Latest from HLS News Staff

Harvard Law School recently captured the Northeast Regional championship of the 2005 Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, defeating the University of Vermont and Boston College in elimination rounds. The HLS team consisted of team captain Hugo Torres (3L), Rachel Rebouche (2L), Brandon Miller (1L), Erica Gaston (1L) and Marc Jacob (LL.M.).

Professor Elizabeth Warren and three Harvard Law students are experimenting with a non-traditional way of sharing legal research about bankruptcy legislation. They're not using op-eds, the mainstream press or books to influence the political process; instead, they're blogging. Earlier this week, the group launched a website affiliated with the popular political site, Talkingpointsmemo.com. Their blog focuses exclusively on a recent bankruptcy bill under debate in the U.S. Senate.

Harvard's International Law Journal will host a symposium on March 5-6 to consider a range of perspectives on international legal theory and practice. "Comparative Visions of the Global Public Order" will offer roundtable discussions on topics ranging from corporate law to global pluralism. The symposium, held in Austin Hall at Harvard Law School, will also honor two retiring Harvard Law faculty members for their work in transnational law and international legal studies.

Harvard Law Professors Terry Fisher and Jonathan Zittrain along with John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center, have filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in MGM v. Grokster -- a closely watched case that is likely to have a dramatic impact on the future of music downloading.

Harvard Law School's Program on International Financial Systems will host a panel discussion with senior government and industry officials to address the effect of regulations on the capital markets. "The Current State of Regulation of the Capital Markets: Too Much, Too Little or Just Right?" will take place on March 7 in Ames Courtroom from 2 - 5 p.m. A reception will begin at 5 p.m. following the discussion.

On Thursday, March 3, the Harvard Journal on Legislation and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice will present the 2005 JOL Spring Symposium, "Criminal Sentencing at the Crossroads." The symposium will examine federal sentencing guidelines in light of the United States Supreme Court's decisions in Booker and Blakely, which found the Guidelines inconsistent with the Sixth Amendment.

Justice Richard Goldstone, the first prosecutor for the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, addressed an audience at Harvard Law School last week to provide a firsthand account of the state of international criminal law.

This weekend the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies will hold its 24th annual student symposium at Harvard Law School. The two-day event will feature six panel discussions and a keynote speech by Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Harvard President Lawrence Summers and HLS Dean Elena Kagan will also speak.

The following op-ed was written by Professor Andrew Kaufman and published in The National Law Journal on February 21, 2005: "Justice Breyer deserves much credit for taking seriously the question whether he should have recused himself in the sentencing guidelines cases, but the revelation that he sought advice from an academic expert raises another issue of judicial ethics that should not be lost."

Second-year student Brian Fletcher has been elected the 119th president of the Harvard Law Review. Fletcher has advocated new policies such as changing submission guidelines in response to overwhelming feedback from professors for shorter articles and launched new initiatives like the "State of Scholarship" dinner series to make the Review an active part of the HLS community.

Following a unanimous confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate, this week President Bush swore in Michael Chertoff, a 1978 Harvard Law graduate, as the nation's secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. The new post is the latest in a series of public services positions Chertoff has held in both the executive and judicial branches of government.

Diane Rosenfeld, lecturer on law, was recently named a recipient of the Champions for Change Award for her contributions in research and advocacy on the subject of sexual violence. The award, presented by the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center and co-sponsored by Beauty and Main and The Charles Hotel, honored Rosenfeld's work particularly in the area of education.

Harvard Law School and Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences will collaborate to renovate Hemenway Gymnasium in a project slated to run from late May to September. The two schools will split the cost of the top-to-bottom interior rehabilitation of the 28,000-square-foot recreational fitness facility, which will be closed during construction.

The following op-ed was written by Professor Elizabeth Warren and published in The Washington Post on February 9, 2005: "Nobody's safe. That's the warning from the first large-scale study of medical bankruptcy...."

Nearly half of all Americans who file for bankruptcy do so because of medical expenses, according to a new study released jointly by researchers at Harvard Law School and Harvard Medical School this week. The study, which is based on surveys of 1,771 individuals filing for bankruptcy, is the first of its kind to gather extensive information on the correlation between medical conditions and expenses and bankruptcy.

Scholars from as faraway as Hong Kong and as nearby as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences gathered last week at Harvard Law School for a conference on professionalism in China. The event, The Professions and Professionalism in China, sponsored by the East Asian Legal Studies Program and the Harvard University Asia Center, addressed fields ranging from law, medicine, and religion to journalism, architecture, and business.

On Wednesday, January 19, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, spoke to students at Harvard Law School. Moderated by Professor Martha Minow, an expert in international justice, Ocampo spoke about his role as the first I.C.C. prosecutor and the challenges of working within an emerging legal system.

Following Friday's decision by the Department of Justice to allow Rodi Alvarado Pena, a Guatamalan woman, to remain in the United States, leaders of the the Harvard Law School Immigration and Refugee Clinic offered cautious praise.