CrimProf Chui Wins Scholarship Award

On April 7, 2006, Dean Frank Wu of Wayne State University School of Law presented Professor Elaine Chiu with an award for winning for the Inaugural Scholarly Paper Competition of the Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty [CAPALF] held at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Professor Chiu won for her paper entitled Culture As Justfication, Not Excuse in which she urges the criminal law to adopt a new approach to how it regards the claims of defendants that their acts are cultural practices based on the norms and values of their minority cultures. Such claims should be thought of as claims of justification and not as pleas for excuse.

In addition to the award, Professor Chiu opened the conference with a presentation of her paper. The paper will be published in the October 2006 issue of the American Criminal Law Review.