School of Law

Stephen H. Legomsky, J.D., D.Phil, the Charles F. Nagel Professor of International and Comparative Law, has received a Fulbright Senior Specialist grant for a two-week human rights project in Suriname. The grant and project were at the initiative of the U.S. State Department.Legomsky will be in Suriname from October 22 through November 4, 2003. While there, he will give a series of lectures to students at the Anton de Kom University in Paramaribo, faculty members, government officials, judges, and NGO representatives, on the subject of the United Nations human rights protection system. The U.S. Embassy will also schedule meetings with the U.S. ambassador to Suriname, Surinamese government officials and judges, NGO representatives, and the national media.

Alphonso Jackson, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), will lecture on national housing policy at 11 a.m. today in Anheuser-Busch Hall, Room 309. As HUD’s chief operating officer, Jackson oversees the day-to-day operations of the $32 billion agency that has a core mission of providing affordable housing and promoting […]

“The recent strikes by grocery workers in Missouri, California and West Virginia are indicative of a general economic dissatisfaction that could potentially expand into a broader confrontation between labor and management,” says Neil Bernstein, an expert in labor law and legal issues relating to striking workers and a professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, is closely following the grocery strikes.

Photo by Bob BostonAward-winners Lee Epstein and Eugene M. Johnson Jr. greet each other at the recent Faculty Achievement Awards Ceremony.

The Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District periodically holds sessions at law schools as part of an educational program.

The recent decisions by Oklahoma and Colorado federal courts invalidating the Federal Trade Commission’s “Do Not Call List” were major victories for telemarketing companies, “but a tragedy for the rest of us,” says Neil M. Richards, associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “Even with the quick reversal of the Oklahoma decision by Congress and President Bush, the Colorado decision remains a major roadblock for the List,” notes Richards. “The FTC and the Federal Communications Commission have been warned by Judge Harrington in Colorado not to go against his order, and Congress has no power to overrule the judge’s decision- they cannot change the meaning of the First Amendment as interpreted by the Courts.”

October Business, Law & Economics Tip Sheet

SadatLeila Sadat, professor of law at Washington University and one of the country’s leading experts in international and comparative law, discusses Bush’s address before the UN’s General Assembly and his proposals for the future of Iraq with Mike Sampson of KWMU’s St. Louis on the Air on Sept. 23. Listen to the program from the KWMU Web site.

ParedesWith the final provision of Sarbanes-Oxley now in effect, lawyers are required to report corporate wrongdoing. Although many lawyers are concerned that this may breach attorney/client privilege, Troy Paredes, associate professor of law at the Washington University School of Law, says, “The requirement that lawyers report ‘up the ladder’ if they are aware of a material violation is an important part of the Sarbanes-Oxley reforms.” Paredes notes that lawyers are an important gatekeeper that the market depends on to help oversee management.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hold an unusual four-hour session Sept. 8 to hear constitutional challenges to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002; some suggest the case could determine which political party wins the White House in 2004. D. Bruce La Pierre, a law professor who argued a Missouri campaign finance case before the Court in 2000, suggests the Court should use the BCRA case to rethink two recent decisions that have severely eroded First Amendment protection for political speech. It’s time, he argues, for the Court to send a clear message that campaign contributions are firmly protected by the First Amendment.