Latest from HLS News Staff

On Wednesday, September 9, the High Court heard reargument in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Harvard Law School Professor Mark Tushnet, a constitutional law scholar and a leading expert on the First Amendment, answers some questions and offers an assessment of what’s at stake in the case.

Samuel Bagenstos ’93, deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights, U.S. Department of Justice, spoke last week at HLS on the Obama administration’s focus on enforcing disability rights at home and supporting them abroad.

On Wednesday, September 9, former HLS Dean Elena Kagan ’86 argued her first case as the solicitor general of the United States, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The case involves the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, a campaign finance reform statute passed by Congress in 2002 that was intended to limit election-related communications, especially so-called “attack ads.”

The U.S. Senate voted yesterday to confirm Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein ’78 as administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, led by Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren, held a hearing with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner yesterday. 

The following op-ed by Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84, “Why financial pay shouldn’t be left to the market,”  is the most recent of his monthly columns in the international newspaper association entitled “Project Syndicate.”

n an interview with Rahim Kanani, a research associate at Harvard University’s Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Amaka Megwalu ’10 discusses her insights on the aid industry in Africa and the Gacaca Court System in Rwanda. Megwalu has worked on development and post-conflict reconstruction in Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.

Harvard University President Drew Faust officially introduced Martha Minow to the Harvard Law School community as the new dean at a reception in Minow’s honor on September 2.

“We searched the world for you.” That was the message delivered by Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow to this year’s class of incoming law students at a welcome reception at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre on August 31.

The Government of the Russian Federation has nominated Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov LL.M. ’94 as a permanent judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

The following op-ed by Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’81 S.J.D. ’84, “Bonus guarantees can fuel risky moves,” appeared in the August 27, 2009 edition of The Wall Street Journal. He is the director of the Program on Corporate Governance at HLS.

This fall, a group of Harvard Law School students – Ashwin Krishnan ’10, Josh Podoll ’11, and Ryan Gauthier ’10 – will officially launch a new journal called the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law.

HLS Professor Alan Dershowitz wrote “Baseball errs with lax penalty on pitchers who take aim at hitters,” an op-ed that appeared in the Aug. 19, 2009, edition of The Boston Globe.

The following op-ed by HLS Professor Hal Scott “The Fed’s independence is at risk” appeared in the Aug. 20, 2009, edition of The Financial Times. Scott co-wrote the op-ed with Glenn Hubbard, dean and professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School, and John Thornton, chairman of the Brookings Institution. Hubbard and Thornton co-chair and Scott directs the Committee on Capital Market Regulation.

At an FCC broadband workshop entitled “International Lessons” held on August 18, Harvard Law School Professor and Faculty Co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society Yochai Benkler ’94 advised the FCC to look to other countries in formulating a national broadband strategy. (Watch a webcast of the workshop.)

Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84 submitted a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission calling for the adoption of a rule that would facilitate shareholder director nominations. The letter was signed by a bi-partisan group of 80 professors of law, business, economics, and finance, representing 47 universities around the U.S.

The following op-ed by Lecturer on Law Ganesh Sitaraman ’08, “The land of 10,000 wars,” appeared in the August 17, 2009, edition of the New York Times.

President Barack Obama ’91 nominated Barry White ’67 to be the U.S. Ambassador to Norway on August 7.

What will “libraries” in 2075 look like? Can copyright law be re-engineered? Should we trust Google to make decisions in the public interest? Those were some of the questions discussed at a workshop entitled “Alternative Approaches to Open Digital Libraries in the Shadow of the Google Book Search Settlement,” which took place at Harvard Law School on July 31.