Official Blog of St. John's University School of Law Faculty
Professor Rosemary Salomone’s book, The Rise of English: Global Politics and the Power of Language (Oxford University Press) received another glowing review in the Business Standard India (“The English Question,” July 1, 2022).
The book was further featured in an interview with Professor Salomone on The New Books Network, a consortium of author-interview podcast channels covering 100+ subjects, disciplines, and genres reaching a million people globally each month.
Professor Elayne E. Greenberg presented Blinding Justice and Video Conferencing? as part of a panel on Pandemic Impacts on Remote Justice. Now that conducting dispute resolution processes via video conferencing is part of the “new normal,” how does video conferencing impact courts’ commitment to achieving racial justice equity? Professor Greenberg’s fuller discussion on this evolving issue will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Stetson Law Review.
The presentation took place as part of the International Association for Conflict Management’s (IACM) Annual Program on July 12 in Ottawa.
On June 26th, Professor G. Ray Warner presented his paper Collectivity – Converging EU and US Approaches at the INSOL London Academics Colloquium. Professor Warner’s paper explores the challenge presented by the increasingly popular bankruptcy restructuring plans that restructure only one class of claims—usually publicly traded bond debt—while leaving all other creditors unaffected. Such plans do not fit the traditional view that insolvency proceedings must be collective and involve all creditors.
Professor Gina Calabrese helped to achieve a 2021 legal reform in New York State to protect consumers from improper debt collection lawsuits. She is also working with policy and academic institutes to expand similar reforms throughout the nation. In November 2021, New York enacted the Consumer Credit Families Act (CCFA), which changed state court procedures in consumer credit actions, safeguarding the legal rights of consumers sued for debt–nearly all of whom do not have attorneys. Over several years, Professor Calabrese advocated for the law, contributed to drafting its text, advised legislators as the legislation advanced, and collaborated with stakeholders in the debt collection industry to resolve their objections and secure support for the bill.
Notably, CCFA establishes that a three-year statute of limitations applies in all consumer credit cases; previously, the applicable statute of limitations varied and could be up to six years. It also requires that plaintiffs plead facts sufficient to identify the debt being recovered. CCFA was a response to the proliferation of “high-volume/low-dollar amount” debt cases in lower state courts, spurred by the growth of the debt buying industry.
Professor Calabrese was invited to consult on a similar initiative being proposed on a national scale by the Uniform Law Commission (ULC). Since 2020, she has served as a Consumer Observer to the ULC’s Drafting Committee on a Model Debt Default Judgment Statute. As an Observer, Professor Calabrese shares expertise and gives input on statutory language. She made a formal presentation to raise awareness of the systemic issues that lead to excessive rates of default judgments in consumer debt cases, despite the prevalence of procedural and evidentiary deficiencies.
Organizations involved in public policy and legal education invited Professor Calabrese to speak on issues affecting consumer debt litigation. In October 2021, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, based at the University of Denver, held convenings to evaluate the success of virtual court proceedings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Calabrese joined judges and state policymakers as a panelist in two of these programs. In March 2022, she spoke on Ethical Issues in Consumer Space at PLI’s New York Program on Consumer Financial Services.
Professor Calabrese also spoke at two successive academic consumer law conferences hosted by the UC Berkeley School of Law’s Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice and the University of Houston Law Center’s Center for Consumer Law. She co-led a workshop entitled, “Challenges of Teaching Consumer Law Clinics” for the Consumer Law Clinical Conference. At the second conference, “Teaching Consumer Law In the New Normal,” Professor Calabrese was part of a panel on online dispute resolution. Her talk was titled “Online Dispute for Consumer Credit Cases.”
Professor Calabrese supervises students from St. John’s Consumer Justice for the Elderly: Litigation Clinic in their representation of consumer defendants in New York City’s Consumer Credit Part. Her contributions to law reform efforts are informed by observations of the systemic injustice that economically harms low-income people, people of color, and immigrants in our civil courts. She shared these observations with the St. John’s community at the Law School’s Anti-Racism Teach-In in April 2022.
Professor Christopher Borgen’s article “The Art of the Deal or ‘Abandoning’ Self-Determination? US Recognition of Morocco’s Territorial Sovereignty over Western Sahara,” has just been published in the Israel Law Review (Hebrew University of Jerusalem). Here is the abstract:
This article considers the recent recognition by the United States of Morocco’s territorial sovereignty over Western Sahara. After a review of certain aspects of the history of the dispute over Western Sahara, it focuses on the interaction of arguments based on the recognition and non-recognition of territorial sovereignty with those prioritising the right of self-determination of the Sahrawi people. It concludes that, in as much as the population of Western Sahara has a right to decide its own future, US recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara has undermined key principles of international law.
Professor Rosemary Salomone presented key points from her book, The Rise of English: Global Politics and the Power of Language (Oxford University Press) as part of the Centre for Global Governance Studies Global Webinar Series, “The Future of Global Governance,” at KU Leuven (Belgium) in May. The discussant was Helder De Schutter, Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the university.
She also moderated a panel discussion in May on “Cross-National Responses to Multilingual Challenges During COVID-19” as part of a symposium on Multilingualism and COVID-19: Lessons Learned and Looking Forward hosted by the Study Group on Language and the United Nations, which brought together United Nations staff members, government officials, university scholars, and members of civil society to discuss health and education.
Her commentary, “Ravenna: Dantean Paradiso,” drawn in part from the Preface to her book, appeared in the June 9th edition of Times Higher Education (UK) in an invitational series of travel reflections by six academics from across the globe.
Excerpts from an interview with Professor Salomone on the book appeared in the June 4th issue of Io Donna, a weekly women’s magazine and Saturday supplement of the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Her essay, “The Unstoppable Spread of English in the Global University” was published in the Spring 2022 issue of International Higher Education.
A June 7th article headlined “Battle of the blogs: Legal experts spar over consumers’ arbitration clauses,” by Steven Harras in CQ Roll Call discusses online debates between Professor Jeff Sovern and the Ballard Spahr firm’s Alan Kaplinsky. Harras opens:
Legal heavyweights who’ve rhetorically sparred online over the actions of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are at it again, this time over the clauses that limit consumers’ ability to sue their banks.
St. John’s University School of Law Professor Jeff Sovern and Alan S. Kaplinsky, a partner at the national law firm Ballard Spahr LLP — two leading figures in consumer financial law — are engaged in debate over arbitration clauses and what the CFPB should do about them.
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The two men have been debating the issue off-and-on for years.
The pair often spar on legal and consumer financial issues. Kaplinsky’s opinions and analyses appear in Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Finance Monitor blog. Sovern’s Consumer Law & Policy Blog is sponsored by the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
The online exchanges between Sovern, who holds views generally favoring stronger consumer protections, and Kaplinsky, more frequently viewed as sympathetic to the financial services industry, have gained traction among private attorneys, government lawyers and financial industry observers.
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Sovern said that according to Lexis, an online legal research tool, his blog has “been cited dozens of times in law review articles, congressional hearings, and the like.”
The full article is available on Westlaw.
On June 1, 2022, the 80th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Skinner v. Oklahoma, Professor John Q. Barrett participated in a panel at Georgetown University Law Center on “The Unknown History of Reproductive Rights & Eugenics: From Skinner to Roe.”
In Skinner, the Supreme Court unanimously declared unconstitutional an Oklahoma law that provided for the sterilization of some thrice-convicted “habitual criminals.” Jack Skinner, a state prison inmate, won a decision that protected his reproductive capability and autonomy. The decision became an important starting point for constitutional law doctrines that protect individuals from government regulations and penalties in the areas of contraception, abortion, private intimacy, and other fundamental rights.
Professor Barrett spoke about Justice Robert H. Jackson’s concurring opinion in the case.
The panel is available here on C-SPAN. Professor Barrett’s lecture begins at time counter reading 21:20.
The Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) released its second major report on anti-Asian hate crimes last week on May 31st, the last day of AAPI American Heritage Month. Professor Elaine Chiu was one of the executive editors and led the data collection and analysis efforts. Unlike any other study, the Endless Tide report aimed to answer an important question for this time of deep hate and violence in America: “What happens after a victim reports a hate crime?” In particular, the report focused on the efforts to make arrests and prosecute hate crimes in New York City and found that 7 incidents so far out of 233 incidents have resulted in a hate crime conviction. Some convictions led to imprisonment while others imposed non-incarceratory sentences such as counseling and drug rehabilitation.
Along with Professor Chiu, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and other local elected officials spoke at the press conference announcing the report. Since its release, the Endless Tide report and Professor Chiu have been featured in a variety of media outlets, including the New York Law Journal, CNN, NBC News, CBS News, Gothamist, and Law360. The report has also been covered internationally.
Below is a sample list of media coverage:
June 4, 2022, farsnews.ir: New Report Says Only 3% of Reported Attacks on Asian Americans Led to Hate Crime Convictions
June 3, 2022, NBC News: Only 3% of reported attacks on Asian Americans led to hate crime convictions, new report says
June 2, 2022, Yahoo News: Attacks against Asian American New Yorkers rarely end in guilty verdicts, report finds
June 2, 2022, Web Times UK: Only 3% Of Reported Anti-Asian Attacks In NYC Led To Hate Crime Convictions, New Report Finds
June 1, 2022, Philippine Daily Mirror: Lawyers’ group releases its second report on anti-Asian hate and violence in NYC
June 1, 2022, Nextshark.com: Only 3% of reported anti-Asian attacks in NYC led to hate crime convictions, new report finds
June 1, 2022, Poughkeepsie Journal & lohud (same article): Attacks against Asian American New Yorkers rarely end in guilty verdicts, report finds
May 31, 2022, Gothamist: Citing recent attacks, Asian American Bar Association pushes for more bail reform rollbacks
May 31, 2022, CNN: Only 7 of 233 reported attacks against Asian Americans in NYC in 2021 led to hate crime convictions, new report says
May 31, 2022, New York Law Journal: New York’s Asian Community Faces ‘Endless Tide’ of Hate Crimes
May 31, 2022, Law360: Anti-Asian Hate Incidents Rose In 2021, NY Bar Assoc. Says
May 31, 2022, CBS News: New report criticizes rate of convictions in crimes with Asian victims in New York City
May 31, 2022, News Channel 3: New report due out today on anti-Asian violence and hate crimes in New York City
Professor Robin Boyle was promoted to Editor in Chief of the editorial board of Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing. Perspectives is unique in that its nine-person board has a balance of law librarians and legal writing professors.
For 2020-22, Professor Boyle served as the journal’s Assistant Editor in Chief, and from 2017-20, as an editorial team member. She has published several articles in Perspectives, including one forthcoming this summer entitled “Swimming with Broad Strokes: Publishing and Presenting Beyond the LW Discipline” (with Stephen Paskey). In addition to Professor Boyle, Professors Rosa Castello and Patricia Grande Montana have published articles in the journal in recent years.
Perspectives typically publishes articles that offer practical suggestions for teaching either the first-year or advanced courses in LRW, teaching international students, teaching transactional research or writing, and teaching the skills covered in academic support.
Perspectives is an electronic journal sponsored and distributed free of charge by Thomson Reuters as a service to the LRW community. It has a subscriber base of 4,000 readers, and that base is growing.
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