To celebrate the establishment of UT Law's Kay Bailey Hutchison Chair in Latin American Law, a free public lecture will be held Thursday, November 4, at 4:30 p.m. at UT-Austin's Bass Concert Hall. Secretary Evans and Secretary Derbez will discuss trade issues within the Western Hemisphere and government relations between the United States and Latin America. Senator Hutchison, a 1967 UT Law graduate, UT President Larry Faulkner and UT School of Law Dean William Powers will also speak.

Tickets to this event are free and required for admission. Tickets are available in person at The UT Performing Arts Center Ticket Office (at Bass Concert Hall), UT Law's Communication Center (in the Atrium of Townes Hall) and The Frank Erwin Center Box Office (at 1701 Red River).

Full story, ticket information, and parking details can be found at http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2004/102104_hutchison_lecture.html

Dean Powers, along with faculty members Jane Cohen, Karen Engle, William Forbath, David Rabban, Lawrence Sager, Jane Stapleton, and Jordan Steiker, traveled to Brazil in August to discuss North American law with attorneys and judges in Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Goiânia, and Brasília. UT Law faculty members have been going to Brazil annually to teach about American law as part of an ongoing Brazil-U.S. Legal Education Exchange Program. For details, read the Winter 2005 issue of UTLAW magazine, out this November.

UT Law's William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law and the Baylor University School of Law have established the Equal Justice Scholarships. These scholarships will be awarded to students with strong academic credentials and a demonstrated commitment to public service. Upon graduation from law school, the scholarship recipients will practice law at legal aid organizations for at least three years. The Justice Center has committed to fund three scholarships, collectively valued at $135,000, and UT Law will implement one scholarship each year over the next three years.

Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2004/100504_ajscholarships.html

Three UT Law students have been recognized for their dedication to international human rights with the designation "Human Rights Scholars." Professor Karen Engle announced the 2004-05 winners of the $5,000 scholarships: Jeremy Freeman, Paola Marusich-Blancarte, and Ashley Morris, all second-year law students.

Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2004/092104_hrischolars.html

On October 11, Basil Markesinis, QC, Jamail Regents Chair in Law, was formally inducted into the French Academy as its new Corresponding Fellow. The President of the Academy also presented him with the insignia of Commander of the Legion d'Honneur conferred upon him by President Chirac of France who has described Markesinis as "one of the very greatest comparatists of Europe."

Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2004/083004_markesinis.html

Twice in six months professor Robert Owen has made national news by working on capital punishment cases. UT Law's Capital Punishment Clinic won its case before the U.S. Supreme Court this past summer, and this October Owen served on a team that helped exonerate Ernest Willis from death row. Willis, after 17 years on death row, was freed when a district judge in Pecos County dismissed the capital murder charge and ordered his immediate release. Willis, 59, was convicted in 1987 of setting a fire in Iraan, Texas that killed Elizabeth Grace Belue, 24, of San Antonio. Prosecutors had asked that the charge be dismissed because of insufficient evidence that Willis, then a 40-year-old oilfield worker from New Mexico, actually set the fire, which also killed Gail Joe Allison, 25.

Related news; Capital punishment clinic wins before U.S. Supreme Court: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2004/062404_tennard.html

• Professor Brian Leiter released The Future for Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2004). The edited collection of essays discusses where philosophy, the oldest academic subject, stands at the beginning of the new millennium. The volume brings together leading figures from most major branches of the discipline to offer answers. http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2004/100604_leiter.html
  
  
• Professor Sandy Levinson released Torture (Oxford University Press, 2004), an edited collection of essays by leading scholars who offer their reflections on what constitutes torture, under what circumstances it can be used, and whether or not law can play any useful role in structuring its use.
  
  
• Professor Linda Mullenix released Civil Procedure (Thompson-West, 2004).
  

The faculty of UT Law are highly productive scholars and the above books represent only a small portion of recent scholarly output. For a listing of recent publications visit http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/news/.

• Professors David Robertson and Michael Sturley are working on Stewart v. Dutra Constr. Co., which is scheduled for oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court on November 1. The issue in the case is whether the Super Scoop -- a large floating dredge that dug the trench for the Ted Williams tunnel under Boston Harbor -- is a "vessel" under U.S. maritime law. If it is, the workers assigned to it are Jones Act seamen with tort remedies. If it isn't, the workers have no tort remedies but only workers' compensation.
  
  
• Professors Douglas Laycock, Ernest Young, and four other constitutional law scholars filed in support of severely-ill patients using marijuana for pain-relief in California, in a case scheduled for argument this term before the U.S. Supreme Court. California law authorizes such use; federal law forbids it. The patients have challenged the federal law as going beyond Congress' power under the Commerce Clause.
  
  Brief: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/enewsletter/laycock_young_brief.pdf
  
  
• Professor Philip Bobbitt on Iraq in The Guardian: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2004/100804_bobbitt.html, and "How Market-States Can Meet Global Challenges" in The Financial Times: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2004/090704_bobbitt.html
  
  
• Professor Julius Getman on the Bush Administration's Overtime Policies in the Austin American-Statesman: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2004/091504_getman.html
  
  
• Professor Linda Mullenix published her column, "Complex Litigation -- The 'Zahn' Morass" in The National Law Journal on September 27, 2004. She is a regular columnist for The National Law Journal.
  
  
• Professor Charles Childress is a regular columnist for HEARTBEAT, the quarterly Texas journal for Texas CASA (court appointed special advocates).
  
  
• Professor David Sokolow writes an annual column on American Commercial and Corporate Law for the Australian Law Journal.
  
  
• Professor Jay Westbrook (with Elizabeth Warren) is a regular columnist for The American Bankruptcy Institute Law Journal.

A full list of faculty activities can be found online at: http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/news/

The Honorable Wallace B. Jefferson, '88, has been named chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Jefferson also becomes the first African American to serve as that court's chief justice.

Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2004/091404_jefferson.html

UT Law classmates Richard U. Simon, Jr., '57 of Brackett & Ellis, P.C. and Sheldon Anisman, '57 of Jackson Walker L.L.P. received the 2004 Blackstone Award, one of the highest awards given by the Tarrant County Bar Association. This award annually recognizes an attorney with a high degree of professionalism, but this year the pair, who had practiced law together, won jointly.

Joan Dubinsky has been appointed the Ethics Officer of the International Monetary Fund, located in Washington, D.C. Dubinsky comes to the IMF from the Rosentreter Group, a management consulting practice that she led and founded. She also served as Senior Legal Counsel and Compliance Officer for the MITRE Corporation and as Corporate Secretary, Associate General Counsel and Ethics Officer for the American Red Cross.

Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, a partner at Gardere Wynne Sewell, was honored with the Anti-Defamation League's Jurisprudence Award in September 2004. The award was presented in recognition of Kirk's devotion to the principles of the Constitution and for symbolizing commitment to democratic values. While Mayor of Dallas (1995-2000), Kirk chaired the Urban Affairs Committee of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He is a former Texas Secretary of State and he currently serves as a member of the Democratic National Committee and is a National Trustee for the March of Dimes.

David Frederick has been named a "Leading Lawyer" by Legal Times magazine. Frederick is one of only twelve of the Washington, D.C., area's top appellate litigators that were chosen.

Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2004/082704_frederick.html

Full story: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2004/091604_garza.html