2010 Annual Red Mass

The Thomas More Lawyers Society will be holding its Annual Red Mass on October 14 at Old St. Mary’s Parish in downtown Milwaukee. The event may be of particular interest to the law school community this year as Adjunct Prof. Thomas L. Shriner, Jr., will be receiving the Society’s Faithful Servant Award – no doubt for keeping track of Dean Kearney during Advanced Civil Procedure and their Supreme Court seminar. The procession of Judges and Mass will begin at 5:30 and be followed by a reception and dinner at the University Club. A reservation form may be obtained at www.stthomasmorewi.org. Tickets are $ 55/person ($35 for students).

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Tea Party Economics

Readers of this Blog know that I have a longstanding interest in the debate over the scope of the federal government’s power to regulate the economy under the Constitution.  I am also inclined to take the Tea Party Movement seriously as a political phenomenon rather than writing them off as a group of buffoons or extremists, unworthy of attention.  For that reason, I read with some interest Kate Zernike’s article in the New York Times  on October 2 that discussed the writers whose books are most often said comprise the intellectual foundation of the Tea Party movement. 

Taking pride of place among the “long-ago texts” highlighted in the article is Friedrich Hayek’s 1944 book The Road to Serfdom.  Hayek is often cited by the movement’s followers for his argument that a government that intervenes in the economy will inevitably intervene in every aspect of its citizen’s lives.  If one accepts this premise, it is easy to understand why members of the Tea Party Movement reacted with hostility to the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP), health care reform, and the bailout of the domestic auto industry.  For Tea Party followers, these separate policies – when viewed together — comprise a centrally planned economy reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s infamous Five Year Plans.

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A Spontaneous International Law Week at MULS

This week, you will notice, is chock-full of talks and events related to international law and human rights, thanks to the efforts and interest of MULS student organizations.

Today  (Monday, October 4th) the National Lawyers Guild student chapter hosted human rights attorney Eric Sirotkin to give a talk on “Lawyering for Human Rights in the 21st Century:  Journey from Soweto to Pyongyang.” Mr. Sirotkin’s inspiring talk about his own work in Latin America, Africa, and Asia communicated the important role of lawyers in peacemaking around the globe.   As Executive Director of the Ubuntuworks Peace Education Project, he was able to offer students practical advice on how to use their legal skills to be compassionate advocates.   Mr Sirotkin will be dining with MULS students this evening to continue the dialogue on how to work with and for people around the world seeking peace.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, October 5, at noon)  the Dispute Resolution Society & the Association for Women in Law will host Lucy Reed, a partner at the international law firm Freshfields Bruckaus Deringer and head of their international arbitration group, to hear her talk “Women & Negotiation:  Lessons Learned From Around the World.”

Finally, on Wednesday (October 6, also at noon), the International Law Society will host Bertha Oliva, General Coordinator of the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), who will be sharing her story of three decades of searching for truth and justice following the disappearance of her husband.

In many ways this spontaneous ordering of events amounts to a thematic international law week, with the fortunate result of the world coming to MULS.

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