— The law plays a major, though variable, role in articulating values, ordering society, and dealing with conflict. Its institutions pervade much of people’s lives and provide forums in which a culture’s distinctive temper may find expression.

More than that, the sense of law so permeates a nation’s cultural experience that it is possible for humanists, social scientists, and legal scholars alike to speak sensibly of “legal consciousness” as a legitimate, substantive term and object of study.

In Law and the Humanities: An Introduction, University of New England Professors Matthew Anderson, Ph.D., and Cathrine O. Frank, Ph.D.,  join Amherst College Professor Austin Sarat, Ph.D., J.D., in bringing together a collection of original chapters by a selection of distinguished scholars in both the law and the humanities from institutions around the world.

The selection focuses attention on a linked series of cross-disciplinary topics: ideas of justice; aesthetic representations of law; institutional processes such as testimony and punishment; and the rhetorical, narrative, and interpretive practices through which law does its work.

This book is, at one and the same time, a stock-taking of different national traditions and of the modes and subjects of law and humanities scholarship. It is also an effort to chart future directions for the field. By reviewing and analyzing existing scholarship, it offers both a resource and a provocation for a new approach to thinking about law.

“This collection is the first of its kind, and our hope is that it will be useful to scholars both in legal studies and in the liberal arts who want to learn more about this exciting, still-emerging field of interdisciplinary work in the humanities,” Professor Anderson explains.

"In particular," adds Professor Frank, "one of the questions that the field of law and the humanities and the volume point towards is whether we might reframe legal studies as a discipline of the liberal arts, not just a professional training.”

Essays in the collection range from “Biblical Justice: The Passion of the God of Justice” by Chaya Halberstam  to “Postmodern Justice” by Peter Goodrich; from “Law and Television: Screen Phenomena and Captive Audiences “ by Susanna Lee to “The Constitution of History and Memory” by Ariela Gross.

Matthew Anderson and Cathrine Frank

Matthew Anderson (associate professor and chair) and Cathrine O. Frank (assistant professor) teach in UNE's Department of English and Language Studies. They have taught numerous courses on law and literature as well as broad-based interdisciplinary courses on themes of law and justice (e.g., “Freedom & Authority,” “Women and the Law in Victorian England”).

In June 2003, Anderson organized a Law & the Humanities conference, on the subject of “Guilt,” at the University of New England. In 2005, he edited a special issue of Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, “Towards a Critique of Guilt: Perspectives from Law and the Humanities.” He is currently working on a series of essays that combines an interest in law, trauma, and literature, particularly the way in which issues of trauma and justice—and of the displacement of the sacred by the secular—are registered in a wide range of texts.

Frank teaches and publishes in the areas of Victorian studies and law and literature. She has published essays in Law and Literature and in a special issue of College Literature focused on law and literature. Her book Law, Literature, and the Transmission of Culture in England, 1837-1925 is forthcoming with Ashgate Press in 2010. 

NEH Summer Institute

Frank and Anderson co-directed a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute on “The Rule of Law: Legal Studies and the Liberal Arts,” which brought twenty-five scholars from across the United States to live and study on the Biddeford campus for five weeks in June- July 2009. The institute was funded by a 165k grant from NEH.

They are co-editing with Sarat a book, Options for Teaching Literature and Law, forthcoming with the Modern Language Association.

All five starters and a total of six players scored in double figures as the University of New England pulled away late for a 72-55 win over the University of Southern Maine in non-conference women's basketball action Tuesday evening at the Campus Center.

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The University of New England Political Science Department announces its first Mock Trial Competition.  Organized by professor James Roche, visiting assistant professor of Political Science, the Mock Trial is scheduled for Saturday, November 21.

UNE's three multi-purpose rooms will be set up as courtrooms. Teams from Colby College and the University of New Hampshire, as well as three teams from UNE, will participate. Two Maine state attorneys, a New Hampshire state attorney, a former judge and three other attorneys with significant litigation experience will act as judges,and volunteers have been recruited to act as jurors.
 
The case to be tried is the American Mock Trial Association's official mock trial case, State v. Jackie Owens, a murder case. This case is being tried by colleges all over the country in preparation for the regional tournaments in February 2010. Each mock trial team is required to put on its case (teams will either be prosecutors or defense counsel, depending upon a coin flip). These teams will perform opening and closing statements, cross examinations, direct examinations, evidentiary motions, etc.  Scores will be released shortly after the close of the event.
 

Three formerly cold-stunned and rehabilitated sea turtles - including two critically endangered Kemp’s ridley turtles - were transported on Nov. 4, 2009 via airplane from the University of New England's Marine Animal Rehabilitation Center for further treatment to the South Carolina Aquarium.

Also on Nov. 4th, a rehabilitated harbor seal was released at Granite Point in Biddeford.The seal, "Lily." the last summer-stranded harbor seal, can be tracked at WhaleNet.

The loggerhead turtle will remain at the South Carolina Aquarium for further rehabilitation, and the Two Kemp’s ridleys will continue their journey to the Georgia Sea Turtle Hospital for further treatment.

All of the turtles will be released from these locations in the near future once their rehabilitation is complete. 

The three turtles are:

MARC 08-121-Cc "Akela" purple/yellow:  a 95-pound loggerhead that had extensive shell damage and bone loss.  Her recent CT scan showed marked continued improvement and reconstruction of the shell.

MARC-08-116 Lk "Peppermint Patty" white:  Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle rescued with pneumonia and has shown great improvement. 

MARC-08-20 Lk "Knievel" pink/white: Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle that had steatitis, as well as lysis of the humerus, radius, and ulna.  She's using her flipper well now and is improving.

The harbor seal

"Lily" was rescued in Ogunquit, Maine over the summer and transported to MARC on August 31.  When brought to the Center, the seal weighed 33.8 pounds and had a thin, right eye ruptured and infected, oral and skin lesions, puncture wounds, and possible respiratory infection.  The seal has been rehabilitated and now weighs 59.6 pounds. "Lily's satellite  tag donated by Mike Williamson, director of Whalenet.

"Lily"
MARC 09-073 Pv
Harbor Seal -  Phoca vitulina
Arrival Date: 8/31/2009
Stranded At: Ogunquit, ME
Rescued by: Maine Department of Marine Resources
Gender: Female (< 1 yr.)
Reason for Rehabilitation:  Failure to thrive, Injuries

(Press release posted Nov. 4, 2009)

   Research on bobolinks by Noah Perlut, Ph.D., assistant professor of the University of New England's Department of Environmental Studies, was featured in the November-December issue of the national Audubon Magazine.  The seven-page story features several photos of Perlut.

Perlut, who came to UNE in fall 2009 from the University of Vermont, has been working with UVM biologist Allan Strong and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, part of the U.S.D.A., studying means to render compatible the growing of hay with the preservation of nesting opportunities for the bobolink, a cheerful little bird with a lovely song.

Noah Perlut in the field with a bird

The goal is to develop management practices that balance the needs of the birds, which depend on agricultural lands for breeding, and the farmers, who count on those lands for their livelihood.

"This research acknowledges that humans have significant impacts on landscapes and that these impacts can negatively effect wildlife," Perlut explained.  "Our job is to find ways to balance agricultural needs and wildlife needs such that neither is significantly compromised.  This program does exactly that, successfully balances dairy farmers' economic and production needs with birds' reproductive needs."

At UNE, Perlut's research continues to explore the ecological and evolutionary impacts of habitat management on wildlife.  It focuses on how hayland and pasture management effects birds dispersal, reproduction, survival, mating systems and population structure.

(Press release posted Nov. 4, 2009)

   The University of New England’s Center for Health Policy, Planning and Research first year report on health reform efforts in Vermont has been released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded State Health Access Reform Evaluation (SHARE).

The October 2009 report entitled, “Achieving Universal Coverage through Comprehensive Health Reform: The Vermont Experience” presents the interim results of a two-year comprehensive evaluation examining the impact of health care reform in Vermont as initiated by the 2006 Health Care Affordability Acts.

Findings
According to UNE researchers, the percentage of Vermonters without health insurance has decreased significantly since reform began in 2006, and insurance coverage in Vermont has increased more rapidly than in other New England states during this time.

Also according to the report, most of the increase in Vermont’s coverage is a result of expanded public coverage—enrollment in Catamount Health has increased sharply and steadily during the program’s initial months.

UNE researchers also found that key stakeholders in the state were generally satisfied with enrollment levels to date, despite barriers to enrollment.

Background on Study
UNE's Center for Health Policy, Planning and Research (CHPPR) in 2008 received a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant of $397,517 to conduct the study.

The two-year grant addresses a need recognized by the Foundation to evaluate state efforts to improve access to care and is part of the State Health Access Reform Evaluation program based at the University of Minnesota.

CHPPR  is evaluating the effectiveness of Vermont's effort to provide affordable coverage for uninsured residents and also reduce healthcare costs through system changes.

Vermont's healthcare reform is comprehensive, integrated and includes components common to many state health reform efforts, in place or planned. Information gained from the study will be invaluable to the health reform strategies initiated by other states and on the national level.

The project team is be led by Dr. Ron Deprez, CHPPR executive director.  He is being assisted by Dr. Sherry Glied, chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University; Dr. Susan Besio, director of Vermont Health Care Reform Implementation; Marc Voyvodich, CEO, Stroudwater Associates and Dr. Brian Robertson, director of research at Market Decisions, both located in Portland, Maine.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
RWJF focuses on the pressing health and healthcare issues facing our country. As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and healthcare of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 35 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and healthcare of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. 

    University of New England marine biologist James Sulikowski, Ph.D., has placed himself in the middle of a contentious debate between conservationists and the commericial fishing industry over the health of the spiny dogfish stock.

It's a debate that has already landed Sulikowski in the online news editions of the New York Times, CBS News, ABC News, MSNBC.MSN, the Seattle Times, Boston Globe, Forbes and many other news venues.

Sulikowski, assistant professor, Department of  Marine Sciences, who has been studying the issue for several years, was recently  awarded a $237,000 grant from the NOAA Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Program to use satellite tags to examine the behavior of spiny dogfish in the Northwest Atlantic.

The research will try to determine the habitat, depth and movement patterns of the spiny dogfish to better understand the  inconsistencies in data collected by federal agencies and the commercial fishing industry.

The status of the spiny dogfish, Squalus acanthias, stock in the northwest Atlantic Ocean has become a volatile issue. Distributed from Labrador to Florida, this species was once considered to be the most abundant shark throughout this geographic range.

However, with the decline of traditional groundfish resources in the last 15 years, an increase in directed fishing for spiny dogfish resulted in a nearly ten-fold increase in U.S. landings from 1987-1996, reducing the stock below survival threshold levels.

The Debate
Based on this reported decline, conservation groups are suggesting the species should be protected while commercial fishing interests say that spiny dogfish are abundant in northeastern U.S. waters.

The National Marine Fisheries Service and the Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Council, agencies charged with managing the spiny dogfish, are thus in the middle of a volatile issue and rely on Northeast Fishery Science Center (NEFSC) bottom trawl survey data to estimate spawning stock biomass and thus base management decisions from those results, among other factors. 

A management plan consisting of a 4-million pound annual quota and reduced possession limits for vessels fishing in federal waters was established in 2000.  Despite these measures, the spiny dogfish stock is not expected to rebound  before 2020; however, recent NEFSC survey data suggest a three-fold increase in spawning stock biomass occurred between 2005-2007, an increase considered biologically unrealistic by many.

In addition, data supplied by commercial fishermen and scientists suggest that anomalies within the recent NEFSC bottom trawl survey exist, such as a skewed 4:1 male to female ratio, which suggest, to some, a flawed estimate of the stock status.

Sulikowski's Research
Sulikowski proposes to build upon his recent success using advanced tagging technology to test the hypothesis that the horizontal and vertical behavioral patterns of spiny dogfish preclude the species from being effectively captured by NEFSC otter trawl surveys thus resulting in data that do not accurately reflect trends in spiny dogfish abundance.

Ultimately, anomalies could account for the substantially larger spiny dogfish biomass observed by the fishing industry and field biologists.