Pace Now

Instituted in 1989, the Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition (NELMCC) is one of the nation’s largest interschool moot court competitions. Under pre-pandemic conditions, NELMCC is known for hosting as many as 350 law students and attorney judges on the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University’s Westchester campus. Despite the pandemic, last year, Haub Law did not skip a beat and hosted the first ever all virtual NELMCC – allowing students to continue to participate in the highly competitive competition. This year, still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Competition was held virtually once again.

Prosecutors must show that someone knowingly gave false statements under oath in order to mislead or obstruct an investigation, said Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University in New York and a former Manhattan prosecutor. Proving perjury also requires that those false statements are "material" to the central issues of a case. "It's a very tight area that the prosecutor has to navigate through in order to both charge perjury and convict that person of perjury," he said. "It's not something that's easily done." Gershman, who reviewed the Tisaby indictment, characterized Tisaby's misstatements as "side issues" that don't seem central enough to the Greitens case to give rise to perjury charges. "It seems to me they're using perjury in a very, very attenuated way," he said. "Usually perjury charges go to significant issues in the case — the individual lies about these significant issues in order to thwart the investigator. Using the charge of perjury in this matter, to me, is a stretch."

Pace University Professor Sally S. Dickerson: The pandemic is characterized a great deal of uncertainty and uncontrollability – factors that we know can activate stress responses (e.g., “fight/flight” response, release of the stress hormone cortisol). Practices such as meditation, yoga, or spending time in nature can be beneficial by activating systems that can lead to restorative shifts psychologically and physiologically, therefore potentially reducing pandemic-related stress responses.

Pace University economics professor Mark Weinstock says denying Russia to the SWIFT system would be the most punishing move. "They rely on international banks for a payment mechanism, to transfer funds, to engage in large trade transactions, and they'll be denied this." he says.

Pace University Professor Andriy Danylenko insights and personal story