Faculty Scholarship

The Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School (ALPP) and the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) have jointly filed an amicus curiae brief with the Constitutional Court of Ecuador, urging it to recognize that nonhuman animals can have legal rights.

At the recent Rappaport Forum, panelists discussed abortion rights and whether the Supreme Court should honor precedent — or jettison Roe v. Wade. 

Here are some of the latest from HLS authors to add to your reading list over the holiday break.

Professor Emeritus Mark Tushnet explains how the Supreme Court’s decision in Carson v. Makin could impact funding for religious schools.

Retired federal judge Nancy Gertner, now a senior lecturer on law at Harvard Law School, talks about the verdicts in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, how the trial was conducted, and comparisons to the ongoing trial of the men who killed Ahmaud Arbery.

Can, or even should, Americans break the U.S. Constitution when, in their view, justice demands it? As Noah Feldman and Nikolas Bowie discussed at a recent Harvard Law School Library Book Talk, that question is very much alive today.

At a Harvard Law School Library Book Talk, Martha Minow, along with Vicki Jackson and Nikolas Bowie, discussed why the press is in danger — and how to save it.

Would a tax on billionaires be constitutional? How would it work in practice? And would it work at all? Harvard Law School Professor Thomas J. Brennan says the answers are complicated.

Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Mark Tushnet explains SCOTUS’s upcoming gun control case, New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.

Josh McDaniel, director of Harvard’s Religious Freedom Clinic, explains the Supreme Court's upcoming Free Exercise case — and how his clinic is involved.

During a recent discussion about his new collection of essays, “Say it Loud! On Race, Law, History, and Culture,” Randall Kennedy shared background on a few of his favorite pieces, defended free thought, and spoke about his view on the future of race relations in America.

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and Farm Sanctuary, represented by Harvard Law School’s Animal Law & Policy Clinic, scored a victory this week when a judge ruled that a lawsuit filed against the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service will move forward.

The new Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation (POPLAR) at Harvard Law School recently convened a conference on the future of psychedelics law and regulation.

Leaked revelations about Instagram’s impact on teens have united Republicans and Democrats in considering legal reforms, say Harvard Law School scholars.

In “Power to the People: Constitutionalism in the Age of Populism,” co-authors Mark Tushnet and Bojan Bugarič argue that populism is neither inherently conservative nor necessarily inconsistent with constitutional democracy.

Harvard Law Today recently spoke with Harvard Law School Professor Howell E. Jackson about what could happen if the United States defaulted on its debts for the first time in history.

Former White House Counsel and Harvard Law Lecturer Neil Eggleston explains the legal doctrine, its origins, and how it applies to ex-presidents.

Professor Intisar Rabb, director of the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School, was appointed as a special adviser on Islamic Law to the new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

The state of American democracy will be examined in a lecture series, "Democracy," which had its first session this week and will continue through the fall and spring.

September 2021 saw the publication of the inaugural issue of The American Journal of Law and Equality, a project developed by Professors Martha Minow, Randall Kennedy, and Cass Sunstein, in collaboration with MIT Press.

Harvard Law Professor Alan Jenkins discusses the U.S. Constitution and its treatment of race, how to guarantee fundamental rights, and why lawyers should be better communicators.