Congratulations to the 2015 Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition Semifinalists

Congratulations to all who competed in the 2015 Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition and special congratulations to this year’s semifinalists:  Larissa Dallman, Mary Ellis, Olivia Fitzgerald, Nolan Jensen, Jeremy Klang, Christopher Little, Natalie Schiferl, and Nicole Ways. Teams are advancing after four rounds of preliminary competition this past weekend.

Thank you to the numerous judges who graded briefs and heard oral arguments, as well as to all the competitors, who prepared hard for the competition and fought good battles this weekend.

The semifinal round will be held on Thursday, March 26 at 6:00 p.m. The teams will be matched as follows:

Team 11 v. Team 6 will argue in the Appellate Courtroom.

Team 10 v. Team 7 will argue in the Trial Courtroom.

The teams will argue before a panel of judges, including Hon. William Callahan; Hon. Patricia Gorence; Hon. Nancy Joseph; Hon. Joan Kessler; Hon. JoAnne Kloppenburg; and Hon. Paul Reilly.

Good luck to the semifinalists.

 

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Conferences Focuses on Fighting Human Trafficking and Repairing the Harm to Victims

“I want to believe that this can end,” Sharmere McKenzie said. “Let’s do this together. Let’s do this together. Are you with me?”

Yes, a capacity audience in the Appellate Courtroom of Eckstein Hall was with her. That was because of far more than the riveting personal stories told by McKenzie and several others at a day-long conference, “Restorative Justice and Human Trafficking – from Wisconsin to the World.”

The people at the conference were with McKenzie because of their commitment to dealing with the entirety of the issue of human trafficking, starting with understanding the realities of it and expanding to include prevention, prosecution, and repair of the lives of those who are victimized by it.

The emphasis at the conference was particularly on the “restorative justice” aspects of responding to trafficking. Janine Geske, a retired professor at Marquette Law School, continues to be a central figure in restorative justice work at the Law School and far beyond. She led the conference and set the tone of focusing on what harm is done by human trafficking and what can be done to repair the harm.

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Unpredictable March Madness and the Law

This past weekend sixty-four teams played a total of fifty-two basketball games. Games are broadcast over four different television networks, and tens of millions of eyes remain glued to T.V. sets across the country — soaking up each buzzer-beating shot and Cinderella story. Just as unpredictable as the outcome of each tournament game is the result of a case pending against the NCAA, the entity that profits enormously from the nation’s fixation with March Madness.

O’Bannon v. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), an antitrust class-action lawsuit, seeks to require the NCAA, and other enterprises who benefit from college-athletes’ images and popularity, to pay the players. This potential change in rules could shift these basketball and football stars from amateur to professional athletes. This change would significantly alter the landscape of collegiate sports.

Ed O’Bannon, a former UCLA basketball star, along with other former college athletes, filed suit in July 2009. The original defendants included the NCAA, the Collegiate Licensing Company, and Electronic Arts (best known for EA Sports). The latter two settled for $40 million. Last August, federal judge Claudia Wilken ruled in favor of the players, holding that not paying athletes for the commercial use of their likeness and image was a violation of antitrust laws. The NCAA’s appeal is being heard this month by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

This is a divisive issue that has passionate proponents on both sides. There are people in favor of paying college athletes and many that are opposed. In either case, one thing is certain: this March, there is much more than tournament brackets on the line.

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