Faculty Activities

Professor Bruce Frohnen has published three edited volumes since joining the college of law in 2008: Rethinking Rights (with Kenneth L. Grasso), Defending the Republic: Constitutional Morality in Time of Crisis (with Kenneth L. Grasso), and The American Nation: Primary Source. The latter work was named an “Outstanding Academic Title” by Choice magazine. Professor Frohnen recently co-authored two articles, Law, Lawyers, and the Question of Citizenship, in the Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Whom do you Trust? Lying, Truth Telling, and the Question of Enforcement, in the Quinnipiac Law Review. In addition, he delivered a lecture on “The Papal Revolution, Conscience, and the Rule of Law,” to the Paul B. Henry Institute at Calvin College and organized a scholars’ colloquium for Liberty Fund, Inc. on the thought of Edward Coke. Professor Frohnen currently holds a visitor’s appointment, and starting next fall will be an Associate Professor of Law. Professor Frohnen has a J.D. from Emory and a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell.

Professor Liam S. O'Melinn recently presented a paper, "Our Discrete and Insular Founders: American 'Degeneracy' and the Birth of Constitutional Equality" at the NYU Legal History Colloquium. Professor O'Melinn argues that the American colonists were viewed as a political "underclass" by the British Empire, that the American Revolution was a response to this attempt to treat colonists as inferiors, and that their rejection of the imperial ideal of inequality motivated Americans to focus on the importance of equality in the early years of the republic. This research is part of a longer-term project on competing constitutional visions in colonial and early national America; earlier chapters have been published as articles: "The American Revolution and Constitutionalism in the Seventeenth-Century West Indies," (Columbia Law Review), and "The Imperial Origins of Federal Indian Law," (Arizona State Law Journal). Professor O'Melinn joined the College of Law in 2001 and is a Professor of Law. He holds a Ph.D. in History from Yale and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Professor Scott Gerber published the North Carolina chapter of his current book project, A Distinct Judicial Power: The Origins of an Independent Judiciary, 1606-1787, in the North Carolina Law Review (Click here to read this article). He presented the Virginia chapter as part of the Clark History Series at Boston University School of Law (Click here for more information). Professor Gerber has also participated in a Federalist Society debate at Quinnipiac University School of Law on "The Radicalization of American Legal Education." Professor Gerber is the Ella & Ernest Fisher Chair in Law and is currently on sabbatical at Brown University.

Professor Michael Lewis is the co-author of a new book “War on Terror and the Laws of War: A Military Perspective” from Oxford University Press. Professor Lewis and five other legal scholars with experience as military officers collaborated on this book project. They share their unique expertise on the complex and difficult issues involved in applying international law to the modern battlefield. The book has been called “an especially timely examination of the changing laws of war.” In the past year Professor Lewis has also published two articles: ““Ethics and Operational Realities in the War on Terror” 50 S. Tex. L. Rev. 837 (2009) (symposium issue) and “Comedy or Tragedy: The Tale of Diversity Jurisdiction Removal and the One-Year Bar” 62 SMU L. Rev. 201 (2009).

Professor John Martin's new article "Reconfiguring Estate Settlement" has recently been published in 94 Minnesota Law Review 42 (2009). The article reviews the problems created by strategies and devices used to avoid probate, and advocates that estate settlement proceedings should be removed from the judicial process.

In addition, an updated and complete revision of Professor Martin's "Reporter's Commentary to the Michigan Estates and Protected Individual Code" will be published by the Institute of Continuing Legal Education in February 2010. Professor Martin's work helps lawyers and scholars gain insight into each section of this Michigan code, which governs wills, intestacy, guardianship and related estate matters. The Reporter's Commentary also provides the intent of the code drafting committee and gives comparisons both to prior Michigan law and to the Uniform Probate Code. Professor Martin served as the reporter for the drafting committee and is a Fellow (and past Michigan chairperson) of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.

Professor Scott Gerber published the Georgia chapter of his current book project on The Origins of an Independent Judiciary in the Georgia Historical Quarterly and an op-ed about judicial experience in the National Law Journal. He presented the New York chapter of his book project at a symposium in Tampa, Florida co-sponsored by the Social Philosophy and Policy Center and the Liberty Fund. He also discussed his first book, To Secure These Rights, at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and gave a talk at the Lima Public Library about the difference between writing fiction and nonfiction. Professor Gerber is the Ella & Ernest Fisher Chair in Law. He is currently on sabbatical at Brown University.

Professor Kevin Hill has recently published an article "Popular Delusions & the Law in the Age of the Internet" in the current issue of the Ohio Northern University Law Review. Professor Hill reviews the effects of scientific misinformation on public discourse and its direct and indirect impact on the courts. The article dovetails with his course on Scientific Evidence, which touches on urban legends and scientific misinformation and which explores issues concerning expert witnesses and scientific testimony. Professor Hill is also the author of articles on endangered plants and animals and has helped create an innovative "plain language" set of jury instructions for use in Federal criminal trials.

Professor Howard Fenton recently participated in the Workshop on Comparative Administrative Law at Yale Law School. The workshop was sponsored by the Comparative Administrative Law Initiative at Yale Law School, which studies the way administrative law principles and practices interact with other governmental institutions in the various legal systems around the world. Professor Fenton served as Chair of the Administrative Litigation and Administrative Law panel at the workshop and is preparing a paper for inclusion in the published proceedings of the Workshop. In May he also made a presentation on “The New Model State Administrative Procedure Act and Opportunities for Revision of the Ohio Administrative Code” at the Annual Convention of the Ohio State Bar Association. Professor Fenton continues to work with a United States Agency for International Development project in Ukraine revising the training curriculum for administrative court judges and introducing more interactive training experiences such as case studies for the judges of the recently created administrative court system. In addition, earlier this year Professor Fenton completed an analysis of the draft Uzbekistan Administrative Procedure Law for the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which is assisting Uzbekistan in reforming its administrative law system.

Professor Victor Streib has recently published a new edition of his book Death Penalty in a Nutshell ( St. Paul, MN: West Group) (3rd ed. 2009). His article "Intentional Wrongful Conviction of Juveniles" will appear in an upcoming issue of the Chicago-Kent Law Review. Professor Streib has also contributed two articles to the 2009 inaugural issue of the Elon University Law Review: "Arguments For and Against the Death Penalty" and "Death Penalty for Women in North Carolina" (with Elizabeth Rapaport).

Professor Scott Gerber debated Dean Larry Kramer at Stanford Law School about popular constitutionalism. The audio is available at: Stanford Debate. Professor Gerber also spoke about Justice Clarence Thomas and the Declaration of Independence at Santa Clara University School of Law, and he presented a chapter of his current book project, The Origins of an Independent Judiciary, to a faculty colloquium at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Professor Gerber is the Ella & Ernest Fisher Chair in Law.

Professor J. H. Huebert has received The Distinguished Service Award from The Ohio Association of Civil Trial Attorneys for the third straight year (2006, 2007 and 2008). Additionally, Ohio Super Lawyers® 2009 designated Professor Huebert as a Rising Star, which officially recognizes him as among the top 2.5% of all up-and-coming lawyers in the state age 40 or under who have been practicing law 10 years or less. Professor Huebert is an Adjunct Professor of Law who practices law full time in Columbus with the law firm of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur. Professor Huebert teaches a Jurisprudence Seminar at the College of Law during the Fall semester and Advanced Appellate Advocacy in the Spring. He earned his JD at the University of Chicago, where he was John M. Olin Student Fellow of Law & Economics, and his BA in economics with honors at Grove City College.

Professor Howard Fenton has been appointed Co-Editor-in-Chief of Baldwin’s Ohio Administrative Code: Ohio Administrative Law Directory and Handbook, a publication prepared by the Administrative Law Committee of the Ohio State Bar Association and published by Thomson-West. Professor Fenton will be responsible for the Handbook, a concise text covering the full range of administrative law practice in Ohio . His co-editor, Christopher McNeil of Columbus , will be responsible for the Directory, a comprehensive listing of Ohio state administrative agencies and staff. Professor Fenton will also be an invited speaker on the panel discussion “After the LLM: Career Options, Building Alumni Networks, and Development Strategies” at the January 2009 meeting of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS). This program is sponsored by the AALS Section on Post-Graduate Legal Education, co-sponsored by the Sections on Graduate Programs for Foreign Lawyers and Institutional Advancement.

Professor Sherry Young recently presented a lecture on Ohio products liability law to the IEEE/Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers in Lima, Ohio . She also spoke on campus on a panel concerning gender bias in the legal system, and on the topic of engineering liability to a class in the College of Engineering . Prior to coming to Ohio Northern Professor Young was a trial attorney with the law firm of Porter, Wright, Morris, & Arthur in Columbus . She is an expert on products liability issues and personal injury litigation. Professor Young has consistently been recognized for excellence in classroom teaching. She received the Dean's Award for Outstanding Teaching three times (in 1991, 1995, 2002) and was a finalist for this award in 1990, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2006, and 2008.

Professor Scott Gerber presented a chapter of his current book project, The Origins of an Independent Judiciary, to a faculty colloquium at Loyola University of New Orleans School of Law. He also participated in a Liberty Fund colloquium on "Free Will, Moral Responsibility, and Responsibility for Character." His book about the Declaration of Independence was discussed in the recently-published Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, among other places, while his book about Justice Thomas's jurisprudence continues to be cited as the leading work on the subject.

Professor Kevin Hill traveled to Thimphu, Bhutan where he met with the Honorable Chief Justice of Bhutan, Lyonpo Sonom Tobgye and recent LL.M. graduate Pelden Wangmo, LLM ‘08. The Chief Justice donated several books to the Ohio Northern University Law Library on Bhutanese law and the influence of Buddhism on the law of Bhutan . Professor Hill will also be speaking this fall at a continuing legal education program. His presentation will be on “Professionalism in the Age of the Internet.” Professor Hill is an engaging speaker who has been recognized with both the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Teaching (in 1992, 1997, 2001, and 2004) and with numerous Student Bar Association Awards for Teaching Excellence.

Professor Jean-Marie Kamatali will be speaking at the University of Oslo and the University of Trondheim in Norway in October. He is also an invited speaker in the University of North Carolina's Harriet Elliott Lecture Series. Professor Kamatali's presentations are on the topic of human rights and on the challenges faced by post-conflict and post dictatorship societies. He will also address the Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association in Chicago on the International Criminal Tribunal in Rwanda . Professor Kamatali is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law and Assistant Director of the LLM program in Democratic Governance and Rule of Law. Kamatali joined Ohio Northern from the University of Notre Dame College of Law, where he served as a senior post-doctoral research associate and adjunct professor. Previously, Kamatali was dean of the law school at the National University of Rwanda and contributed to the post-genocide legal and institutional rebuilding in Rwanda.

Professor Bryan Ward was inducted as a fellow of the Ohio State Bar Foundation for the 2008 class. Membership inthe Ohio State Bar Foundation is an honor extended only to lawyers whose careers have demonstrated their dedication to the highest ideals of the legal profession and the welfare of their community. The Foundation is dedicated to the mission of promoting public understanding of the law and improvements in the justice system throughout Ohio. Earlier this year Professor Ward also received an appreciation of leadership award from the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church for legal services provided by the ONU Corporate Transactional Clinic.

Professor Scott Gerber's bookabout Justice Clarence Thomas was featured in a summer 2008 review essay in the Claremont Review of Books. Professor Gerber also discussed the book in July at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools and wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal about Chief Justice John Roberts. Professor Gerber is the Ella & Ernest Fisher Chair in Law.

Professor Vernon Traster recently presented two lectures on insurance and tort law topics to Ohio trial lawyers. His first lecture at the Ohio Association for Justice (OAJ) seminar addressed the Arbino decision by the Ohio Supreme Court which rejected “facial” challenges concerning the constitutionality of SB 80, the most recent tort reform legislation. Professor Traster also delivered a lecture “Bad Faith and Other Misconduct by Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Insurers” during the 2008 Annual Convention of the Ohio Association of Justice. The OAJ (formerly The Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers) published Professor Traster’s lecture materials as part of the convention/seminar handbooks at both OAJ events.

The Uniform Law Commission has appointed Professor Stephen Veltri to the Study Committee on the Law of Payment Systems. Professor Veltri will serve as an advisor and will represent the Business Section of the American Bar Association. The Committee, in consultation with the Federal Reserve Board, the American Law Institute and other groups, will study the law of payment systems in order to determine if a modern and unified payments code should be drafted. Americans today use a wide range of methods to make payments such as checks, credit cards, debit cards, electronic funds transfers and automated clearinghouse transactions. These methods are governed by different bodies of law which are sometimes inconsistent. A unified payments code could harmonize these disparities.

Director of the Law Library and Professor Nancy Armstrong received the Liberty Bell Award from the ONU Law Student Bar Association. The Liberty Bell Award is presented annually by the Student Bar Association in conjunction with the American Bar Association as public recognition for outstanding law community service at the College of Law. In June Professor Armstrong attended a workshop sponsored by the American Association of Law Schools on the role of the law library director in the legal academy. An article that she wrote on this topic, “The Search for a Law Library Director”, 98 Law Library Journal 253 (2006), was included in a resource guide compiled for the workshop.

Professor Amanda Pecchioni will soon complete her term as President of the Marion County Bar Association (Indianapolis, Indiana). Earlier this academic year she was also a panelist on two programs: “Emerging Issues in Trademark and Copyright Law” at the National Bar Association Annual Convention and “The Minority Lawyers’ Perspective: A Real-Life Look” at the Diversity in Practice Conference: Building a Culture of Inclusion, held in Indianapolis. Professor Pecchioni is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law. She worked for the Indianapolis law firm Ice Miller LLP, in the Intellectual Property group, before coming to Ohio Northern in the fall of 2007.

Professor Scott Gerber has published a sixty-page article in the Vanderbilt Law Review about the political theory that led to Article III of the U.S. Constitution. The article is part of a book he is writing on the origins of an independent judiciary. Click here for the article

Professor Michael Lewis recently presented a draft article on the Definition of Torture in the post-9/11 World to the Oxford Roundtable at Pembroke College, Oxford University in the UK. In the months of March and April Professor Lewis also participated in seven presentations on the laws of war. These included debates on the Hamdan opinion (with the attorney for Hamdan), the limits of executive power during wartime, and detainee treatment issues in the war on terror. Professor Lewis traveled to numerous other law schools to participate in these debates, including the University of Florida, Drake University, William and Mary, and Duquesne University.

Professor Scott Gerber has been appointed to the Ohio Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The Commission has 51 State Advisory Committees -- one for each state and the District of Columbia. As a member of the Ohio Advisory Committee, Professor Gerber will assist the Commission with its fact-finding, investigative, and information dissemination functions. His 2 year appointment was approved by the Commissioners in April.

Professor Joanne Brant will be speaking at two campus events in March. She will give a presentation for a program titled "Enemy Combatants and the Supreme Court: A Conversation on Boumediene and Al Odah" sponsored by the ONU Federalist Society, and will participate in a debate sponsored by the ONU Christian Legal Society. This past fall, Professor Brant spoke about Morse v. Frederick (popularly known as the "Bong Hits for Jesus" case) at the university's Constitution Day program. She also presented a program on church-state separation to a local service organization. Professor Brant is the coach of the Constitutional Law Moot Court team and was the winner of the law college's Excellence in Teaching Award in 2006.

Professor Scott Gerber recently presented a lecture on "The Declaration and the Constitution: A Libertarian's Perspective" to the law schools at the University of California at Berkeley, Hastings, University of San Francisco, and Golden Gate University. He also presented the lecture to the San Francisco lawyers' chapter of the Federalist Society. Professor Gerber has published three books on the subject.

Professor John Martin’s article “New Estate Planning Techniques” has recently been published in 18 Probate Law Journal of Ohio 108 (2007). The article is based on a presentation Professor Martin gave last fall at the Marvin R. Pliskin Advanced Probate & Estate Planning Seminar sponsored by the Ohio State Bar Association. His presentation was on the topic “Securing Tax Benefits from New Uses of General Powers of Appointment and Other Powers Granted and Retained.” In November, Professor Martin was also a co-presenter at a continuing education seminar entitled, “Charitable Planning in a Changing World,” sponsored by Ohio Northern University. He spoke about “General Rules for Deduction, Valuation, and Substantiation of Charitable Contributions.” Professor Martin is a Visiting Professor of Law. He received the 2007 Excellence in Teaching Award at ONU and the 2007 Daniel S. Guy Award for Excellence in Legal Journalism, presented by the ONU Law Review.

Professor Michael Lewis's new article, “International Myopia: Hamdan’s Shortcut to ‘Victory’” will appear in the January 2008 issue of the University of Richmond Law Review (42 U. Rich. L.R. 687 (2008)). Professor Lewis, an expert in the law of armed conflict, has also participated in debates and panels at a number of law schools. He was invited to participate as a panelist at Duke Law School's LENS Conference on issues surrounding domestic surveillance. Professor Lewis debated the Military Commissions Act with John Hutson, Dean of the Franklin Pierce School of Law, at Boston College and debated the separation of powers during wartime at the William & Mary School of Law. He also delivered a lecture on the Hamdan opinion at the University of Notre Dame Law School. Professor Lewis flew F-14 fighter jets for the United States Navy, was a Topgun graduate in 1992, and writes in the areas of International Humanitarian Law and national security.

Professor Victor Streib’s research on women and the death penalty was recognizedin a new ABA death penalty assessment report for Ohio. This report, “Evaluating Fairness and Accuracy in State Death Penalty Systems: The Ohio Death Penalty Assessment Report,” was released in September 2007, after a 30-month review of Ohio’s death penalty system. It cites to Streib’s new book “The Fairer Death: Executing Women in Ohio” (Ohio University Press, 2006). Professor Streib has also just signed a contract with Thomson West to write a third edition of his book “Death Penalty in a Nutshell.” This book was originally published in 2003, with a second edition in 2005. The third edition will be published in the 2008. Professor Streib was also interviewed and quoted in the news media this summer in connection with two death penalty cases. One article included Streib’s accurate prediction that a then on-going federal death penalty trial of a woman would not result in the death penalty (“Two women wait on federal death row,” Youngstown Vindicator, 7/15/2007), while another provided a very positive review of his book “The Fairer Death” (“Executioner sure to skip lone woman on death row,” Columbus Dispatch, 5/3/2007).

Professor Howard Fenton recently contributed two chapters to the 2007 publication Administrative Justice in Ukraine: Problems, Theory and Practice, A Resource Manual for Judges published by the Administrative High Court of Ukraine, with funding from the United States Agency for International Development. Professor Fenton wrote Chapter Two “The establishment and development of administrative justice. Main models of administrative justice.” and Chapter 8, “Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights on issues of administrative justice. The procedure for execution of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.” Professor Fenton was also invited to participate in the conference “The Participation of the Government in the Legislative Process” held in Warsaw, Poland in September 2007. It was sponsored by the Legislative Council of the Polish Cabinet and the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. Professor Fenton moderated the opening session, which included the presentation and discussion of the paper “The Model of the Executive in Poland” by Professor Boguslaw Banaszak, Chairman of the Legislative Council.