- During the Spring 2009 semester the LSU Law Center welcomed three Distinguished Visitors who brought their own distinct global perspectives, enriching the experience of law faculty and students alike: Professor Ulrich Magnus, University of Hamburg (Germany), February 10 – March 4, taught International Sales Law; Professor Fernando Toller, Austral University (Argentina), February 9 – February 27, taught Constitutional Fundamental Rights; Professor Sheldon Leader, University of Essex (United Kingdom), March 23 – April 8, taught International Trade, Investment, and Human Rights.
- The Center of Civil Law Studies initiated a Civil Law Workshop Series in honor of Professor Saúl Litvinoff. The general topic is Civil Law and Common Law: Cross Influences, Contamination and Permeability. All three guest speakers were Distinguished Visiting Professors this semester: Fernando Toller, Towards a Revival of the Case Method in Civil Law Education, (February), Ulrich Magnus, The Vienna Sales Convention (CISG) between Civil and Common Law – Best of all Worlds? (March), and Sheldon Leader, Legal Theory and the Variety of Legal Cultures: The Example of Dworkin (April).
- Gwendolyn Ferrell, associate director of the LSU Law Center’s Career Services Office, recently addressed colleagues during the 2009 Annual Education Conference of the National Association For Legal Career Professionals held in Washington D.C. Ferrell’s topic, Down and Out in Law School: Identifying and Coaching Students with Depression, addressed the frequent challenge facing career service professionals of going beyond providing students with career guidance to addressing more underlying emotional issues, particularly depression. Research has shown that law students can experience a decline in mental health during the first year in law school that can continue well beyond graduation and into their practice years. The presentation explored current counseling models, recognition of the signs of depression, the identification of legal and ethical limitations and boundaries, and provided participants with a wealth of resources.
- Professor Olivier Moréteau participated in a Panel Discussion on the Boundaries of Race and Citizenship in the South and Atlantic World organized by LSU’s Chancellor’s Distinguished Lectureship Series and LSU Atlantic Studies on April 16. Moréteau also presented by videoconference, on April 17, an Annual Report on French Law at the 8th Annual Conference on European Tort Law. The event, was held in Vienna, Austria, by the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law and the Research Unit for European Tort Law of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
- Professor Ed Richards was the invited luncheon speaker at the Fifth Circuit Judicial Conference held recently in New Orleans. Richards spoke on the topic of swine flu.
He was also a guest columnist for JURIST Legal News and Research Services on Fighting H1N1: Why Laws are Not the Answer.
- Professor Paul Baier’s tribute to Chief Justice Calogero, A Sprig of Laurel for Chief Justice Calogero, forthcoming in the Spring issue of the Loyola Law Review with Auseklis Ozol’s portrait of Calogero as frontispiece, was distributed at the Loyola Law Review‘s Spring Banquet honoring Calogero at the Audubon Park’s Audubon Tea Room in New Orleans.
Baier also gave the Fifth Circuit Judicial Conference a sample of his play, Father Chief Justice: Notes for a Play, at a May 5 luncheon at the Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans. Tickets to his talk, at the Conference’s invitation, were sold out. Judge Eldon Fallon told Professor Baier, “I couldn’t get in. I was wait-listed.” An overflow crowd of more than 280 Fifth Circuit Conference judges, including Circuit Justice Antonin Scalia and Fifth Circuit Chief Judge Edith Jones, were feted to Baier’s “masque of Whitenesse,” the first masque since Ben Jonson’s Masque of Blacknesse in the Seventeenth Century. Baier’s play is a veritable New Orleans Jazz Funeral, with red roses, “Father Chief Justice Signature T-shirts,” and posters all around.
