Law Briefs

Moot Court Winners

Congratulations to Laura Spencer (left), ’09, and Elizabeth Grana (right), ’09, who won the Moot Court Competition Final Argument on March 28. Eric Johnson, ’09, and Kate Hummel, ’09, won second place. The teams argued before Judge Dorothy Robinson, ’67, and Judge Kathianne Knaup Crane, ’71.

Student Writing Competition

Thomas B. Harvey (right), ’09, was the recipient of the 2008 Writing Excellence Award sponsored by the Student Legal Writers’ Association during the first all-law student Symposium on April 18. Harvey’s paper was titled, “Preventing Private Military Contractors from Wrapping Themselves in the American Flag: The Role the Alien Tort Statute Can Play in Increasing Contractor Accountability and Improving U.S. Foreign Relations.” Kim Novak Morse (left), assistant director of writing services, organized the first-time event.

Health Law Program Voted Number One for Fifth Consecutive Year

For the fifth year in a row, U.S.News & World Report has named Saint Louis University’s health law program the best in the nation. Since health law rankings began more than a decade ago, the School’s Center for Health Law Studies has ranked in the top three programs. The Center features some of the nation’s most respected faculty and offers dual-degree programs with Saint Louis University’s School of Public Health and Center for Health Care Ethics. Graduates of the School’s health law program are employed in the nation’s leading health law practices and top health care companies, as well as federal and state agencies. Professor Thomas J. Greaney, co-director of the School of Law’s Center for Health Law Studies, welcomed the No. 1 honor from U.S. News. “The ranking is really a tribute to the outstanding and diverse faculty members we have teaching health law subjects and to the outstanding students we’ve been able to attract to the program,” Greaney said. The specialty rankings are based on voting by academic peers in the same field.

Conference on the “Use and Misuse of History in U.S. Foreign Relations Law”

Are lessons learned from the Civil War applicable to today’s thorny foreign relations issues? Does scholarship actually have an effect on policy?

These are just a couple of the questions raised during the conference that took place on March 7. This symposium brought together a group of leading legal historians and foreign relations law scholars to examine the use and misuse of history in framing legal arguments related to the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. It was a full day of passionate scholars engaged in robust but still civil debates, exchanging ideas and learning from each other.

By the way, attendance at this conference was worth 7.2 CLE credits. For more credit-earning opportunities, check the law school’s Web site for upcoming conferences and symposia.