International Legal Studies

On Wednesday, Harvard Law School officially welcomed the LL.M. Class of 2022. Representing 64 countries and jurisdictions, from Argentina to the U.S.A., the class includes 184 new students and 33 LL.M. candidates returning from the LL.M. class of 2020–2021 to complete their studies in person on Harvard’s reopening campus.

Scholars, alumni, and friends from around the world commemorate Alford’s legacy and impact.

On August 19, Harvard Law School’s Graduate Program officially welcomed the LL.M. Class of 2020 to campus, along with eight new S.J.D. candidates and 10 international students from six of the law school’s exchange partner schools.

Dieter Grimm LL.M. ’65, a noted scholar, academic and public intellectual, and former justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, returned to Harvard Law School on September 18 to speak on “Courts under Political Pressure.”

This year, 13 Harvard Law School students were selected as Chayes International Public Service Fellows, part of a program honoring HLS Professor Abram Chayes ’49 that provides students with the opportunity to spend eight weeks during the summer working with governmental or non-governmental organizations concerned with issues international in scope or relevant to countries in transition.

Legal scholars from across the globe gathered at HLS in July for a two-day conference on law and development, the latest iteration of a series of conferences held periodically by a loose consortium of schools including Harvard Law School, the University of Geneva, Renmin University of China, and the University of Sydney, Australia.

Chayes Fellow Michael Jung ’18 recently wrote about his experience working with UNICEF in Bangkok, Thailand, researching and gaining an overview of the current and future landscape of juvenile justice in the region.

Inspired by the interdisciplinary approach so many at Harvard Law School brought to studying law, Jorge Gonzalez S.J.D '13 is deploying that same approach in his own teaching and curricular development, translation work, and research.

Harvard Law Today recently highlighted twelve Harvard Law School students who were selected as the 2015 Cravath International Fellows. The students traveled to 11 countries for winter term clinical placements or independent research with an international, transnational, or comparative law focus.

During the 2015 winter term, 52 HLS students traveled to 26 countries conducting research for writing projects or undertaking independent clinicals, with support from the Winter Term International Travel Grant Program, which includes the Cravath International Fellowships, the Reginald F. Lewis Internships, the Mead Cross Cultural Stipends, the Andrew B. Steinberg Scholarships, and the Human Rights Program Grants.

In a talk sponsored by International Legal Studies on February 11, former NPR correspondent Sarah Chayes, currently senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment, spoke to HLS students about the links, historical and current, between corruption and global security.

In a Feb. 6 talk sponsored by International Legal Studies, the Harvard International Arbitration Law Students Association, and the International Law Journal, Emmanuel Gaillard and Yas Banifatemi LL.M. ’97, head of international arbitration and head of public international law, respectively, at Shearman & Sterling, detailed the intricate story behind securing the historic $50 billion award for the Yukos Oil Cooperative against the Russian Federation.

Since 2001, a select group of HLS students have undertaken public service internships under the auspices of the Chayes International Public Service Fellowship, dedicated to the memory of HLS Professor Abram Chayes '49.

On September 12, Justice Albie Sachs, who served on South Africa’s inaugural Constitutional Court from 1994 through 2009, visited Harvard Law School for a screening and discussion of “Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa” with filmmaker Abby Ginzberg.

On Feb. 4, more than 70 Harvard Law School students, faculty, and other members of the Harvard community gathered in Wasserstein Hall to hear Dr. Enver Hasani, president of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, speak on “European Self-Determination and the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on Kosovo.”

On March 22, the Human Rights Program and International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School sponsored “Protecting Human Rights Through the Mechanism of UN Special Rapporteurs,” a talk by Surya Subedi. Subedi, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Cambodia and Professor of International Law at the University of Leeds, discussed the role of the Special Rapporteurs in combating human rights abuses and he shared anecdotes about his work in Cambodia.

In a lecture sponsored by the Human Rights Program and International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, Andrew Cayley, co-prosecutor of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge Tribunal, discussed his role as counsel on both sides of the aisle in international law.