Latest from Harvard Law News Staff

Harvard Law School Senior Lecturer on Law and retired federal judge Nancy Gertner will receive the New England First Amendment Coalition's 2015 Stephen Hamblett Award, named after the late publisher of The Providence Journal and given each year to an individual who has promoted, defended or advocated for the First Amendment.

The recent report "Arab Religious Skeptics Online: Anonymity, Autonomy, and Discourse in a Hostile Environment," authored by Helmi Noman and published by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society's Internet Monitor project examines the emergence of religious skeptics in Arab cyberspace.

Carrie Fletcher has been appointed as the new executive director of Harvard Law School Executive Education, where she works with faculty and an administrative team to develop leadership programs that serve law firm managing partners, emerging law firm leaders, and general counsel from across the globe.

On Nov. 24, the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard hosted “Too Big to Fail or Too Hard to Remember: Lessons from the New Deal and the Triumph, Tragedy, and Lost Legacy of James M. Landis,” a discussion of the legacy of scholar, administrator, advocate and political adviser known for his seminal contribution to the creation of the modern system of market regulation in the United States.

And discussions have continued into the new year about the policy and procedures of police, prosecutors and the community at large.

Starting this month, Harvard Law Professor Charles Fried, who has been teaching the intricacies of the law to HLS students for nearly 50 years, is expanding his student body dramatically with the start of his online ContractsX course, a seven-week study of contracts for nonlawyers.

Allen Ferrell, the Harvey Greenfield Professor of Securities Law at Harvard Law School, has been awarded the 2014 Moskowitz Prize. The prestigious annual award from the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, recognizes outstanding quantitative research in socially responsible investing.

Internet Monitor, a research project based at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, recently published the project's second annual report, "Internet Monitor 2014: Reflections on the Digital World," a collection of roughly three dozen short contributions that highlight and discuss some of the most compelling events and trends in the digitally networked environment over the past year.

At a time when policing, prosecutorial discretion, the death penalty, and criminal justice as a whole are under tremendous scrutiny in the United States, a new initiative at Harvard Law School seeks to analyze problems within the U.S. criminal justice system and look for solutions.

On November 12, Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman delivered a talk, “James Madison and Felix Frankfurter: Friends, Enemies, and the Meaning of the Constitution,” on the occasion of his appointment as the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law.

On Nov. 21, Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe '66 participated in a panel discussion of his latest book, “Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution,” with Dean Martha Minow and Professor Richard Lazarus.

In a question-and-answer session with Dean Martha Minow at Harvard Law School on Nov. 6, former Congressman Jane Harman '69 reflected on her political career and discussed a range of issues from the fallout from the midterm elections to U.S. intelligence, foreign policy and the evolving threat of terrorism.

The final round of Harvard Law School's annual Ames Moot Court competition was held this year on November 18, and was presided over by the Hon. Antonin Scalia ’60, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; the Hon. Adalberto Jordan, U.S. Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit; and the Hon. Patricia Millett ’88, U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Benjamin B. Ferencz ’43, known for his role as chief prosecutor in the Nuremburg Trials and for his work promoting an international rule of law and the creation of an International Criminal Court, has been awarded Harvard Law School’s highest honor: the Medal of Freedom.

This fall, Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow and Julio Frenk, dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, issued the "Deans' Food System Challenge" (one of several competitions held by the Harvard Innovation Lab and sponsored by Harvard Schools), encouraging students across the university to come up with fresh ideas for solving complex problems facing our food system.