Faculty Scholarship

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.

In an interview with the Harvard Gazette, cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier, a fellow with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, talked about government and corporate surveillance, and about what concerned users can do to protect their privacy.

David Wilkins ’80, the Lester Kissel Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, has been named to the American Bar Association’s Commission on the Future of Legal Education, the ABA has announced.

Harvard Law School Professor and former Dean Martha Minow delivered a keynote address at Newport's Touro Synagogue. The Aug. 20 event commemorated the 70th public rereading of George Washington's letter to the Jewish community promising that the country would give “bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance."

The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society has released "Partisanship, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Online Media and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election," a comprehensive analysis of online and social media coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign that documents how highly partisan right-wing sources helped shape mainstream pre-election press coverage.

In a three-part lecture, Martha Minow, Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence and Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, discusses the legacies of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 civil rights case in which the Supreme Court declared state laws concerning the segregation of public schools to be unconstitutional.

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.

For more than a half-century at HLS, Professor Emeritus Henry Steiner ’55 has focused on international human rights, including as the founder of the school’s Human Rights Program; he has also focused his camera on countries around the world, and is now sharing his deep passion for photography in a new book, “Eyeing the World.”

The post-9/11 war on terror was only 3 years old when David Barron ’94 began researching whether presidents enjoy as much unfettered power to conduct wars as was assumed by many at the time. A dozen years after he began, Barron, now a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit and a visiting professor at HLS, has published the results of his research in a book titled “Waging War: The Clash Between Presidents and Congress 1776 to ISIS” (Simon & Schuster).

Cass Sunstein urges people to consume more diverse information for the good of our democracy

This spring, the Harvard Law Bulletin spoke with Professor of Practice Naz Modirzadeh, founding director of the HLS’ Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC) and co-author of the report “Indefinite War: Unsettled International Law on the End of Armed Conflict,” about the failure of international law to provide guidance on war’s end.

Over the course of her career, as Bonnie Docherty ’01 has emerged as an international expert on civilian protection in armed conflict, she has also mentored scores of clinical students, from field researchers in conflict zones to advocates inside the halls of the U.N. in Geneva.