Faculty Scholarship

Managing Director of the Cyberlaw Clinic Professor Chris Bavitz discusses some of the concerns and opportunities of risk assessment tools for criminal justice reform efforts, and the Berkman Klein Center's work on Ethics and Governance of AI initiative in partnership with the MIT Media Lab.

Last month, the Program on International Financial Systems at Harvard Law School held its 20th annual U.S.-Japan symposium, along with a special anniversary gala to celebrate the milestone and look ahead to the future of the program as PIFS director Hal S. Scott transitions to a new role as emeritus professor at Harvard.

Harvard Law Professor John F. Coates has been named a fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI).

Laurence H. Tribe ’66 and Kathleen Sullivan ’81 have teamed up on many cases since she was a student in his constitutional law class; now, for the first time, they will face off as adversaries in a reargument of the landmark case Marbury v. Madison, part of the Harvard Law School bicentennial celebration on Oct. 27.

Robert H. Sitkoff, the John L. Gray Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, chaired the drafting committee that finalized the Uniform Directed Trust Act (UDTA), which the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) approved July 19, 2017.

Experts gathered at Harvard Law School on Oct. 10 to examine the potential for bias as our decision-making intelligence becomes ever more artificial at an event titled “Programing the Future of AI: Ethics, Governance, and Justice,” held at Wasserstein Hall as part of HUBweek, an annual citywide celebration of art, science, and technology.

On January 3, 2018, the world will change, according to Professor Howell Jackson. That is the day that the second iteration of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive — a set of European Union financial regulations that emerged in the wake of 2008, known colloquially as MiFID II — will go into effect.

It took an all-star team of panelists to honor the scope and influence of Charles Ogletree’s career last week at HLS—eminent friends, students and colleagues all paying tribute to a man that the world knows as a leading force for racial equality and social justice, and that the Harvard community knows affectionately as Tree.

Hundreds of friends, former students, colleagues, and well-wishers gathered last Monday in a joyful celebration of the life and career of Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree, advocate for Civil Rights, author of books on race and justice, and mentor to former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), with which Harvard's International Human Rights Clinic collaborated during the negotiations of a nuclear weapon ban treaty, received the Nobel Peace Prize today. IHRC joined ICAN and UK-based disarmament organization Article 36 in the efforts for the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 

Tenacious legal research and petition-filing by Harvard Law School students working in the Tax Clinic of the Legal Services Center at HLS helps low-income clients fight for their legal rights – rights that are meaningless if clients lack access to a lawyer to stand up for them.

HLS Professor of Practice Naz K. Modirzadeh ’02 gave a talk at a United Nations General Assembly event on Sept. 22 called, “International Humanitarian Law: Addressing violations in light of recent conflicts,” which focused on failures of international law to protect health care systems in armed conflict in Syria involving designated terrorists.

Thurgood Marshall is revered as a titan of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, the architect of the landmark court case that ended legal segregation in America’s public schools, and the first African-American Supreme Court justice. Yet for five of his former law clerks gathered Wednesday at Harvard Law School, he was more than that.

In advance of a conference on Saturday, Sept. 23 at HLS, Harvard Law Professor Matthew Stephenson spoke with the Harvard Gazette about the global phenomenon of "populist plutocrats:" politicians who exploit anti-elite sentiment to win elections, then use the presidency to advance the interests of themselves and their allies.

Jason Corral, staff attorney, Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical program, participated in a panel discussion at Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics on the Trump administration's recent announcement that it intended to upend the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program.

On Sept. 17, 1787, the framers of the U.S. Constitution gathered to sign the historic document created to unite a group of states with different interests, laws and cultures; today, HLS faculty voices are providing us with history, interpretation and critical analysis of that document.

John Coates, the John F. Cogan, Jr., Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School, has joined the American College of Governance Counsel as a Fellow.

In his first address to incoming students since he was named dean of Harvard Law School on July 1, John Manning ’85 welcomed this year’s 1L class at Sanders Theatre on Aug. 29.

The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School joined forces with the ACLU of Massachusetts to host a daylong conference at Harvard Law School in June, titled “Redefining the Role of the Prosecutor within the Community.”

Four members of the Harvard Law School faculty have called on the U.S. Department of Education to revise the Obama Administration’s policies enforcing Title IX in matters of sexual harassment and sexual assault on college and university campuses.

On Sept. 15, 2017, Professor Joseph Singer ’81 was among the artists who showcased their talents during an evening of performances at HLS in the Arts, one of several events that celebrated the 200th anniversary of the founding of Harvard Law School.