Obama’s Military Tactics: Risky Missions, Elite Units
National Public Radio WBUR
Rescue is “the category I’d like to put it in, because it’s a limited use of force under international law,” says Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of law at Notre Dame. Read More

Kohler Co. steamed over Arizona firm’s name
Salon school makes change to avoid trademark suit
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

People have no hard and fast right to use their name on their business if someone else already has trademarked it, said Durst and two academic experts – Mark McKenna of the University of Notre Dame Law School and J. Thomas McCarthy, senior professor at the University of San Francisco.

McKenna, however, called Kohler Co.’s assertions “a pretty aggressive use of their trademark rights.” > Read Article Read More

Romney Tax Returns Show $7 Million in Donations Over 2 Years
Bloomberg Businessweek
It isn’t unusual for high earners like the Romneys to funnel money into charitable foundations that they control, said Lloyd Mayer, an associate dean at the University of Notre Dame Law School. Read More

SOPA and PIPA are (almost) dead. Now can we talk about the law that already exists?

By Mark P. McKenna

Slate.com, January 20, 2012 Read More

Opinion by Mary Ellen O’Connell

The Guardian, January 20, 2012 > Read Article Read More

Professor Roger P. Alford was in New York City January 11 to accept the "CPR Award for Best Electronic Media About Alternative Dispute Resolution" at a ceremony held at the New York office of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP. Read More

Dean Nell Jessup Newton has announced the appointment of Professor Stephen J. Cribari as co-director (with Professor Geoffrey Bennett) of the NDLS London Summer Program.

Cribari teaches at the University of Minnesota Law School and was previously an NDLS Visiting Professor in London, where he taught a course in Law and Cultural Heritage to rave reviews. A published poet, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist, he is the Reporter for the Criminal Pattern Jury Instruction Committee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and a former Federal Public Defender who has twice argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. In Minnesota he teaches criminal procedure, law and archaeology, evidence, physical evidence/expert testimony, and criminal law.

In accepting the post, Professor Cribari said, “London is a rich and rare opportunity and I want to open the classroom into the cultural present as well as the cultural history of London.” Read More

Professor James H. Seckinger has been named the recipient of the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in teaching advocacy by the Stetson University College of Law’s “Educating Advocates: Teaching Advocacy Skills” Conference. Read More

Professor Richard W. Garnett’s USA Today column analyzing the Supreme Court’s landmark church-state decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC was picked up by the Associated Press and subsequently reported by numerous news outlets, including the Christian Science Monitor, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Salt Lake Tribune, U.S. News & World Report, and the Washington Post. Professor Garnett’s amicus brief in support of the church in this case can be accessed here. Read More

A Mississippi judge has temporarily blocked 21 of more than 200 executive pardons given this week by outgoing Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) during his final days in office, and University of Notre Dame Professor of Law Jimmy Gurulé counts himself among many who are outraged that Barbour allowed murderers to be released.

“The fact that Gov. Barbour would pardon one convicted murderer absent extenuating circumstances is deeply disturbing,” says Gurulé, who, in his 23 years at Notre Dame, has taken two major leaves to serve as assistant U.S. Attorney General and Undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury Department for Enforcement. “Pardoning four convicted murderers is shocking, insulting to the surviving family members of the murder victims, and demonstrates a callous disregard for our criminal justice system and the rule of law. In my opinion, Gov. Barbour’s actions are indefensible.” Read More

Dean Nell Jessup Newton has appointed Professor Paolo Carozza as the new Director of the Law School’s Center for Civil and Human Rights. He had been serving as the Interim Director of the CCHR in his capacity as Associate Dean for International and Graduate Programs. Read More