Law

In a run-down section of city street in Niagara Falls, N.Y. -- flanked by abandoned homes and across from a shuttered hospital -- a dilapidated old dormitory for nurses is getting a new start as transitional housing for homeless women and their children. The building's rehabilitation is being made possible, in large measure, by the efforts of University at Buffalo law students attracted to an unglamorous, roll-up-your-sleeves niche of law practice known as affordable housing.

The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy in the UB Law School has announced a full schedule of events for the spring semester, including a visiting scholars series, a faculty seminar series and numerous workshops and conferences on a variety of topics.

University at Tulsa law professor Paul Finkelman, the chief expert witness in the lawsuit that forced the removal of a 5,500-pound Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court building, will discuss observations about that case and similar ones during a lecture at the University at Buffalo Law School, to be held from 12:30-2 p.m. Feb. 18 in 104 O'Brian Hall on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

Results of a University at Buffalo study published in the January issue of the Journal of Trauma show that police officers who do not wear a seat belt are 2.6 times more likely to die if their patrol car crashes than officers who use a seat belt.

If Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist soon retires from the bench because of thyroid cancer -- as many speculate he will -- he will leave behind a legacy as "a strong chief justice, generally well-liked by his brethren," according to a Supreme Court expert at the University at Buffalo.

Although both political parties are marshalling significant legal resources to challenge election results on the basis of voter fraud and eligibility, voter discrimination may be the most explosive issue to emerge after Election Day in November, according to an election-law expert at the University at Buffalo School of Law.

The Honorable Ann T. Mikoll, the first woman elected to serve on a New York State appellate court and a lifelong advocate for the cultural and educational training of young people, will receive the 2004 Edwin F. Jaeckle Award from the University at Buffalo Law School and the UB Law Alumni Association at a luncheon on Oct. 30 in the University Inn and Conference Center, 2401 North Forest Road, Amherst.

Concerns about privacy, surveillance and censorship are not new to the world stage. With the passage of the USA Patriot Act, however, members of the art and legal communities have begun to raise new questions about the chilling effect of government policy on artistic expression. The University at Buffalo Art Gallery and UB Law School collaborate today in a unique way to discuss the impact of government policies on cultural production and personal privacy, and the art community's response to censorship.

The impact of government policies on cultural production and personal privacy and the art sector's response to censorship will be the subject of an interdisciplinary art and law workshop to be held Sept. 10 at the University at Buffalo.

A research institute to examine ways to improve security systems at airports and other transportation hubs is being established at the University at Buffalo under a $538,000 grant from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to a UB engineering professor who is an expert in human factors that affect aviation inspection.