faculty news
Raj Bhala traveled to India in March during his spring-semester sabbatical. He visited Delhi, Agra,Varanasi and Amritsar, in part to conduct research for his forthcoming book, “Understanding Islamic Law (Shari’a),” which LexisNexis is publishing in 2011. He has completed all 50 chapters – 1,500 pages – and is doing final edits on the manuscript. Bhala published the following articles: n “Doha Round Betrayals,” 24 Emory International Law Review 147-183 (Summer 2010). n “Why WTO Membership for Iran Makes Sense,” Foreign Policy, with Reza Aslan (June 2010). n “WTO Case Review 2009,” 27 Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law 85-190, with David Gantz (2010). The article was listed among the top 10 most downloaded articles on WTO law on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) for July 24-Aug. 21, 2010. He gave the following presentations: n “Agricultural Controversies in the Doha Round of World Trade Negotiations: Devilish Details and Grand Themes,” University of Kansas School of Law Center for International Trade and Agriculture roundtable on “Kansas and World Agriculture: Current Crises and Future Opportunities,” April 2010. n “The World Trading System,” at a training program on the “Effects of Global Trading on the World Economy” for the International Officer Program, Fort Leavenworth Command and General Staff College, April 2010. n A talk on controversial topics in Islamic law and reasons for studying it in the Indian context at a Muslim Law class at Benares Hindu University in Varanasi, India, March 2010. As a member of the LexisNexis Law School Publishing Advisory Board, Bhala participated in the annual board meeting in Colorado Springs, at which he discussed with other board members and senior LexisNexis officials a number of topics concerning the future of legal academic publishing. As a member of the Council on Foreign
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Relations, Bhala participated in an on-therecord telephone conference call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the subjects of the Middle East peace process, Iran and the Israeli economy. Bhala also participated in a conference call on “The Debate over the Proposed Community Center in Downtown Manhattan,” the Cordoba Project concerning construction of a mosque two blocks from ground zero. Bhala completed the Boston Marathon on April 19 with a time of 3:11:03 or 7:18 minutes per mile. His time put him in the top 10.6 percent of finishers. Michael Davis became the first member of the faculty elected to the Council of the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. The election took place Aug. 14 during the section’s annual meeting in San Francisco. Davis will serve a three-year term, renewable once. The council is the ultimate regulatory authority for legal education in the United States, including accreditation standards and enforcement. It is composed of 15 members and five officers, with representatives from the bar, the bench, law school deans and faculty, and nonlegal members at large. Davis was also re-appointed a member of the Section’s Finance Committee.
Martin Dickinson published the 2010-2011 edition of “Federal Income Tax Code and Regulations: Selected Sections” (CCH), for which he is the editor. Last year’s edition was adopted at 120 schools. In July, Dickinson participated in a panel on “Health Care Reform: Impact on Small Employers,” sponsored by the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. Christopher Drahozal published two articles: n “Why Do Businesses Use (and Not Use) Arbitration Clauses?” 25 Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution 433 (2010), with Stephen Ware. n “Contracting Around Hall Street,” 14 Lewis & Clark Law Review 905 (2010), invited for a symposium on “The Supreme Court and Arbitration.” Along with the other Reporters, Drahozal presented Tentative Draft No. 1 of the Restatement (Third) of the U.S. Law of International Commercial Arbitration at the Annual Meeting of the American Law Institute on May 18 in Washington, D.C. The members approved the draft, which will go before the ALI Council at a meeting this fall.
Davis recently completed a “checklist” setting out information regarding a new Kansas statute that becomes effective Jan. 1, 2011, the Uniform Common Interest Owners Bill of Rights Act. The checklist has been published on the Kansas Judicial Council website and informs those affected by the act of their rights and obligations under it.
Drahozal gave the following presentations: n “Rent-A-Center and Institutional Arbitration Rules,” Spring Conference on Contracts, William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Feb. 26, 2010. n “Trade Usages and the UCC,” at a roundtable on “Usages in Theory and in Practice,” McGill University School of Law, Montreal, Canada, March 5, 2010. n “Consumer Arbitration Before the American Arbitration Association,” Seventh Annual Housing and Auto Finance Workshop, Baltimore, Md., May 3, 2010.
During the summer, Davis traveled to Amsterdam to conduct an ABA site evaluation of a foreign summer program sponsored by the Tulane School of Law. He then went to Limerick, Ireland, where he supervised and taught students in KU Law’s summer study abroad program.
Drahozal organized a panel on “The Changing Landscape of Arbitration” for the Legal Educator’s Colloquium at the ABA Dispute Resolution Section Meeting in San Francisco on April 10 and did a presentation on “Debt Collection Arbitration and Teaching Arbitration Law” as part of the panel. He also did a presentation on
His article, “Religion, Democracy and the Public Schools,” was published in the Journal of Law and Religion.
