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

Margaret M. (“Peggy”) J.D. ’79, has been given a warm tribute by the quarterly journal Directors & Boards.

The special feature article called Foran, the chief governance officer and corporate secretary of Prudential Financial, “the rare individual who has earned the respect of all constituencies in the ongoing governance debates.” Read More

The University of Notre Dame has been selected as the U.S. partner in a British Leverhulme Trust initiative to take part in an international network considering the intersection of families and the state from interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives.

Professor Margaret Brinig, the Fritz Duda Family Chair in Law, has been asked by the British participants to direct and organize the third of the project’s four workshops. In making the appointment, the Trust noted that Professor Brinig is well known for her interdisciplinary and empirical focus and for her experience in international family law organizations. The workshop will take place at Notre Dame and involve principals from the U.K. and Australia as well as a number of scholars from Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters and family law experts from around the U.S. to be selected by Professor Brinig. Read More

Since joining NDLS in 2000, Bellia has become well known to students for teaching popular courses in Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, and Cyberlaw, and to colleagues for being among the faculty’s best scholars (she has published numerous articles on Internet law and separation of powers and is the co-author of a leading cyberlaw casebook).

Perhaps less well known is that she is also in her third year as the University’s Faculty Athletics Representative to the NCAA and Chair of the University’s 15-member Faculty Board on Athletics. In that role, Bellia oversees the principal advisory group to the President on educational issues related to intercollegiate athletics. She also works closely with the football, volleyball, and women’s tennis programs as each team’s faculty liaison.

To recognize her for outstanding contributions to the academic performance of Notre Dame student-athletes, athletics director Jack Swarbrick surprised Bellia with an honorary Monogram at the Notre Dame Football Awards Show December 9 in the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.

Joining Swarbrick on stage for the presentation were Monogram Club president Dick Nussbaum (‘74, ’77), executive director Beth Hunter, Bellia’s husband, A.J., and daughters, Kate and Molly. > Read More Read More

Professor Donald Kommers has been awarded a yearlong Emeritus Fellowship from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to study Germany’s postwar constitutional order.

The Emeritus Fellowships honor faculty across the United States who, after their official retirements, continue “active and productive” scholarship in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.

Professor Kommers’ project will examine the country’s constitution, called the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, within the framework of Germany’s political development from 1949 to the present. > Read the full story Read More

Professor Paolo Carozza participated in the Second Seminar of the Catholic-Muslim Forum on November 21 – 23, held at the site of Jesus’ baptism in Jordan.

Carozza was one of 24 Catholics invited to attend the seminar by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, headed by Cardinal Jean-François Tauran. Twenty-four prominent Muslim religious leaders and scholars also attended, led by H.R.H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan.

The First Seminar, whose theme was “Love of God, Love of Neighbour: The Dignity of the Human Person and Mutual Respect,” took place in Rome in 2008. This year’s theme was “Reason, Faith, and the Human Person.” > Read More Read More

Professor Mary Ellen O’Connell has agreed to participate in a bipartisan, off-the-record, bicameral staff briefing in the Capitol Visitor Center on the use of armed drones in conflict areas. At the December 9 briefing, Prof. O’Connell will be asked to discuss the current use of drones, the legal and ethical ramifications of the technology’s use, and the future of drone warfare from a strategic and moral perspective. Read More

Professor O. Carter Snead will discuss his essay "Cognitive Neuroscience and the Future of Punishment" at a Judicial Issues Forum at the Brookings Institution December 13 at 10 a.m.

To examine the challenge of adapting our constitutional values to future technology that was unimaginable at the time of the nation’s founding, the conference will consider the scenarios posed by Professor Snead and other contributors to the book Constitution 3.0: Freedom and Technological Change (Brookings Institution Press, 2011). Read More Read More

Sofía Galván Puente, a 2009 graduate of Notre Dame Law School’s LL.M. degree program in international human rights law, will receive the National Youth Award of 2011 for Human Rights. The award recognizes Mexican youth “whose career trajectory, commitment, or study brings honor to their generation and inspires individual or community progress.” Mexican President Felipe Calderon will personally present Ms. Galván with the award, a gold medal, in December 2011. Read More

Ophelia Camiña, J.D. ’82, is the subject of a feature story in the 2011 Texas Super Lawyers Magazine. Ms. Camiña, who took trial advocacy with Professor James Seckinger, is now a partner with Susman Godfrey LLP, where she specializes in business litigation.

The magazine profile notes that Ms. Camiña’s trial victories include Dilliard’s v. i2 Technologies, Inc. The $238 million jury verdict awarded in that case ranks among the Top 10 Jury Verdicts in the United States for 2010. Read More

Julie Veldman, J.D. ’11, and Carolyn Wendel, J.D. ’11, have joined Barnes & Thornburg LLP’s Chicago, Ill., office. Read More

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will deliver the keynote address during a day-long symposium titled "Educational Innovation and the Law" to be held at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 18 (Friday) in the Patrick F. McCartan Courtroom at the Notre Dame Law School. The symposium is free and open to the public, but tickets are required for the keynote address. Ticketing information is available on the Forum website, where the keynote will also be streamed live.

The event is part of the 2011-12 Notre Dame Forum, "Reimagining School: To Nurture the Soul of a Nation," a year-long discussion of the profound and challenging questions that shape the national debate about K-12 education. Read More

Professor Richard W. Garnett has been appointed as a consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty. The Committee is updating the bishops on religious liberty issues at the Conference’s November 14-16 meeting in Baltimore. More information about the Committee on Religious Liberty is available here. Read More

The Program on Church, State, and Society is presenting a talk by Penn State Law School Professor David Flatto on the Trial of Herod/Jannaeus and its effects on Jewish conceptions of law and power.
The discussion, entitled “Struggling for Justice: Law’s confrontation with Political Power in Narratives of Post-Biblical Literature,” will be held on Thursday, November 10, at 4:30 p.m. in Biolchini Room 1315. Read More

The Hon. William H. Pryor Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit will deliver remarks on Friday October 28 at 12:30 p.m. in Room 1140. Judge Pryor will speak about “The Unbearable Rightness of Marbury v. Madison: Its Real Lessons and Irrepressible Myths.” He will be introduced by Professor O. Carter Snead. This Federalist Society event is open to the public and free Chick-Fil-A will be served. Read More

O. Carter Snead, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame, has been appointed the W.P. and H.B. White Director of the University’s Center for Ethics and Culture (CEC) by John McGreevy, I.A. O’Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters.

A member of the Notre Dame Law School faculty since 2005, Snead will succeed W. David Solomon, associate professor of philosophy, effective July 1. Read More

Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles, is urgently concerned with the reform of the nation’s immigration policy, and he wants Catholic college and university students to be as concerned as he is.

Speaking with nearly 100 students and faculty members in the auditorium of Notre Dame’s Eck Hall of Law last week, Cardinal Mahony insisted that America’s 220 Catholic colleges and universities and the 800,000 students enrolled in them have a crucial role to play in immigration reform. Read More

Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades celebrated the Red Mass in the Basilica on Monday October 10. The Red Mass is an annual Mass for those of all faiths working in law and politics and is open to the public. Read More

Sean O’Brien, assistant director of the NDLS Center for Civil and Human Rights, moderated a panel discussion on the history and significance of civil rights memorials October 11 at Indiana University South Bend’s Civil Rights Heritage Center, 1040 W. Washington St.

On the panel were NDLS Professor Douglass Cassel; the chair of Notre Dame’s Department of American Studies, Prof. Erika Doss; Notre Dame Professor of Spanish Carlos Jerez-Farrán; and the director of the Civil Rights Heritage Center at the Natatorium, IUSB Assistant Professor of Sociology Kevin Lamarr James. Read More

An airstrike carried out by the CIA and U.S. Joint Special Operations Command that killed radical Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki today in Yemen was illegal, according to University of Notre Dame international law expert Mary Ellen O’Connell, one of the world’s leading experts on targeted killing. Read More

As the U.S. Supreme Court opens its October 2011 term, there is intense focus on several high-profile cases and questions the justices are likely to tackle later, including those involving affirmative action, health-care reform and immigration policy. However, according to Notre Dame Law School Professor Rick Garnett, the court is already set to hear, during this first week of the new term, one of the most important church-state cases in decades (Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC).

“The case involves the ‘ministerial exception’ to employment-discrimination laws,” Garnett says. “This exception prevents courts from second-guessing employment decisions made by religious employers regarding ‘ministerial’ employees. Although the Supreme Court has never squarely addressed this exception, it is a crucial doctrine for protecting religious freedom and the separation of church and state.” Read More

Professor Mary Ellen O’Connell’s legal and policy analysis of the recent use of drones to kill Americans Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan in Yemen has been reported by numerous news outlets, including ABC, Reuters, MSNBC, the Inter Press Service, Huffington Post, Reuters, Financial Times, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and others. Her original CNN article on this topic can be accessed here. Read More

NDLS alum Jessica Brock (B.A. ’05, J.D. ’10, LLM ’11), Professor Paolo Carozza, and His Eminence Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles, will speak on the DREAM Act October 6 at 12:45 p.m. in Eck Hall of Law Room 1140.

The DREAM Act has been brought before Congress numerous times over the past ten years.It was most recently defeated in the Senate in December 2010, and it is presently in committee in the House and Senate for consideration again this year.

Following an introduction by Professor Carozza, Ms. Brock will outline the content of the proposed DREAM Act and comment on its relationship to Catholic social teaching. Cardinal Mahony will provide reflections on the presentation and there will be an open discussion with Cardinal Mahony about the DREAM Act and Catholic social teaching. Read More

Professor Judith Fox presented Indiana judges with an update on mortgage foreclosure law at the Annual Meeting of the Judicial Conference of Indiana in French Lick, Indiana, September 21.

On September 14, she presented “Debt Collection and Mortgage Foreclosure” at the annual Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum law update conference in Indianapolis. Read More

Prof. Carter Snead was a featured speaker at a conference on the public policy questions concerning experimental research on human embryos that was held this September at Oxford University (Corpus Christi College). Read More

Loyal ND alum Regis Philbin, ‘ 53, singled out the NDLS facilities and the Patrick F. McCartan Courtroom for special praise September 19.

Recounting how it felt to return to South Bend for the September 17 Michigan State game, Regis told the “Live! With Regis and Kelly” show audience that “It is so beautiful these days at Notre Dame. The buildings, everything looks great. And this Law School is absolutely sensational. They have courtrooms inside the school — it is just gorgeous. I don’t want to be melodramatic, but: I feel like I’m going into heaven.”

Regis’s NDLS story begins at about 15:45 in this video clip. Read More