Upcoming Events

Police Brutality, Race, and the Law

A discussion with Michael Benza, J.D., Senior Instructor of Law, Avidan Y. Coverof, J.D., Assistant Professor of Law, Ayesha Bell Hardaway, J.D., Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Lewis R. Katz John C. Hutchins Professor Of Law, J.D., Director, Foreign Graduate Studies, International Health and Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Rhonda Williams, Ph.D. Associate Professor of History, Founder and Director of the Postdoctoral Fellowship in African American Studies, and Director of the Social Justice Institute. Thursday, January 15, 2015, 4:30-5:35 p.m., Moot Courtroom (A59), Case Western Reserve University School of Law, 11075 East Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44106-7148. Sponsored by the The Institute for Global Security Law & Policy

Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice. The deaths of young black men at the hands of white police officers continue at an alarming and disproportionate rate. The U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights investigation’s conclusion that Cleveland police have engaged in a pattern or practice of unreasonable and unnecessary use of force make plain that there are significant problems with police accountability, training, and trust here in the Cleveland community. In the wake of these tragic deaths and failures to indict police, questions abound over racial bias, use of force, the fairness of grand juries, and how to create productive relationships between minority communities and the police. This panel discussion will analyze the legal, political, and cultural dimensions of police excessive force and race in both our local community and nationwide.

Hydraulic Fracturing: the Changing Landscape of Energy and Technology

Dean N. Malouta, CPG, a nationally recognized expert in conventional and unconventional oil and gas exploration, and alternative and renewable energy, Thursday January 29, 2015, 3:00-4:00 p.m., Nord Hall, Room 356, Case Western Reserve University, 2095 Martin Luther King Jr Drive, Cleveland, OH 44106. Sponsored by the Great Lakes Energy Institute.

Since the dawn of the new millennium, the energy industry has increased its attention on unconventional tight gas, shale gas and shale oil reserves. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicates US gas reserves have nearly doubled to about 354 TCF in 2013. Reserves for the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale are estimated to be a combined 122TCF. The boom in tight gas and shale gas production became possible due to advances in technologies such as reliable horizontal drilling and multi-stage fracturing in horizontal wells as well as in more sophisticated geological and geophysical detection methods to detect and integrate stress and fracture directions. The talk will include some general awareness of hydraulic fracture procedures and techniques.

Sustainable development means ensuring use of the best possible techniques for safety and well design, for protecting ground water, for minimizing foot print, for mitigating air quality issues and to increase public awareness and assurance. Industry is taking significant public steps toward greater public awareness of its actions with respect to safe and environmentally responsible operations. In addition, much work has been done to distinguish between the practically negligible effects of seismicity resulting from fracturing vs. seismicity which may result from high rate, high volume fluid disposal into disposal zones with inappropriate geologic parameters. Examples of such activities will be discussed.