ZiefBrief

Professor Freiwald Guest Blogging at Concurring Opinions

Professor Susan Freiwald will be a guest blogger with the popular law professor blog, Concurring Opinions, for the next month. 

Professor Hing on Lessons from Japanese Internment

Huffington Post published Professor Bill Hing's essay, Lessons to Remember from Japanese Internment: 

This Sunday, February 19, marked the 70th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. On that day in 1942, then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, setting the wheels in motion for one of the largest violations of civil liberties in the country's history. The forced exclusion of those of Japanese descent from the West Coast -- most of whom were American citizens -- and their mass incarceration in American concentration camps provides a lesson in human rights abuse that, unfortunately, the nation tends to forget too conveniently.

Professor Donovan on the New Cambodian Civil Code

Professor Donovan recently contributed a post to the East Asia Forum on Cambodia's historic adoption of a new Civil Code:

[t]he code is a major step forward for Cambodia. It is a cosmopolitan, internationalist document, exhibiting the influence of pre-existing Cambodian law as well as that of Japanese and French law. One knowledgeable Cambodian observer even sees common-law influence in the section of the code dealing with the basic rules of contract. . . . In short, the new code is a healthy hybrid which should serve Cambodia well. It promises far greater security under the rule of law than the Cambodian people have previously known.

Fortieth Anniversary Edition of The Paper Chase

USF Law has long enjoyed a close association with John Osborn, the author of The Paper Chase, the quintessential story of life as a first year law student at Harvard in the 1970's. As a professor of law and Distinguished Scholar in Residence  he has taught on wills and estate planning as well as a very popular course on the law in literature. To mark the Fortieth Anniversary of publication, The Paper Chase is being republished in a new edition with a brand new preface by the author. While much has changed in law schools and legal education in the last four decades, this book should still resonate with anyone who has lived through the rigors of an American legal education.

Though it hasn't been easy to find a new copy of The Paper Chase the last few years, this new edition is available in both a high quality trade paper back print edition as well as a digital edition readable on you Kindle, iPad or other compatable e-readers.

Professor Hing on Prop 8 and Immigration Reform

Professor Bill Hing recently posted on Proposition 8, Perry v. Brown, and immigration reform on Huffington Post: 

The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision striking down California's Proposition 8 attempt to take away marital rights from same-sex couples sends a strong immigration-reform message to Congress: it's time to allow U.S. citizens lawfully married to same-sex partners the opportunity to apply for lawful immigrant status. Under current law, prospective immigrants who want to immigrate through marriage can only do so if they are parties to a heterosexual relationship.

On Boredom and the Law

Mark Fenster has an amusing post on PrawfsBlawg today about teaching administrative law and boredom:

Being bored and being boring is a defining feature of adulthood, of responsibility, of doing the things that need to be done in order to live and provide for others. Mastery of anything requires repetition; repetition by definition is boring. . . . More significantly, like most professions law is about repetitive tasks and arcane things. There are periods of great, sustained, enervating intellectual activity in many legal jobs, but also vast stretches of reading, research, and manipulating boiler plate that are defined by their dreariness. . . .  this is why I think it's our obligation to make our material dry and difficult and, where appropriate, boring.

Fenster describes himself as the "Andy Kaufman of legal blogging," but I think his post does expose an important, seldom-discussed truth about practicing law -- some practice areas involve immersing yourself in a lot of boring, tedious, and complicated material day after day.  Sure, most people don't want to closely study a 200-page Federal Register notice, but in certain practice areas, it's inevitable that you'll have to analyze these kinds of documents with alarming frequency. If sifting through dry, complex statutes and regulations makes you deeply unhappy, transactional lawyering (e.g., tax, health care, or benefits lawyer) is not for you! If, on the other hand, you find great satisfaction in untangling the intricacies of the Internal Revenue Code and its accompanying regulations, a transactional practice might be a good fit. It never hurts to reflect on your tolerance for tedium before you make a career choice. 

 

Ninth Circuit Rules That Prop 8 Is Unconstitutional

The Ninth Circuit issued its substantive opinion in Perry v. Brown this morning, ruling that Proposition 8 violated the federal Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.  Judge Reinhardt's majority opinion states:

Proposition 8 had one effect only. It stripped same-sex couples of the ability they previously possessed to obtain from the State, or any other authorized party, an important right--the right to obtain and use the designation of 'marriage' to describe their relationships. Nothing more, nothing less. Proposition 8 therefore could not have been enacted to advance California's interests in childrearing or responsible procreation.

We have uploaded a PDF of the Ninth Circuit opinion.