Prof. Anaya, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous People, addressed the UN Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural) on October 19, 2009. A detailed press release on his presentation and comments by representatives is available here. On the same day, Prof. Anaya held a UN press conference; a press release covering the conference is available here, while a webcast of the 53 minute conference is available here.

Posted: 11/03/2009

Professor Graeme Austin has been invited by Cambridge University (U.K.) to deliver its Fifth Annual International Intellectual Property Lecture on April 27, 2010. Hosted by Emmanuel College, Cambridge, this is one of the key intellectual property lectures in the United Kingdom. Professor Austin’s lecture will be titled Copyright’s Private Domain.

Posted: 10/28/2009

Professor Ted Schneyer, a national leader in the area of legal ethics and the regulation of law practice, has been appointed to a new, high-level task force that will review the rules of legal ethics and the regulation of lawyers in the U.S. Carolyn B. Lamm, the incoming President of the American Bar Association, announced the creation of the fifteen person panel during the ABA’s annual meeting last week, citing ethical issues as one of her top priorities for the coming year.

The task force will be known as the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 because, according to Lamm, its work will require a clear vision of the future. The Commission’s charge will be to look at existing ethics rules and the regulation of lawyers in light of changes in technology and the impact of globalization on the practice of law. “These developments,” Schneyer said, “are changing the legal profession rapidly and in ways that were not anticipated in drafting the current rules of ethics and structuring the current regulatory process.&rdquo

The commission will also review the major regulatory reforms that are underway in the U.K. and Australia, including reforms that permit lawyers to practice in multidisciplinary partnerships and law firms owned in whole or in part by outside investors and reforms that regulate law firms and not just individual lawyers. Schneyer said that he has been “studying those reforms in detail over the past two years.”

A well-known author and speaker in his field, Professor Schneyer joins a distinguished group of scholars, attorneys, bar leaders, and state and federal judges on the Commission. He has taught at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law since 1986, and has held the Milton O. Riepe Professorship in Law since 1987.

Posted: 10/03/2009