Faculty Roundup: The latest highlights from UCI Law’s faculty
Sameer Ashar
Professor Sameer Ashar’s forthcoming article, “The Futures of Law, Lawyers, and Law Schools: A Dialogue” (with Benjamin H. Barton, Michael J. Madison, and Rachel F. Moran), will be published in the University of Pittsburgh Law Review. The article distills a lively conversation about the most critical challenges now facing US legal education and, by extension, lawyers and the communities they serve.
Swethaa Ballakrishnen
Professor Swethaa Ballakrishnen received a Nominated Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities in Edinburgh, Scotland. From June 29 to July 10, Ballakrishnen will pursue a research project on law’s relationship to amity and asexuality using the lens of South Asian popular media and to participate in events relating to the Institute’s research and engagement activities. Information about the Institute and its activities is available on its website: http://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/. Ballakrishnen recently attended the International Studies Association’s 65th Annual Convention in San Francisco on “Putting Relationality at the Centre of International Studies.” Ballakrishnen chaired a panel on “Transnational Fields and Networks,” speaking on “Asians, Asian Americans and Post-Pandemic Professional Identities.”
Most recently, Ballakrishnen participated in a keynote session on “Law as Legal Profession” on April 11 at the 9th Annual Minority Seminar “Many Gazes of Law: Plurality and Ordering,” organized by Minority Research in collaboration with the Åbo Akademi University Law School.
Adam Cowing
Professor Adam Cowing’s article, “Equity and Ownership in Affordable Housing,” 2024 U. Ill. L. Rev. 399, was published in the University of Illinois Law Review. The article explores why the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), the nation’s largest affordable housing development program, has not achieved greater homeownership opportunities and describes how one model could finally expand eventual tenant ownership in the program.
David Kaye
Professor David Kaye published two essays recently in Foreign Affairs. One, “The Risks of Internet Regulation,” Foreign Affairs, March 21, 2024, evaluates the human rights risks posed by recent and pending internet law in the European Union, United Kingdom and United States. He also contributed “Freedom of Opinion and Expression” (with Azin Tadjdini), a book chapter in “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: A Commentary” (Humbertu Cantu Rivera, ed.) (2024). In addition, he gave a presentation on constitutionalism, democracy and the challenges of the digital age — part of a draft paper on democracy and digital constitutionalism — to the Danish Institute of Human Rights on April 2, 2024. On March 13 to 15, he attended his first plenary meeting of the European Commission on Democracy Under Law, known colloquially as the Venice Commission, to which the State Department appointed him in early 2024.
Jack Lerner
Professor Jack Lerner participated in the speaking engagement, “Navigating the Legal Implications of Artificial Intelligence,” United Way Alexis de Toqueville Society, Irvine, CA, April 2024. His forthcoming article, “Rap on Trial: A Brief History,” will be published in the Chapman Law Review. In addition, he will serve as a Visiting Scholar at Waseda University School of Law in Tokyo, Japan during Summer and Fall 2024.
Ji Li
Professor Ji Li’s forthcoming article, “Superpower Legal Rivalry and the Global Compliance Dilemma,” will be published in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law. He also participated in speaking engagements at the Asia Law Institute at NYU Law School (April 4), Cornell Law School (April 8), Duke Law School (April 11).
Omri Marian
Professor Omri Marian delivered one of three keynote addresses at the 2024 Ellen Bellet Gelberg Tax Policy Lecture, “A.I., Tax and Society,” at the University of Florida Levine College of Law on April 5.
Kenneth Simons
Professor Kenneth Simons’ recent publications include “Lost Chance of a Better Medical Outcome: New Tort, New Type of Compensable Injury, or New Causation Rule?” 73 DePaul Law Review 547 (2024) (symposium issue). Originally published in 2023, the article explores the merits of the subtraction and ratio methods for computing partial damages in loss of a chance cases.
Ann Southworth
Professor Ann Southworth, who co-directs the UCI Law Center for Empirical Research on the Legal Profession (CERLP), will participate in a book talk presented by the Fordham Voting Rights and Democracy Project at Fordham University School of Law on April 16. The talk will encompass her book, “Big Money Unleashed: The Campaign to Deregulate Election Spending” (University of Chicago Press 2023). The book, available for order, explores how the First Amendment became an obstacle to campaign finance regulation, examining a history that began much earlier than most imagine.
Heather Tanana
Visiting Professor Heather Tanana recently participated in the Federal Bar Association’s Indian Law Conference as a speaker on the “Treaty Rights and the Trust Responsibility” panel on April 4. She also recently received the Distinguished Service Award from the Utah State Bar.
Ari Ezra Waldman
Professor Ari Ezra Waldman testified before the U.S. House Government & Accountability Committee's Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation subcommittee hearing entitled, “Addressing Real Harm Done by Deepfakes.” The hearing video is available here: https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/addressing-real-harm-done-by-deepfakes/. Waldman also participated in the West Coast Sexuality, Gender, and the Law Conference, speaking about “Legibility Dilemmas and State Collection of Gender Data” on March 23.
Christopher Whytock
Professor Christopher Whytock serves as a committee member for the Southern California International Law Scholars (SCILS) Workshop, taking place on Friday, April 19, 2024, at Loyola Law School. SCILS is a group composed of international law academics and scholars who meet once each year in a workshop devoted to the discussion of four or five works (articles and book chapters) that are nearly ready for publication. Whytock also recently attended the International Studies Association’s 65th Annual Convention in San Francisco on “Putting Relationality at the Centre of International Studies.” Whytock chaired a panel on “Transnational Cooperation in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries” He also spoke about “The Global Legal System: Law, Politics and Transnationalism” on the “International Law and New Frontiers” panel.