faculty news
Gail Agrawal served as co-chair, with Dean Kent Syverud of the Washington University School of Law, of the annual law deans’ meeting, held this year in Phoenix in conjunction with the Council of Chief Justices. She also accepted an invitation to serve on an Academic Leadership Council under the auspices of the Institute for Arts and Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Raj Bhala presented a draft of a new article, “Resurrecting the Doha Round: Devilish Details, Grand Themes, and China Too,” to the University of Kansas Faculty Discussion Club in February. He delivered a presentation on “Best Practices in Multilateral and Regional Trade Agreements” in October at the Annual Meeting of the International Bar Association (IBA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This presentation was for the Trade and Customs Law Division of the IBA’s Antitrust and Trade Law Section, and was part of a panel titled “In Search of the Best – Trade and Customs Practices by Government, Business, and Private Sector Advisors.” The presentation proposed that the “best practices” are ones that follow the Golden Rule. Bhala published “Virtues, the Chinese Yuan, and the American Trade Empire,” 38 Hong Kong Law Journal, Part 1, 183-253 (May 2008) and “WTO Case Review 2007,” 25 Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law, 75-155 (2008) (co-authored with Profes-
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sor David Gantz of the University of Arizona). In the area of the Shari’a (Islamic law), Bhala completed chapters for a textbook to be published by LexisNexis called “Understanding Islamic Law.” The chapters include Property Law and Business Associations. Along with Professor Steve McAllister, Bhala wrote an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case of United States v. Eurodif S.A., Nos. 07-1059 and 07-1078, September 2008. The case involved a French company alleged to have dumped enriched uranium in the United States market. The amicus brief focused on whether the antidumping (AD) rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and United States apply to services, as distinct from goods. The brief argued they do not, a point with which the Court did not take issue. Justice Souter wrote for the Court, in a 9-0 decision. (See 555 U.S. ____ (2009).) The Court held that the Department of Commerce (DOC) reasonably treated the enriched uranium at issue as a “good” subject to AD law, rather than a service exempt under that law. As the Court focused on the Chevron standard of administrative review (deferring to the DOC’s interpretation), it found no need to reach the issue addressed by the brief. Working with Mindie Paget, director of communications and marketing, and assisted by several current and former KU Law students, including David Jackson, Devin Sykes and Ahmed Alyousef, and also with Dean
Gail Agrawal, Associate Dean Stephen Mazza and Professor John Head, Bhala helped create the first KU School of Law multilingual brochure. The brochure – printed in Arabic, Chinese, English and Spanish – chronicles the International and Comparative Law Program at KU. It appears to be the first such multilingual brochure published by an American law school. Mike Davis chaired the American Bar Association site visit at the Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Mich. He later wrote three sections for and edited the entire site evaluation report that was submitted to the Consultant on Legal Education’s office in early January. Also in January, Davis was re-elected as chair of the Douglas County Community Foundation for the ninth consecutive year. Martin Dickinson published “Kansas Estate Tax 2007 through 2009,” a chapter in the book “Probate and Trust Administration after Death” (7th ed., Kansas Bar Association, 2009). Christopher Drahozal was elected to membership in the American Law Institute. He continued work on the “Restatement (Third) of the U.S. Law on International Commercial Arbitration” as a co-associate reporter. He and his collaborators prepared preliminary draft No. 1 of the “Restatement,” which deals with enforcement of international arbitral awards.