I would be remiss in my duties as director of the Moritz College of Law if I did not offer my congratulations to the student winners of the annual CPR academic awards — both of whom are members of the Moritz College of Law class of 2011. From our press release:

Michael Diamond ’11 wrote the article ‘Energized’ Negotiations: Mediating Disputes Over the Siting of Interstate Electronic Transmission Lines, which was published in the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution in 2011.

“I was focused on energy law even before going to law school and knew in advance that I would want to incorporate a hot topic in the energy world into my note,” Diamond said. “I had written a paper about conflicts in the siting of wind turbines in Ohio for Professor Rogers’ mediation practicum, so I had a bit of an understanding of the difficulties inherent in siting large energy facilities, particularly with respect to private property interests. I was also familiar with the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision from my Property class with Professor Cohen. From that point, I just did some research and came across the issue of siting interstate transmission lines.”

Many students, like Diamond, write articles as part of working on a law journal. Diamond now works at a small law firm in Washington, D.C. that represents purchasers of natural gas electricity from interstate lines, under jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Nate Mealy ’11 wrote Mediation’s Potential Role in International Cultural Property Disputes, also published in the Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution in 2011.

“The topic of the article developed from my appreciation for ancient history, archaeology, and the law. Before I came to Moritz I was an ancient-history teacher at a number of private schools in Northeast Ohio,” Mealy said. “During those years I developed a great appreciation for art and antiquities because of how clearly they teach us about the past and what we have come to value as a civilization. When I came to law school, I wanted to find an academic point at which the law met my love for art and antiquities. That was where I found cultural property law, or the law of moving art, antiquities, and other cultural property from country to country, hand to hand, and institution to institution.

“The more I researched the subject, the clearer it became to me that because different stakeholders in cultural property disputes disagreed about how to define their cultural property and the rules under which it could be transmitted, the more I realized that black letter law could not help solve the disputes threatening to shut down the flow of art around the globe. This was where a more flexible approach — mediation — could be handy. Thus, I wrote my article in the hopes that it could present stakeholders with alternatives to complete embargoes on the trade.”

Mealy also wrote his article while serving on the journal’s staff. Mealy plans on joining the U.S. Army JAG Corps in February. He also is working on an another article that suggests the only way to stop the looting of the world’s archaeology sites is to bypass current looting laws and to institute archaeological, economical, and development-based conservation projects with the communities responsible for looting.

The CPR Institute is an independent, nonprofit that promotes innovation in commercial dispute prevention and resolution. By harnessing the collective expertise of leading legal minds and benchmarking best practices, it is the ADR resource of choice for multinational corporations with billions of dollars at risk. CPR is also a leading online destination for lawyers seeking superior arbitrators and mediators and practical ADR resources and solutions. CPR’s mission is to spearhead innovation and promote excellence in public and private dispute resolution and to serve as a primary multinational resource for avoidance, management, and resolution of complex commercial disputes.

Congratulations, Michael and Nate!