DePaul Law News

DePaul hosts 2012 National Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition

DePaul’s Center for Art Museum & Cultural Heritage Law, Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology and Appellate Moot Court Society and the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation (LCCHP) held the annual National Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on February 24 and 25, 2012. 

Seventeen student teams from across the country addressed issues concerning the Theft of Major Artwork Act (18 U.S.C. § 668). The first issue focused on Congress' Article I, Section 8, authority to regulate interstate commerce and the second issue focused on statutory interpretation of the act. This year's champion team, Richard Poskozim and Filip Zucek, is from IIT Chicago-Kent School of Law. A full list of winners is available on the competition's website.

Throughout the two-day competition, more than 50 DePaul law students volunteered, served as a ghost team and assisted in writing the bench memo, and more than 100 attorneys, including many nationally renowned cultural property experts and DePaul law faculty, served as judges. Additional support was provided by international auction house Sotheby’s. 

The final round was judged by the Hon. William J. Bauer, U.S. Court of Appeals for 7th Circuit, Hon. Diane P. Wood, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, Hon. Mary Mikva, Circuit Court of Cook County, and Hon. Warren Wolfson, Illinois Appellate Court (retired).

Established by DePaul and LCCHP in 2010, the competition is the first and only in the nation to focus entirely on the field of cultural heritage law.

The 2013 National Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition will take place on February 22 and 23 in Chicago. For more information and to view the 2012 results, photo gallery and final-round video, visit the competition website.

 

Professor Gerstenblith speaks at conference on Military Cultural Heritage Resource Management

 On December 9, DePaul law professor Patty Gerstenblith spoke at a conference at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The one-day conference focused on the U.S. military’s efforts to develop cultural expertise.

While the military has made the goal of increased cultural knowledge and awareness a priority since the mid-2000s, these developments have yet to be accounted for as part of a broad interagency conversation among military and nonmilitary stakeholders. The increasing relevance of the military’s approaches to cultural challenges to the work of other government agencies and nongovernmental actors, including diplomacy, development and humanitarian relief, makes the present moment opportune for a fruitful exchange regarding the relationship of culture to security.

Professor Gerstenblith’s panel focused on Military Cultural Heritage Resource Management. A webcast of the conference is available from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Intellectual property scholars discuss current work at DePaul

Nearly 200 intellectual property scholars convened at DePaul today to kickoff the 11th Annual Intellectual Property Scholars Conference (IPSC). This two-day event, hosted by the Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology (CIPLIT), offers scholars a chance to present works in progress and to benefit from critiques by colleagues.

More than 130 scholars will present on a wide range of topics covering issues in intellectual property, information technology, cyber law, constitutional law, privacy law, international intellectual property and human rights, telecommunications, the economics of intellectual property, and innovation.
  
In addition to CIPLIT, co-sponsors of this annual conference include the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, UC Berkeley School of Law; Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University; and the Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology, Stanford Law School.

For live conference updates, visit DePaul law student Daniel Rogna’s blog, Ebookisms, or follow CIPLIT on Twitter, @depaulip. 

 

Professor Gerstenblith to lead Obama’s Cultural Property Advisory Committee

DePaul College of Law Distinguished Research Professor Patty Gerstenblith, director of the Center for Art, Museum & Cultural Heritage Law, has been selected to chair President Barack Obama’s Cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC). The committee, which falls under the U.S. Department of State, assists the United States in implementing the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. 

Under this legislation, other countries can appeal to the United States to impose restrictions on undocumented archeological and ethnographic materials that have been pillaged and place the requesting nation’s cultural heritage in peril. When a country requests that the United States impose import restrictions, that request is sent to CPAC, which gives recommendations on how the United States should respond. 

“I am excited by the opportunity that this appointment will give me to further my experiences in the cultural heritage field,” said Gerstenblith, a noted expert on cultural heritage and the law. “The legislation under which CPAC operates is a signature accomplishment for the United States, indicating its commitment to working cooperatively with other nations in preserving their cultural heritage.”

Gerstenblith was first appointed to CPAC in 2000 by former President Bill Clinton. She will now chair the 11-member committee that, by law, includes experts in archeology, anthropology, ethnology or related fields, experts in the international sale of cultural property and members who represent the interests of museums and the general public. Gerstenblith says one of her objectives as CPAC chair will be to ensure that all views represented on the committee are given serious consideration.

Professor Gerstenblith appointed to administrative post by President Obama

President Barack Obama recently announced his intent to appoint DePaul College of Law's Distinguished Research Professor Patty Gerstenblith as chair of the Cultural Property Advisory Committee in the U.S. State Department. She will serve a three-year term as chair of the committee, which advises the president on appropriate U.S. action in response to requests from state parties for assistance in protecting their cultural heritage, pursuant to Article 9 of the 1970 UNESCO Convention.

In a White House press release, President Obama said, “It gives me great confidence that such dedicated and capable individuals have agreed to join this administration to serve the American people. I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come.”

Professor Gerstenblith is director of DePaul's Center for Art, Museum & Cultural Heritage Law. She is founding president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation and is a director of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield. She also has served as chair, senior advisor and vice chair of the American Bar Association Section on International Law's Art and Cultural Heritage Law committee.

Journal of Art, Technology and Intellectual Property announces 2011-2012 editorial staff

DePaul University College of Law's Journal of Art, Technology and Intellectual Property recently elected the 2011-2012 editorial staff. CIPLIT and the Center for Art, Musuem & Cultural Heritage Law congratulate the following students:

• Editor in Chief - Nicole Nguyen
• Business and Lead Articles Editor - Jordan Klein
• Seminar Articles Editor - Aaron Dozeman
• Legislative Updates Editor - Ashley Pawlisz
• Case Notes and Comments Editor - Nick Restauri
• Case Summaries Editor - Vicki Ger
• Technical Productions Editor - Rebecca Younger

DePaul hosts 2011 National Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition

DePaul’s Center for Art Museum & Cultural Heritage Law, Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology and Appellate Moot Court Society and the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation (LCCHP) held the second annual National Cultural Heritage Law Moot Court Competition in February at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago. Established by DePaul and LCCHP in 2010, the competition is the first in the nation to focus entirely on the field of cultural heritage law.

Above: The 2011 champion team from Chicago-Kent College of Law
and final round juges Bauer, Hamilton, Mikva and Wolfson.

This year’s competition included 17 student teams from across the country, nearly doubling the number participants from the inaugural competition. The teams, acting as petitioners or respondents, addressed a problem focusing on the Immunity from Seizure Act and the use of a laches defense in an action to recover a painting looted from occupied territory in the closing days of World War II. 

Art and Cultural Heritage Legal Society Scholarships

The Art and Cultural Heritage Legal Society would like to inform you of two scholarship opportunities. The applications for the scholarships are below. All students are encouraged to apply and to attend the scholarship reception!

Scholarships
The Art and Cultural Heritage Legal Society Scholarship will be available to one student at DePaul University College of Law who is working in a legal position within the mission of ACHLS. There are also a few Kaplan scholarships available to qualified 3Ls. Check out the applications: http://www.law.depaul.edu/centers_institutes/ciplit/pdf/ACHLS_Scholarship_11.pdf and http://www.law.depaul.edu/centers_institutes/ciplit/pdf/ACHLS_Kaplan_11.pdf or email achls.depaul@gmail.com for more information. The application is due on March 18, 2011.

Scholarship Reception
SAVE THE DATE for the First Annual Art Cultural Heritage Legal Society Scholarship Reception. The wine reception will take place on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 6:00pm at Quartino Ristorante & Wine Bar on 626 North State Street, Chicago, IL. Tickets are for $35 per person for attorneys and professionals and $25 per person for students.
Please email achls.rsvp@gmail.com to RSVP. We hope to see you there!

Sincerely,

ACHLS Executive Board
achls.rsvp@gmail.com

Cultural heritage and family law centers place students in summer jobs, award stipends

The Center for Art, Museum & Cultural Heritage Law presented Art Law Awards to students Virginia Cascio (’11) and Heather Hope Stephens (’11) this spring, recognizing their outstanding coursework in the area of art and museum law. The stipends help support their full-time summer internship work, Cascio at National Endowment for the Arts, and Stephens at Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. The center also placed Jennifer Lehmkuhl (’11), Aaron Rosenthal (’12) and Emily Casey (’12) in summer internships at the DePaul Art Gallery, Chicago History Museum and South Street Seaport Museum, respectively.

The Schiller DuCanto & Fleck Family Law Center assisted more than 50 law students in securing public service and private law firm internships during academic year 2009-2010, offering stipends to 35 of those students. Internshipfocus areas included child abuse and neglect, juvenile justice, divorce, custody, adoption, elder law, domestic violence, special needs children, gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender family issues, and sexual exploitation, among others. The center also arranged for 25 law student volunteers to lead workshops during their spring break at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center on topics such as street law, expungement, job placement and reintegration into school.