Philip Heymann

For Kristin Fleschner ’14, running in next week’s Boston Marathon is a way to fight back against the bombing that terrorized last year’s runners. She has worked for the federal government in national security since 2008, and she’ll continue her work for the federal government after she graduates from Harvard Law School this spring.

Harvard Law School commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks with a two-day conference of top-level advisers and experts to elucidate the changing legal landscape in the battle against terrorism. "Law, Security and Liberty post-9/11," was held Sept. 16 and 17, and marked the launch of the new Harvard Law School-Brookings Project on Law and Security, a joint venture of HLS and the Brookings Institution.

Harvard Law School Professor Philip Heymann contends that the crisis in Mexico involving drug cartels needs to be examined from the broader perspective of organized crime and its use of violence—not just as a drug-trafficking issue. For the second year in a row, a working group was assembled to take the next step of addressing the issues in very concrete detail. About 30 law-enforcement officials, prosecutors, investigators, legal scholars and proponents of treatment and prevention were in attendance.

Assistant Professor Gabriella Blum LL.M. ’01 S.J.D. ’03 is a specialist in the laws of war. Professor Philip Heymann ’60 is an expert in domestic law enforcement. With these different backgrounds, they decided to teach a course together on counterterrorism.

Prominent legal and political scholars explored the relationship between terrorism, diplomacy and law in a panel discussion in early October in light of “Laws, Outlaws, and Terrorists” (2010), a book written by Harvard Law School Professor Philip Heymann ’60 and Associate Professor Gabriella Blum LL.M. ’01 S.J.D. ’03.

Professor Philip Heymann ’60 and Associate Professor Gabriella Blum LL.M. ’01 S.J.D. ’03 received the 2010 Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize for their recently published book “Laws, Outlaws, and Terrorists” (MIT Press, 2010).

Professor Philip Heymann ’60 and Associate Professor Gabriella Blum LL.M. ’01 S.J.D. ’03 received the 2010 Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize for their recently published book “Laws, Outlaws, and Terrorists” (MIT Press, 2010).

Harvard Law Professor Philip Heymann believes that by examining the violence associated with Mexican drug cartels along the U.S. border with a new perspective, the cartels’ tenacious grip may be countered. To that end, Heymann and Mathea Falco, president of the Washington D.C.-based non-profit research institute Drug Strategies, organized a working group on “Transnational Organized Crime” at the Harvard Law School on April 7 to dissect the Mexican drug trade from past to present.

On Jan. 22, 2009, President Barack Obama ’91 signed an executive order mandating that individuals detained in armed conflict will “be treated humanely and shall not be subjected to violence to life and person.” Harvard Law School Professor Philip Heymann ’60 had an answer. And his proposal may soon become the standard for the how the United States handles interrogations to prevent future terrorist attacks.

2008 was a prolific year for HLS scholars. Here is a roundup of this year’s faculty books.

On executive power, war and anti-terrorism, scholars have a lot to say--and lawmakers are listening.

The Laws in Wartime Professor Jack Goldsmith
Slate Magazine, April 2 “We are surprisingly close to putting policy issues in the war on terrorism on a…

The following op-ed, Fighting the online drug corner, co-written by Harvard Law School Professor Philip Heymann '60 and Mathea Falco, president of Drug Strategies, was published in the Washington Post on March 15, 2008.

In "Preemption: A Knife That Cuts Both Ways" (W. W. Norton, 2006), Professor Alan M. Dershowitz examines America's increasing reliance on pre-emptive action to control destructive conduct, and discusses the implications for civil liberties, human rights, criminal justice, national security and foreign policy.

Professor Philip Heymann '60 and his colleague from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government Juliette Kayyem '95 say Congress should provide much-needed legislation to deal with a number of issues that have emerged in the last three years in the fight against terrorism.

Ever since Professor Philip Heymann '60 began teaching a class on terrorism in the winter of 1988, it's drawn a crowd.

A Harvard Law School professor says a unilateral war on terror will not succeed. His solution: contain and isolate extremists by repairing frayed alliances and finding common ground with mainstream Islam.