Latest from Harvard Law News Staff

HLS Professor Noah Feldman’s “Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR’s Great Supreme Court Justices” (Twelve, 2010) was selected as the best legal book of the year by Scribes, the American Society of Legal Writers, winning its 2011 Book Award.

Harvard Law School Professor Jack Goldsmith was a guest on National Public Radio’s On Point on June 28, discussing presidential war powers and Congressional authority in relation to the United States’ current military action in Libya.

“Libyan Legal Limbo,” an op-ed by Harvard Law Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 and University of Chicago Law Professor Eric Posner ’91, appeared June 27 on Slate.com.

On May 20 through 21, the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School convened an international, multidisciplinary conference providing legal and ethical analysis of one of the broadest reaching developments in health care of the last 20 years: its globalization.

In his June 20 opinion piece in Project Syndicate, “How capitalist is America?,” Harvard Law School Professor Mark Roe '75 looks into the question of ‘how capitalist’ the United States is, and explores the idea of U.S. capitalism not only within a global context, but within a corporate one, as well. The article is the latest in a monthly series for the publication, titled The Rules of the Game.

On June 17, Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic submitted an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a petition for certiorari in a major corporate Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”) case, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co.

Abolitionist Wendell Phillips, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1833, was a nationally know celebrity during his lifetime. On the bicentennial of his birth, a symposium held at HLS June 2-4, cosponsored by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, focused on the life and legacy of the social reformer, and the questions they raise for those working for social justice today.

On June 9 and 10, Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society hosted “Hyper-Public: A Symposium on Designing Privacy and Public Space in the Connected World.” The event united computer scientists with ethnographers, architects, historians, artists, and legal scholars in discussions about the line between public and private spaces in the digital world.

The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation has made a gift of $1.5 million to Harvard Law School to continue the Reginald F. Lewis Fellowships, an 18-year-old program that has offered fellowships annually to law graduates who have demonstrated a strong interest in law scholarship and teaching.

Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice (CHHIRJ) and the Pioneer Institute have jointly published the first comprehensive review in nearly a decade of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO), the nation’s second-longest running voluntary school desegregation program.

Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig, director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, gave the keynote speech at the American Bar Association Techshow on Monday, April 11th. The speech, titled “Code is Law: Does Anyone Get This Yet?” focused on regulatory change concerning Internet copyright issues.

On Thursday June 16, HLS Professor Hal Scott is testified before the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services in a hearing entitled “Financial Regulatory Reform: The International Context."

In a June 15 article in the Opinion section of The New York Times, Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 discusses the current state of computer science education, and suggests an alternative approach to teaching that focuses more on the “bigger picture” than “rote work without much prospect for intellectual growth.”

Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow was recently interviewed on the Harvard EdCast, a weekly podcast presented by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Host Matt Weber described her as the "quintessential spokesperson” for law and education due to her scholarship in both fields; in addition to her role in legal education, she is also a graduate of and lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The Korean American Lawyers Association of Greater New York recently honored Harvard Law Professor Jeannie Suk ‘02 with its annual Trailblazers award. In 2010, Suk became the first Asian-American woman to receive tenure at Harvard Law School.

In a Jun. 8 review in The New Republic, Harvard Law School Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 discusses a new book by Jack M. Balkin, titled “Constitutional Redemption: Political Faith in an Unjust World” (Harvard University Press, 2011).

Harvard Law School Professor Vicki Jackson marked her appointment to the Thurgood Marshall Professorship of Constitutional Law with an Oct. 3 lecture titled "Proportionality and Judging in American Constitutionalism."

Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow and Professors Elizabeth Warren, Laurence Tribe ’66, Nancy Gertner, and Noah Feldman all received honorary degrees at college and law school commencement ceremonies this spring.

On May 25, the Class of 2011 gathered to celebrate their accomplishments and share reflections of their Harvard Law School experience. As part of Class Day festivities, the graduating class  hailed their Class Day speaker, actor Alec Baldwin, and honored Professor Jon Hanson as the recipient of this year's Albert M. Sacks-Paul A. Freund Award for Teaching Excellence.