Legal & Political Theory

Prerequisite: Admission is by permission; applicants should submit a resume and a short (1-2 paragraph) statement of interest and relevant background by January 1, 2022…

Prerequisite: By Permission. Students interested in applying to join the Lab should submit a short (300 word maximum) statement of interest to Professor Hanson. The…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam A few short years ago, it would have been unthinkable for candidates for prosecutorial positions to run on a…

Prerequisite: Admission is by permission; applicants should submit a resume and a short (1-2 paragraph) statement of interest and relevant background by January 1, 2022…

Prerequisites: The seminar is intended for students who have studied money as a legal institution. Students must have completed one of the following courses previously:…

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: No Exam This seminar will provide students with exposure to ongoing research in the economic analysis of law. At most of…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam COVID-19 has given rise to an unprecedented and rapidly evolving set of urgent legal issues. This reading group will…

Prerequisite: Torts or permission of the instructor. Exam Type: No Exam Protecting privacy has become one of the major challenges of our time. In the…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam This workshop is devoted to learning about, discussing, and critically evaluating new scholarly work on law and politics. A…

Prerequisites: Students who have completed either of the following Spring 2021 reading groups, Evaluating Criminal Justice Reform or Legal Policies, Randomized Control Trials, and Ethics,…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam

Instead there will be a 1200-word paper due at the end of the workshop.
Ideal Discourse…

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: No Exam This reading group will consider one of the newest intellectual currents within American Legal Theory – Critical Race Theory.

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam Politicians and pundits frequently charge that aggressive partisanship has infected our political institutions. Critics allege that even the federal…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam In this seminar we will examine the ways in which the rhetorical and communications principles of framing and narrative…

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this course, although some familiarity with corporate law is assumed. Exam Type: No Exam. Grading will be based on…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam Ours is a time fraught with uncertainty about the stability and legitimacy of political and legal institutions and the…

Prerequisite: By Permission. Students interested in applying to join the Lab should submit a short (300 word maximum) statement of interest to Professor Hanson, if…

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: No Exam This seminar will provide students with exposure to ongoing research in the economic analysis of law. At most of…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam The law aims to control, guide, or facilitate many aspects of human behavior. To achieve these goals legal policymakers…

Prerequisites: None Exam: No Exam; Paper in lieu of examination The world’s economic and political order reels under mounting challenges: the global financial crisis, the…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam In this reading group on Feminist Utopias, we explore literature, essays and history of women’s law reform movements through…

Prerequisites: None Exam: No Exam; Paper in lieu of examination An exploration of the past and future agenda of progressives, whether self-described as liberals or…

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: No Exam This workshop is devoted to reading and discussing new scholarly work on law and political economy. Outside speakers and…

Prerequisite: By permission of instructor. Because the readings are in Japanese, students should have the equivalent of at least two years’ language instruction, but the…

Prerequisite: Legislation & Regulation is a prerequisite for JD students. LLM or SJD students should have had a similar class or work experience in their…

Prerequisites: None Exam: No Exam; Paper in lieu of examination A study of approaches in the philosophical traditions of the West and the East…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam Class participation will be expected and will be considered in grading. Students may write 5 short response papers or…

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: No Exam The concept of a right is central to both legal and moral thought. In this reading group, we’ll try…

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: No Exam This reading group will consider one of the newest intellectual currents within American Legal Theory – Critical Race Theory.

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: One-day takehome

In addition there will be a 1200-word paper due at the end of the workshop.
Ideal Discourse…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: Take-home, not administered by HLS Democracy, inequality, and nationalism in America. The white working class and American politics. Class and race.

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam Knowledge institutions are both public and private; some have clear constitutional protections, others do not. Knowledge institutions include a…

Prerequisites: Civil Procedure or faculty permission to waive the prerequisite is required. Exam Type: Any Day Take-home This course will study legal doctrines, litigation strategies…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No HLS-administered exam The course will focus on points of contact between legal scholarship on voting rights and election law and…

Prerequisite: Admission is by permission of the instructors. Students who wish to be considered for the seminar should submit a CV to Henry Smith (hesmith@law.harvard.edu).

Prerequisites: Constitutional Law: Separation of Powers, Federalism, and Fourteenth Amendment Exam Type: No Exam This course will explore the modern exercise of Presidential power in…

Why do McDonald’s workers in Denmark earn more than twice as much as do McDonald’s workers in the United States, while the Heritage Foundation ranks…

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: No Exam This seminar will discuss the theory behind restorative justice and examine current experiments in the practice of restorative justice,…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: Any Day Take Home Students will write a paper (1500 words) and an exam essay (500 words), both due at the…

Prerequisite: None Exam Type: No Exam This seminar will discuss the theory behind restorative justice and examine current experiments in the practice of restorative justice,…

Prerequisites: This by-permission reading group is available only to current HLAB students. HLAB students who would like to enroll in this reading group should contact…

Prerequisite: This reading group is open to any student who has completed the Negotiation Workshop. Exam Type: No Exam This reading group will explore situations…

Prerequisites: None Exam: Takehome, not administered by HLS A study of approaches in the philosophical traditions of the West and the East to the…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam We consider legal truth from jury view: proof by live witness, proof by expert, and the relationship of truth…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: Please refer to the Fall 2020 Tentative Exam Schedule This course will introduce and explore basic themes in jurisprudence. Topics…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: Please refer to the Fall 2020 Tentative Exam Schedule Students will write response papers analyzing the reading materials or will…

Prerequisites: None Exam Type: No Exam
Evaluation is a final take home essay.
Around the world, questions of “political economy” are back on the agenda,…