the Center released a study on the situation of those seeking asylum who are in need of legal representation. That paper will be published in the Ohio State Law Journal later this year. Then in June, a new study was released, which focused on the role of immigration judges in cases involving the "U visa," a particular pathway of protection for non-citizens who have been victims of abuse. The Administrative Law Review will be publishing that paper in 2021. And currently, we are undertaking a major project analyzing every publicly available case heard by the Board of Immigration Appeals that deals with non-citizens who are making claims based on ineffective assistance of counsel. The study will be released later this year.
Cooperation with Colleagues Domestically and Abroad
In conjunction with our partner institution in India, the O.P. Jindal Global University, the Center helped organize two major webinars, each of which drew over 2,000 attendees. The first was on April 18th and was entitled “Law Schools & Legal Careers in a Post-COVID-19 World,” with Professor Krishnan as one of the lead panelists. The second was held on April 25th and was entitled “The Future of Global Legal Education.” The Law School's dean, Professor Austen Parrish, was one of the keynote speakers.
In July, the Center, working with the Law School's Asian Pacific American Law Student Association (APALSA), co-hosted a virtual roundtable with Northeastern University Law School’s APALSA board to discuss the state of race relations and the role Asian Americans can play in this moment in light of the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. Professor Margaret Woo was the featured speaker. The two boards are planning a series of additional programs during the course of the academic year.
And during the last week of August, the Center continued its work with the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (Kaliningrad, Russia) by participating in a global conference entitled “Modern Technologies and Approaches in Legal Science and Education.” Professor Carwina Weng presented a talk on tools instructors can employ in their assessment of students during online contexts. Ms. Lara Gose discussed the importance of using language training to develop cultural competence. And Professor Krishnan spoke at the forum's opening plenary where he provided an overview of how law faculties in India are responding to global trends in legal education.
Individual Highlights
Several of our Center’s faculty have been extremely productive on research affecting the bar, bench, and law-and-society more broadly. Here is a sample of the influential work being done by our colleagues.
- Professor Charles Gardner Geyh was recently named an Indiana University Distinguished Professor and was the recipient of an Indiana University Bicentennial Medal. The third edition of his monograph, "Judicial Disqualification: An Analysis of Federal Law," was published by the Federal Judicial Center in August. He published a short piece in Judicature this summer entitled "Tweaking the Paradigm," which was drawn from a paper he presented last fall at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center.
In late February, Geyh delivered the Frank Battisti lecture at Case Western Reserve University Law School entitled "The Twilight of Judicial Independence," which will be published by the Case Western Reserve Law Review. Professor Geyh is also the lead author of the treatise, Judicial Conduct and Ethics, the 6th edition of which was submitted for publication in July. And he devoted his summer to writing an article for the University of Pennsylvania Law Review entitled, "The New Politics of Judicial Ethics," which he will present at a symposium in February 2021.
- Professor Ethan Michelson’s forthcoming Cambridge University Press book on the state of divorce in China, Decoupling: Gender Injustice in China’s Divorce Courts, will be out in 2021. His research on the topic was featured in The Economist, and a related but separate article entitled, “Decoupling: Marital Violence and the Struggle to Divorce in China,” was published by the American Journal of Sociology, where it received honorable mention for the 2020 Distinguished Article Award of the American Sociological Association’s Section on the Sociology of Law.
- Professor Christiana Ochoa’s article, “Contracts on the Seabed,” is set to come out in the Yale Journal of International Law later this year. This article addresses the urgent need for strong contracts between governments that plan to allow seabed mining as a path to economic development and the companies interested in accessing the valuable natural resources on the seabed within these countries’ sovereign control. Especially for countries with little experience with land based mining, or with thin regulatory infrastructure for seabed mining, such contracts will be indispensable in ensuring that countries considering seabed mining receive the economic benefits they have been promised, while also safeguarding the ocean on which the countries and their populations traditionally rely for their well-being.
- Professor Shruti Rana has had three recent publications, including “The Populist Backlash to Gender Equality in International Fora: Analyzing Resistance and Response at the United Nations,” in the Maryland Journal of International Law, “The Pandemic Paradox in International Law,” co-authored in the American Journal of International Law, and another co-authored piece, “Navigating the Backlash against Global Law and Institutions,” appearing in the Australian Yearbook of International Law.
- Professor Jeffrey Evans Stake's treatise, Trusts and Estates, was recently released by West Publishing. This important resource starts from the vantage point of examining “what is best for society,” as opposed to “what did the decedent want.” Even though the former is often inter-connected with the latter, this distinct approach is intentionally taken, with the aim of serving primarily as a teaching tool for instructors interested in conveying how the subject matter of trusts and estates has broader societal implications.