UBLaw

Welcome to UBLaw Conversations, a production of University at Buffalo Law School and the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy. Today is October 16, 2009, and I'm James Milles. Our guest today is Don Mitchell, Distinguished Professor in Geography at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. Dr. Mitchell talks here about regulation of the homeless through such techniques as the rise of automated surveillance systems in cities, innovations in trespass law, and the criminalization of sharing food i public. He is interviewed here by Irus Braverman, Associate Professor of Law at The University at Buffalo Law School.

Thank you for joining us today. The theme music is "Brazilian Nights" by Jack Jezzro, and is available through the Podsafe Music Network. Please join us again next time for another conversation from University at Buffalo Law School.

UBLaw20091016.mp3

Playing time: 39:30

Welcome to UBLaw Conversations, a production of University at Buffalo Law School and the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy. Today is April 24, 2009, and I'm James Milles.

Our guest today is Dr. Michael Herzfeld, Professor of Anthropology and Curator of European Ethnology in the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. Professor Herzfeld specializes in the ethnography of Europe (especially Greece and Italy) and of Thailand. Among his ten books are The Body Impolitic: Artisans and Artifice in the Global Hierarchy of Value (2004), Cultural Intimacy: Social Poetics in the Nation-State (rev. ed., 2005), and Evicted from Eternity: The Restructuring of Modern Rome (2009). Dr. Herzfeld talks here about his study of bureaucracy, gentrification, and law in Rome and Bangkok. He is interviewed here today by Dr. Mateo Taussig-Rubbo, Associate Professor at UB Law School, and Dr. Vasiliki Neofotistos, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology.

Abstract:
Housing Rights and Historical Wrongs: Gentrification and Neoliberalism, from the Eternal City to the City of Angels
The sudden growth of interest in “heritage” has all too often resulted in a sudden appreciation of real estate values in places deemed to be of historical interest and a concomitant disregard for the interests of those who live in such spaces. Using the examples of Rome and Bangkok, Professor Herzfeld addressed the conflict among such legal rights as eminent domain, “free market” values, and constitutional and international agreements regarding the right to housing, as well as the rights of state and other authorities to decide what is historically significant and the strategies that local actors adopt to rebut such claims and establish their own moral claims.

Thank you for joining us today. The theme music is "Brazilian Nights" by Jack Jezzro, and is available through the Podsafe Music Network. Please join us again next time for another conversation from University at Buffalo Law School.

UBLaw20090424.mp3
Playing time: 36:47

Welcome to UBLaw Conversations, a production of University at Buffalo Law School. Today is April 21, 2009, and I'm James Milles. Our guests today are James Gardner, UB Law School, and Antonii Abad i Ninet, visiting scholar, UB Law. Professors Gardner and Ninet are interviewed here by Rick Su, UB Law.

"Federalism Under Conditions of Asymmetrical Subnational Claims for Autonomy: the Case of Spain"

Abstract:

In the Madisonian tradition of constitutional design, the foundation of a sustainable federalism is thought to be a scientifically precise balancing of national and subnational power. Experience shows, however, that national and subnational actors in highly diverse systems are capable of developing a rich array of extraconstitutional methods of mutual influence, so that the formal, constitutionalized balance of power rarely settles the question of the actual balance of power between levels of government. A more important factor in ensuring the long-term sustainability of a meaningfully federal system is the degree of symmetry across subnational units in their relation to the central state. A comparison of the U.S. and Spain suggests that federalism is most directly threatened when subnational units compete not collectively with the central state, thereby checking its power, but with each other, a condition that furnishes the central state with opportunities to exploit subnational rivalries in ways that risk genuine, long-term destabilization.

The theme music is "Brazilian Nights" by Jack Jezzro, and is available through the Podsafe Music Network. Please join us again next time for another conversation from University at Buffalo Law School.

UBLaw20090421.mp3
Playing time: 50:36

Welcome to UBLaw Conversations, a production of University at Buffalo Law School and the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy. Today is February 27, 2009, and I'm James Milles, Professor of Law.

Today's guest is Julia Hall. Ms. Hall is Senior Counsel in the Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program at Human Rights Watch, and an alumna of the University at Buffalo Law School. She visited us today to talk about the complex issues involved in the closing of the prison at Guantanamo Bay and the repatriation or relocation of those held there. She is interviewed here by Claude Welch , SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Baldy Center Working Group on International and Comparative Legal Studies.

The theme music is "Brazilian Nights" by Jack Jezzro, and is available through the Podsafe Music Network. Please join us again next time for another conversation from University at Buffalo Law School.

UBLaw20090227.mp3

Playing time: 21:16

Welcome to UBLaw Conversations, a production of University at Buffalo Law School and the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy. Today is February 26, 2009, and I'm James Milles, Professor of Law.

Sandy Lane is chair of the Syracuse University Department of Health and Wellness and a professor of social work. She holds a joint appointment with the SUNY Upstate Medical University, where she is a research professor with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. A medical anthropologist and epidemiologist, her research focuses on the impact of racial, ethnic, and gender disadvantage on maternal, child, and family health in urban areas of the United States and the Middle East. She received an R.N. diploma from the New England Baptist Hospital School of Nursing; a bachelor’s degree in North African Studies, a master’s degree in anthropology, and a master of public health in epidemiology, all from the University of California, Berkeley; and a Ph.D. in medical anthropology from the University of California, San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Lane is interviewed here by Bernadette Hoppe, an attorney and adjunct faculty member at UB Law School.

The theme music is "Brazilian Nights" by Jack Jezzro, and is available through the Podsafe Music Network. Please join us again next time for another conversation from University at Buffalo Law School.

UBLaw20090226a.mp3

Playing time: 42:42

Welcome to UBLaw Conversations, a production of University at Buffalo Law School and the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy. Today is February 17, 2009, and I'm James Milles, Professor of Law.

Our guest today is Professor Susan V. Mangold of the University at Buffalo Law School. Professor Mangold has been conducting a large-scale research project looking at the wide diversity of funding strategies for child welfare programs at the state and local level, and how funding affects policies and outcomes. Professor Mangold is interviewed here by UB Law Professor Rick Su.

Thank you for joining us today. The theme music is "Brazilian Nights" by Jack Jezzro, and is available through the Podsafe Music Network. Please join us again next time for another conversation from University at Buffalo Law School.

Playing time: 39:53

UBLaw20090213.mp3

Welcome to UBLaw Conversations, a production of University at Buffalo Law School and the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy. Today is November 19, 2008, and I'm James Milles, Professor of Law.

Our guest today is Richard L. Abel, Mitchell J. Connell Professor of Law, University of California at Los Angeles. Professor Abel's new book, Lawyers in the Dock, examines some of the most common ethical complaints made about lawyers. Using detailed records of disciplinary proceedings, he describes six cases based on three of the most common complaints: client neglect, fee disputes, excessive loyalty to clients. Professor Abel is interviewed here by Joseph Gerken, Reference Librarian, University at Buffalo Law School Library.

Thank you for joining us today. The theme music is "Brazilian Nights" by Jack Jezzro, and is available through the Podsafe Music Network. Please join us again next time for another conversation from University at Buffalo Law School.

Playing time: 49:52

UBLaw20081119.mp3

James A. Gardner, vice dean for academic affairs at the UB Law School, looked at the American election system days before what many experts call one of the most important elections in recent history during a public discussion held Oct. 30.

Gardner, who has been quoted extensively by national and regional media, shared his experience and research on voter fraud and crucial voting procedures. Do we still have the ability to run a fair, democratic election? Did we ever?

Although Gardner has warned against political propaganda exaggerating voter fraud, he also has said election law and procedure still merit close scrutiny. A recent Supreme Court decision upholding voter ID requirements in Indiana provides legal support for the aggressive use of anti-fraud measures, even though voter fraud was "essentially a non-existent problem."

"This raises the specter, as it did during the last election cycle," Gardner says, "of Republicans invoking anti-fraud measures improperly to suppress legitimate voting, often by the elderly, blacks, the poor and other groups that might have a tendency to lean Democratic."

Professor James Gardner is the Joseph W. Belluck and Laura L. Aswad Professor of Civil Justice, and Director of the Law School's Edwin F. Jaeckle Center for State and Local Democracy. This was a public event, held in the Conference Center, 509 O'Brian Hall in UB's Law School.

See also:

• Census Bureau's Counting of Prisoners Benefits Some Rural Voting Districts , New York Times, Oct. 23, 2008
• Few Cases of Voter Fraud Found, WNED News, Nov. 3, 2008
• UB Law Expert Sees Less Legal Issues For Voters, WGRZ News, Nov. 3, 2008
• Professor James A. Gardner Says Beware of Common Misconceptions About the American Election Process, UB Law News Blog, Nov. 3, 2008

UBLaw20081103.mp3

Playing time: 1:11:24

Welcome to UBLaw Conversations, a production of University at Buffalo Law School and the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy. Today is October 23, 2008, and I'm James Milles, Professor of Law and Director of the Law Library.

Our guest today is Professor Leo Lucassen. Professor Lucassen holds the chair of Social History at Leiden University and is attached to the Institute of Ethnic and Migration Studies (IMES) in Amsterdam. He is a former fellow of the New School for Social Research in New York and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS). He is a specialist in the migration history of Europe and has also worked extensively on gypsies and itinerant groups. His recent publications include: Migration; Migration History; History: Old Paradigms and New Perspectives (1997, 1999, and 2005) (ed. with Jan Lucassen); Gypsies and other Itinerant Groups. A Socio-Historical Approach (1998), The Immigrant Threat: The Integration of Old and New Migrants in Western Europe since 1850 (2005); Paths of Integration. Migrants in Western Europe (1880-2004) (2006) (ed. with J Oltmer & D Feldman); and the forthcoming Migration in Europe: An Encyclopedia (2009) (ed. with K Bade, P Emmer & J Oltmer). He is interviewed here by Professor David Gerber, of the University at Buffalo Department of History.

Abstract: This paper compares the propensity to intermarry of various migrant groups and their children who settled in Germany, France, England, Belgium, and the Netherlands in the post-war period, using a wide range of available statistical data. Professor Lucassen explains the different intermarriage patterns within the framework of Alba and Nee’s assimilation theory and pays special attention to the role of religion, colour and colonial background. He then compares colonial with non-colonial migrants and within these categories between groups with "European" (Christian/Jewish) and non-European (Islam, Hinduism) religions.

Thank you for joining us today. The theme music is "Brazilian Nights" by Jack Jezzro, and is available through the Podsafe Music Network. Please join us again next time for another conversation from University at Buffalo Law School.

Playing time: 32:48

UBLaw20081023.mp3

Our guest today is Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann. Professor Howard-Hassmann is Canada Research Chair in International Human Rights at Wilfrid Laurier University, where she holds a joint appointment in the Department of Global Studies and the Balsillie Schoool of International Affairs. She is the author of numerous articles and books, including most recently The Age of Apology and Reparations to Africa. Her presentation, "Why the Jews, Why Not Us?": the African Social Movement for Reparations, is drawn from Chapter 4 of Reparations to Africa. Professor Howard-Hassmann is interviewed here by Professor Rebecca French, Director of the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, at the University at Buffalo Law School.

The theme music is "Brazilian Nights" by Jack Jezzro, and is available through the Podsafe Music Network.

UBLaw20081015.mp3

Playing time: 32:11