Lefstin on Robinson and the Essence of Patent Law

Jeffrey Lefstin has delivered the inaugural Dean William Callyhan Robinson Lecture at the Columbus School of Law, Catholic University. This distinguished lectureship in intellectual property was created to honor William Robinson, the author of patent law's most influential work. The lecture was called "William Callyhan Robinson and the Essence of Patent Law," and here is the abstract: Professor Lefstin explores how Robinson -- originally an Episcopalian minister -- came to Catholicism and to patent law. Surprisingly, the two were intertwined in Robinson's thought, and both Robinson's Catholicism and his system of patent law were products of the unique milieu of late 19th Century America. Paradoxically, the cornerstone of Robinson's system of patent law --- his "essence of the invention" -- was both the most influential, and the most forgotten, aspect of his monumental work. Professor Lefstin examines how Robinson's concept shaped the patent law of the 20th Century, and how renewed attention to his concept might serve the patent law of the 21st.

Hazard on the Moral Position of Advocates

Geoff Hazard has co-authored an article with Professor Dana Remus (University of New Hampshire) called, "Advocacy Revalued," 159 U. Pa. L. Rev. 751 (2011). Here is the abstract:

A central and ongoing debate among legall ethics scholars addresses the moral positioning of adversarial advocacy. Most participants in this debate focus on the structure of our legal system and the constituent role of the lawyer-advocate. Many are highly critical, arguing that the core structure of adversarial advocacy is the root cause of many instances of lawyer misconduct. In this Article, we argue that these scholars' focuses are misguided. Through reflection on Artistotle's treatise, Rhetoric, we defend advocacy in our legal system's litigation process as ethically positive and as pivotal to fair and effective dispute resolution. We recognize that advocacy can, and sometimes does, involve improper and unethical use of adversarial techniques, but we demonstrate that these are problems of practice and not of structure and should be addressed as such.

Little on SCOTUS Criminal Law Cases

The American Bar Association has now created a webpage for Rory Little's thumbnail analyses of all United States Supreme Court decisions related to criminal law or criminal procedure. The link is here: http://americanbar.org/groups/criminal_justice/resources/casesummaries.html. It is also now on my list of "Blogs With Hastings Participants."

Wu's Tribute to Judge Denny Chin

Frank Wu has published an essay titled, "Justice Through Pragmatism and Process: A Tribute to Judge Denny Chin," 79 Fordham L. Rev. 1497 (2011).

Symposium on Keitner's "Rights Beyond Borders"

Chimene Keitner's article on "Rights Beyond Borders" is the subject of an online symposium at the Opinio Juris blog today -- here are the individual URLs.

http://opiniojuris.org/2011/03/08/yjil-online-symposium/http://opiniojuris.org/2011/03/08/rights-beyond-borders/http://opiniojuris.org/2011/03/08/a-comment-on-rights-beyond-borders/http://opiniojuris.org/2011/03/08/a-comment-on-rights-beyond-borders/http://opiniojuris.org/2011/03/08/a-comment-on-rights-beyond-borders/

Gray on Managing California's Water

Brian Gray and a group of co-authors have published a book called, Managing California's Water: From Conflict to Reconciliation (Public Policy Institute of California, 2011). The book's authors propose moving away from the current strategy: taking desperate action to save one species at a time under the federal and state Endangered Species Acts. Instead, they argue that a broader approach is more promising: creating better conditions for many species and addressing the multiple causes of ecosystem decline.

The book is available in bookstores, on Amazon in hard copy or Kindle, and on Google Books. There also is a link in the text below to the book and executive summary on PPIC's web site.

Mattei on Comparative International Law

Ugo Mattei has written a paper (co-authored by Hastings alum Boris Mamyluk) called, "Comparative International Law." The paper has been selected as one of the six out of a pool of more than sixty to be presented at the Annual Comparative Law Workshop at Yale Law School.

Robin Feldman Speaking Appearances

Robin Feldman has made the following recent speaking appearances:

In February, Robin presented her book Rethinking Patent Law (forthcoming Harvard University Press) to Yale Law School faculty members and fellows at the Yale Information Society Project.

In February, Robin was a moderator and discussant for prize-winning papers at a conference on patent remedies at Stanford Law School.

In January, Robin presented her article titled, "Whose Body Is It Anyway? Human Cells and the Strange Effects of Property & Intellectual Property," at a symposium at Stanford Law School. The piece will be published in the Stanford Law Review.

In January, Robin spoke at Stanford Law School’s Program in Law, Science & Technology. That same month, she spoke at Stanford Medical School’s Interdisciplinary Program on Access & Delivery of Essential Medicines on “Patent Principles for Life Science Inventions.”

Also in January, as the Chair of the AALS Section on Antitrust & Economic Regulation, Robin organized and moderated a panel at the annual meeting in San Francisco on the topic of “Drug Wars: The Battle Over Generic Pharmaceuticals.” Selected papers from the panel will be published in the Hastings Science & Technology Law Journal.

In February, Robin spoke at a women’s conference in Palo Alto on balancing work and family life.

Massey on Property

Calvin Massey is the sole author of a forthcoming casebook to be published by West in 2012: Property: Principles, Problems, and Cases.

The New Republic on Leib's New Book

The New Republic has published a review of Ethan Leib's new Oxford University Press book, Friend v. Friend. Here's an excerpt from the review:

"Leib's book ... [is] successful as a reflection on the complex relationship between law and friendship, and it will offer rewards to people interested in the sociology of friendship. A particularly fine chapter discusses the relationship between friendship and contract law, and the surprising degree of overlap between the two."

The entire review is available here: http://www.tnr.com/book/review/friendship-and-the-law-response

Leib on Letting Voters Decide the California Budget

Ethan Leib and Chris Elmendorf have published an op-ed in the February 11 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, called "Let Californians Vote on 2 Budgets -- 1 Red, 1 Blue." Here's the link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/article?f=/c/a/2011/02/10/EDRR1HKUNU.DTL

Seelinger on the Complexities of HIV Control in Uganda

Kim Thuy Seelinger of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies has published an article titled, "Violence Against Women and HIV Control in Uganda: A Paradox of Protection?," 33 Hastings Int'l and Comp. L. Rev. 345 (Summer 2010). Her prescriptions are mixed, and somewhat surprising. She concludes that, "if enforced meaningfully," legislation aimed at gender-based violence may serve to prevent HIV infection. On the other hand, the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Bill, "in its current form," may actually be counter-productive.

Seelinger on Forced Marriage and Asylum

Kim Thuy Seelinger of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies has published an article called, "Forced Marriage and Asylum: Perceiving the Invisible Harm," 42 Colum. Human Rts. L. Rev. 55 (Fall 2010). In it, Kim notes that forced marriage as persecution has largely gone unaddressed. In reality, however, she says "such marriages deprive countless women of the fundamental right to freely consent to marriage, and are frequently accompanied by myriad forms of physical and non-physical abuse. As such, forced marriage should be considered a form of persecution under international and domestic refugee law."

Bryant on Faigman's "Constitutional Fictions"

A. Christopher Bryant has written a review of David Faigman's book, Constitutional Fictions: A Unified Theory of Constitutional Facts, at 25 Constitutional Commentary 467 (2009).

Faigman on Apples and Oranges in Scientific Evidence

David Faigman has published "Evidentiary Incommensurability: A Preliminary Exploration of the Problem of Reasoning from General Scientific Data to Individualized Legal Decision Making," 75 Brooklyn L. Rev. 1115 (2010). The article may be viewed within a downloadable PDF of the law review.