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Dean Announces Joint Venture with Cal Press
Paul Verkuil announced recently that Cardozo has entered into a relationship
with the University of California Press to publish Philosophy, Social Theory
and The Rule of Law - an international and inter-institutional series of
scholarly books. The series will be relaunched under the auspices of the
Jacob Burns Institute for Advanced Legal Studies.
Eric Smoodin, philosophy editor, University of California Press, said,
"We are convinced that it will be a successful and ongoing series for us.
The renewed interest that Cardozo has shown matches our own, and I'm especially
impressed by the ideas and quality of scholarship among the Cardozo editors."
Professors Arthur Jacobson and Michel Rosenfeld, who were among the
series founders, will remain on the editorial board, which will be expanded
to include Prof. Peter Goodrich and two members of the University of California
faculty. Eight books have already been published, and plans call for publishing
two or more books per year over the course of the five-year agreement.
These edited compilations introduce and make accessible European jurisprudence
and philosophy to an American audience while providing a focus for people
interested in the intersection of the three fields.
Professor Jacobson noted that this marks the first time that a law
school has formalized a relationship with a university press. "It will
be exciting for our students and important for the faculty." Future books
will be printed with credits to the Jacob Burns Institute for Advanced
Legal Studies, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and Yeshiva University.
According to Dean Verkuil, "The University of California Press is,
with Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Chicago, one of the top university presses
in the country." He said that this publishing venture will attract scholars
to and increase the intellectual reputation of Cardozo.
The book series will also provide a focus for promoting and publishing
future scholarly conferences - one on Nietzsche scheduled for the spring
may become the basis of a future book, as may one planned on Spinoza. Professor
Goodrich said, "It adds to Cardozo's huge reputation in interdisciplinary
legal studies, creating an international dialogue in an area that is known
to be insular - legal philosophical thought."
In a separate but related agreement, University of California Press
has agreed
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to publish Cardozo Studies of Law and Literature. According
to Prof. Richard Weisberg, Cardozo will retain complete editorial control
of the journal while "all of the business, marketing, and printing will
be handled by this wonderful university press, which will help to build
the field of law and literature." The journal will be relaunched, with
a name change, probably in the fall of 2001.
Professor Weisberg said that a new editorial structure will be put
in place so that he, Professor Goodrich, Michael Pantazakos, and Prof.
Penelope Pether of Washington Law School at American University will be
general editors each responsible for one number a year. "This expansion
will further enrich the scope and content of our seminal journal." Up to
10 student editors will continue to work on the publication, including
the one chosen annually by the Law School as the Floersheimer Fellow in
the Humanities.
LL.M. Program Flourishes
In January, 18 students graduated from Cardozo's LL.M. program and
15 more began their studies, joining 34 LL.M. candidates who entered in
the fall. Approximately 60% of the students are studying intellectual property,
and two-thirds come from abroad; all add to the growing diversity found
on campus. This year, students represent 30 countries, coming from Europe,
Asia, the Middle East, South America, and New Zealand. The variety of interests
and backgrounds among the LL.M. students is well shown by Victor Knapp
and Elina Koci. Knapp is a criminal defense lawyer and an actor who recently
appeared in a film, playing a terrorist. Koci, who is Albanian, won a Ron
Brown Fellowship to study intellectual property law and is known as Albania's
first specialist in the area of IP.
According to Toni Fine, director of graduate and international programs,
several new programs were instituted this year to enhance the graduate
student experience and strengthen the bonds between LL.M.s and the larger
Cardozo community. Among them are informal, weekly roundtables that feature
invited guests speaking on topics of particular interest, an alumni mentoring
program, and a system that pairs incoming students with those who are returning.
Dickinson Gives Tenzer Lecture
The attorney examiners who review patent applications for the United
States may be dealing with innovations that are "unimaginable," but the
spate of useful and novel inventions need not be "unmanageable." In fact,
the economy has been well served by an intellectual property system that
"is strong by being flexible."
That was the message from Q. Todd Dickinson, the Clinton administration's
point man on domestic and international intellectual property issues, when
he gave the Annual Tenzer Distinguished Lecture in Intellectual Property.
In addition to directing the United States Patent and Trademark Office,
Dickinson was the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property.
In "E-Commerce and Business Methods Patents: An Old Debate for a New
Economy," Dickinson said that despite the controversy surrounding such
patents there is nothing in the legal standards governing intellectual
property that would deny limited property rights to their developers.
A novel point-and-click method for ordering goods over the Internet
deserves protection in much the way the cash register did in the 19th century.
Dickinson added, however, that the Patent Office has revised its procedures
to control the number of business method patents it issues.
In areas such as the protection of databases that "can be pirated in
the blink of an eye," Dickinson said that his agency has tried to set a
balance between protection of inventors' property rights and the wide dissemination
of innovation. As evidence of its success, he noted that this country's
biotechnology
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industry is healthier than those of its European competitors,
resulting in research scientists moving to the United States. At the same
time, there is a growing appreciation of intellectual property in once-skeptical
developing countries.
The Patent Office has moved to make more than two million patents and
registered trademarks and applications freely available on the Internet
and to implement electronic filing of trademark and patent applications.
This activity is taking place against a backdrop of increasing globalization
and international legal norms for the protection of intellectual property.
As a result, while officials ponder the effects of sophisticated computer
networks, they also must develop effective global enforcement mechanisms
to protect the folklore of traditional cultures.
Dickinson concluded that the US intellectual property system is well
prepared for the challenges of the future. "We are not a typical government
agency," he said.
Legal Aid President Talks on Public Interest
Law
At the first lecture of the Access to Justice series, sponsored by
the Jacob Burns Ethics Center, Daniel Greenberg, president and attorney
in chief, Legal Aid Society, spoke about "Client Commitment and Curiosity:
How to Think About a Career in Public Interest Law."
Innocence Project Receives Avatar Records
Donation
Avatar Records announced the donation of $10,000 to the Innocence Project
at a press conference held in the Jacob Burns Moot Court Room. The donation
was made in advance of a January release of Oz - The Soundtrack,
an all-star rap compilation from the HBO prison drama Oz. Avatar President
Larry Robinson is shown here giving the contribution to Prof. Barry Scheck
while some of the actors and rappers look on. A per-copy royalty will be
donated to the Innocence Project as well. Shown at back (from left) are
Oz cast member Dean Winters, Oz musical supervisor Chris Tergeson, Oz creator
and executive producer Tom Fontana, and sound track artist Pharoahe Monch.
Dean
Sterk Inaugrates Monthly Bagel Lunch
Senior Associate Dean Stewart Sterk inaugurated a monthly bagel lunch
to create a way for the entire Cardozo community to meet informally and
to keep the lines of communication open. "First Wednesday" has been well-attended
by students, faculty, and administration. David Tawil '02, SBA senator,
said, "Encouraging this kind of interaction is a great idea; it significantly
boosts school morale."
Cardozo Professors Featured in Election Reports
Cardozo professors were on the airwaves, in the press, on TV, and even
online at dot.com news services. They were on hand at all hours of the
day to help interpret for Americans and the world the complex and unprecedented
legal developments in the weeks following the presidential election. Marci
Hamiton, Michael Herz, John McGinnis, Leslie Newman, Monroe Price, David
Rudenstine, Dean Paul Verkuil, and Ed Zelinsky were on CNN, CBS, NBC, MSNBC,
NY1, National Public Radio, Fox News, and WPIX. They were quoted in the
New York Times, USA Today, The Jerusalem Post, had op-eds published in
the New York Post, and were consulted for background expertise for other
media outlets.
Conference Debates Cooperating Witnesses
Gerald
Lefcourt, Esq., and Loretta Lynch, US Attorney, Eastern District of NY,
were commentators at conference panel.
A recent United States Supreme Court decision described how the story
of a key prosecution witness evolved, under careful coaching, from "muddied
memories," to providing a very detailed and powerful account of a capital
murder. The FBI was rocked by revelations that key mob informants in Boston
had used their relationship with federal agents to eliminate their competition
while they continued to commit crimes, up to and including murder.
In Canada, the government of Ontario convened a commission to examine
the case of a young man who had been exonerated of murder charges 10 years
after the testimony of jailhouse informants played a pivotal role in his
conviction.
These and other cases were cited in an ambitious day-long conference
at Cardozo on what organizers described as a troubling "conundrum": Is
justice obtainable in a system that increasingly relies on deals struck
with "cooperating witnesses" - also known as "criminal informants" or "snitches"
- who barter false testimony in exchange for lenient treatment by prosecutors
of their own lawbreaking? More than 150 prosecutors, defense attorneys,
judges, and academics attended the conference, which Prof. Ellen Yaroshefsky,
the conference organizer, said was the first opportunity for criminal justice
system professionals to debate issues surrounding the use of informants.
It was sponsored by the Jacob Burns Ethics Center and the Cardozo Law Review.
Professor Yaroshefsky said that most prosecutors are convinced that many
significant cases could not be made without the help of cooperating witnesses.
They also believe that vigorous cross-examination, careful corroboration,
and other checks built into the system are sufficient to prevent wrongful
convictions based on false testimony. However, Professor Yaroshefsky and
her colleagues indicated that false testimony was a factor in 21% of 77
wrongful convictions. The whole problem is "grossly exaggerated," said
Shirah Neiman, deputy US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
She insisted that most informants signed up by her office tell the truth,
and careful procedures catch mistakes before any damage is done.
Some prosecutors and investigators rely on "common sense" or their
"gut" to ferret out informants who are lying. But Saul Kassin, a professor
of psychology, argued that "as a general rule, we are terrible human lie
detectors." Studies indicate that most people's ability to detect a falsehood
is not significantly better than would be achieved by flipping a coin.
"Experts," such as FBI agents and judges, do not do much better. Prosecutors
and judges scoffed at Kassin's research, suggesting that psychologists
were looking for lucrative expert witness fees. Neiman said that psychologists
"obfuscate" the issues of a trial and shade the truth to help their clients.
Judge Stephen S. Trott of the United States Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit, who gave the luncheon keynote and participated on one panel,
said that prosecutors had to be very careful in working with informants.
The screening system works pretty well, but "there are way too many individual
disasters where the justice goes haywire." Criminals understand that the
best way to get out of trouble is to cut a deal with the government. "Frequently
they tell the truth, but frequently they lie," he said.
Prof. H. Richard Uviler, Columbia Law School, said that prosecutors
do not hesitate to revoke the "contracts" of witnesses who lie. But Prof.
Bennett L. Gershman of Pace said that many prosecutors are motivated by
a "conviction psychology" instead of a desire to "do justi
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ce." Witnesses
have an incentive to tell prosecutors not the truth, but what they want
to hear. This trait is encouraged by improper coaching of witnesses, "the
dark, dirty secret of the American adversary system."
Traditionally, partisans of the adversary system have relied on cross-examination
at trial to disclose if any witness is lying. New York attorney Gerald
Lefcourt complained that prosecutors do not turn over enough information
to facilitate effective questioning. "It's the policy to make sure that
defense attorneys are not fully prepared," he said. Other speakers said
prosecutors may be reluctant to turn over more than the bare minimum of
information because they think it would be used by the defendant, who has
as much, if not more, incentive to lie as the informant.
In any case, US District Judge Gerald E. Lynch, who sits in the Southern
District, pointed out that since most cases are resolved through pleas,
"95% of defendants never get any trial." Cross examination - "the great
engine of truth" - may be irrelevant in such a system.
When all is said and done, however, "somebody has to tell who is telling
the truth," said Judge Lynch. "Prosecutors are in a key position to do
that." To help them do a better job, panelists offered a variety of suggestions.
Among them were better supervision and training, fuller documentation of
plea negotiations including the use of videotaping, beefed-up internal
standards, additional court hearings to reveal "tainted" testimony, more
detailed instructions by judges to alert juries to the problems of informant
testimony, tougher punishment for informants who lie, and a restriction,
if not outright ban, on the use of jailhouse snitches.
Intellectual Property Program Launches Speakers
Series
In the fall, the inauguration of the Law School's Intellectual Property
Speakers Series was instituted to provide another forum at Cardozo for
discussion of cutting-edge issues in the field. Students were invited to
the colloquium following each faculty talk. Speakers included: Alfred C.
Yen, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of law, Boston College
Law School; Julie Cohen, associate professor of law, Georgetown University
Law Center; and (pictured) Peter Feng, associate professor of law and deputy
head of the law department, University of Hong Kong. Speakers in the spring
are: Michael Froomkin, professor of law, University of Miami School of
Law; Robert Denicola, Margaret Larson Professor of Intellectual Property
Law, University of Nebraska College of Law; Wendy Gordon, Paul J. Liacos
Scholar-in-Law and professor of law, Boston University Law School; and
Arti Rai, associate professor of law, University of San Diego Law School.
First Annual New Students Luncheon Launched
This year, orientation was extended to included a special luncheon in addition
to the traditional boat cruise. Cardozo's First Annual New Students Luncheon
was held at the recently opened Center for Jewish History, just a few blocks
from Cardozo. A good number of faculty and current students were on hand
to welcome members of the class of 2003. Shown here are Tran Smith '03
and Portia Downing '03.
Moot Court Team Advances to Finals
Judges for the finals were
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Cardo 1000 zo's Moot Court Honor Society won second place in the team competition for the Annual National Moot Court Competition for region II held at the New York City Bar Association. The team advanced to the nationwide competition held in January. Winning team members were Aglaia Davis '01, who also was a runner-up for Best Oralist; and Jason Halper '01 and Jennifer Loyd '01. The team also won Best Brief in region II. They argued whether it violates the first amendment to hold a newspaper civilly liable for obtaining information in violation of the federal violation statute. The Paulsen Moot Court Competition, as is the tradition, wrestled with topical issues before the US Supreme Court - this year they argued about the constitutionality of police roadblocks and drug testing of pregnant women. The winner was Mary Alestra '01 and runner-up for Best Oralist was Scott Sisun '01. The other two finalists were Rachel Hirschfeld '01 and Aaron Kranich '02. |
Panel Explores Ways to Bring Technological
Advantages to More Communities
Mary
Keelan
The emergence of the Internet and new technologies has created a gap
between those people and communities that make effective use of information
technology and those that cannot because of lack of knowledge and/or access
to hardware. This phenomenon is known as the digital divide. At "Bridging
the Digital Divide: Equality in the Information Age," legal experts and
consumer advocates discussed the social implications of this issue and
ways in which various communities can engage in and be empowered by technology.
Panelists were Tracy Cohen, regulatory advisor, Internet Service Providers
Association of South Africa, and research associate, Wits University, Johannesburg;
Mark Cooper, director of research, Consumer Federation of America; Mary
Keelan, telecommunications advocacy consultant, Libraries for the Future;
and Stefaan Verhulst, scholar-in residence, Markle Foundation, and director,
Programme in Comparative Media Law & Policy, University of Oxford.
Peter Yu '99, executive director of the Intellectual Property Law Program
and deputy director of the Howard M. Squadron Program in Law, Media &
Society at Cardozo, moderated.
Budapest is Site of Summer ADR Program
This summer, Cardozo is launching an intensive international conflict resolution
program set in the dynamic context of Central and Eastern Europe's emerging
democracies. "Managing Conflict and Fostering Democratic Dialogue" will
be taught at Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary, and
is co-sponsored with Hamline University School of Law. Students from US
and international law schools and graduate programs will learn side by
side using multinational examples.
Prof. Lela Love, director of Cardozo's conflict resolution program,
hopes to put critical negotiation skills in the hands of future lawyers.
She notes, "In Eastern Europe there is not sufficient education about or
awareness of mediation, but the need is great. Many of the students who
study with us may be among the next generation of leaders and scholars
who will shape their countries' legal systems. Understanding alternative
methods of conflict resolution can help establish responsive justice systems
that support efforts to institutionalize the rule of law in new democracies."
Faculty in the program come from five countries and include leading
professors and practitioners in ADR. The four-week ABA-approved summer
program is taught in English and offers six credits. Through highly interactive
classes, students will examine mediation theory and skills and the impact
of culture and context and can choose to focus on labor disputes in emerging
democracies or on internationa
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l applications of conflict theory.
Students Organize ABA/ADR Chapter;
Negotiation Teams Go to Finals
A dispute resolution section of the American Bar Association is encouraging
the development of law school chapters: Cardozo's ADR Society, formed this
fall, is one of the first such chapters nationwide. Fifty students have
already joined. Through a combination of lectures, symposia, competitions,
and public service projects, Society organizers Cynthia Devasia '02 and
Jonas Karp '02 hope to educate Cardozo students and the community about
dispute resolution. "We intend to show our peers what an important tool
mediation is," said Ms. Devasia. The Society's inaugural event, "All About
ADR," was a presentation by Daniel Weitz '96, statewide ADR coordinator
for the New York State Unified Court System. Among the activities planned
is setting up or supporting peer mediation programs in K?12 schools.
The Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution hosted the 12th Annual Cardozo/
ABA Negotiation Competition. Two winning teams, Venus Sahwany '02 and Megan
Weiss '02 and Alexandra Hochman '01 and Sima Saran '01, went on to represent
Cardozo in the ABA Regional Competition held at Albany Law School, where
the Sahwany/ Weiss team advanced to the final round.
Cardozo's Strengths in IP and ADR Converge in Pioneering Panel
Jim
Davis of Howrey, Simon, Arnold & White (on left) and Thomas Creel of
Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler.
In October the Cardozo Online Journal of Conflict Resolution and the
International Trademark Association cosponsored a symposium on "Using Alternative
Dispute Resolution in Intellectual Property Cases." Participants explored
the common ground between these two legal fields, addressing topics such
as mediation and arbitration in patent, trademark, and copyright cases,
as well as the future of alternative dispute resolution in intellectual
property cases. "Both ADR and IP are hot legal areas today. Their confluence
brings together two of Cardozo's highest ranked programs and is of great
interest to students, mediators, and the practicing bar," noted Professor
Love, director of Cardozo's ADR program.
Panelists included Prof. Hal Abramson, Touro Law School; Thomas L.
Creel, Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler, LLP; Jim Davis, Howrey,
Simon, Arnold & White, LLP; and Bruce Keller, Debevoise & Plimpton.
Moderators were Cardozo graduates Prof. David Korzenik '79, Miller &
Korzenik, LLP; and Marc Lieberstein '92, Ostrolenk, Faber, Gerb & Soffen,
LLP. An edited transcript of the symposium will be available in the spring
at the Online Journal's website: www.cardozo.yu.edu/cojcr
Students Organize Events on Napster and Trademark
The Intellectual Property Law Society sponsored a panel to discuss
the effects of the Napster decision on the music industry, recording artists,
and fans. "Taking Sides on Napster" featured speakers (from left) Michael
Carlinski, Esq., Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliff; Marylin McMillan, chief
information technology officer, New York University; Prof. Barton Beebe,
moderator; Sam Kaplan, Esq., Boies, Schiller, Flexner; Whitney Broussard,
Esq., Selverne, Mandelbaum & Mintz.
"Trademark 101," an open forum on anything and everything to do with
trademark, was an opportunity for Cardozo students to ask what they really
wanted to know about the field. Panelists on hand to answer their questions
were Prof. Barton Beebe; Debbie Cohn, director of trademark examining operations
at the US Patent and Trademark Offi
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ce (USPTO); and Stewart Bellus, attorney,
Collard & Roe, and former trademark examiner at the USPTO. The event
was sponsored by the AELJ and Center for Professional Development.
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