Faculty Scholarship

In a recent review in the New Republic, HLS Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 examines the book “Machiavellian Democracy” (Cambridge University Press, 2011) by John P. McCormick.

The Committee on Disclosure of Corporate Political Spending, co-chaired by Harvard Law School Professor Lucian A. Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84 and Robert J. Jackson, Jr. ’05, associate professor at Columbia Law School, submitted a rulemaking petition to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The petition urges the commission to develop rules to require public companies to disclose to shareholders the use of corporate resources for political activities.

In his August 7 op-ed, the latest in a series for Bloomberg View, HLS Professor Noah Feldman discusses the perception of U.S. democracy in light of the government’s recent debt crisis.

In an August 8 op-ed written for Project Syndicate, HLS Professor Mark Roe looks at the current U.S. debt crisis through the lens of what he calls ‘America’s first debt crisis:’ the one following the Revolutionary War.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney ’75 recently announced that his Justice Advisory Committee will be co-chaired by HLS Professor Mary Ann Glendon along with Robert Bork and Richard Wiley. Leading a committee of 63 other lawyers, including HLS Professor Allen Ferrell ’95, they will advise Romney’s campaign on constitutional and judicial matters, homeland security, law enforcement, and regulatory issues.

On August 1st, Scotus Blog published an op-ed by Beneficial Professor of Law Charles Fried on the constitutionality of the healthcare mandate. In the piece, Fried argues that the attack against President Obama’s Affordable Care Act is pure politics and ignores established legal principles.

Clinical Professor Robert Bordone ’97, a specialist in negotiation and dispute resolution and director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program, was interviewed on public radio regarding the ongoing debt negotiations in Washington, D.C.

In a July 24 op-ed for Bloomberg View titled “Don’t Let the Egyptian Army Follow Caesar’s Script,” HLS Professor Noah Feldman argues that extending the power of the Egyptian military would be a great danger to the country’s burgeoning democracy.

In a July 22 op-ed published in The New York Times ‘Opinion Pages’, HLS Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 and his co-author, University of Chicago Law Professor Eric A. Posner ’91, address the current deadlock between President Barack Obama ’91 and Congress on raising the country’s legal borrowing limit by the August 2 deadline to avoid default.

In an opinion piece posted on July 22 in the 'Boston Daily' section of Boston Magazine online, HLS Professor Alan M. Dershowitz looks at the Whitey Bulger case, voicing his opinion that the government needs to focus its attention on Bulger’s relatives and closest acquaintances in trying to determine who may have facilitated his fugitive status.

In a July 19 op-ed published in the Opinion section of the Financial Times, Harvard Law School Professor Hal Scott reflects on the past, present, and future of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on the anniversary of its passage into law.

Harvard Law School Professor Charles Fried and his son, Suffolk University Professor Gregory Fried, have been awarded the 2011 Bruce K. Gould Book Award for “Because it is Wrong: Torture, Privacy, and Presidential Power in the age of Terror” (W.W. Norton &Company 2010).

Alma Cohen, William K. Jacobs Visiting Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School, has won the 2011 Robert C. Witt Award from the American Risk and Insurance Association.  

On Friday June 15th, HLS Professor Jeannie Suk ’02 testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet regarding the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act (IDPPPA).

This fall, Susan Davies, currently serving as Deputy Counsel to President Barack Obama ’91, will join the HLS faculty as a Lecturer on Law. Vivek Kundra, the U.S. Chief Information Officer at the White House for the past two-and-a-half years, will hold a joint fellowship this fall, splitting his time between the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School.

In his July 10 op-ed for George Mason University’s History News Network, Harvard Law School Professor Kenneth W. Mack ’91 assesses the presidency of Barack Obama ’91, comparing it to that of Abraham Lincoln in terms of each president’s respective policy decisions.

In its recent annual meeting held in San Diego, the Western Economic Association International elected Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk to be its president-elect during 2011-2012.

The Wall Street Journal and Boston Magazine recently featured op-eds by HLS Professor of Law Alan Dershowitz: “Casey Anthony: The System Worked,” (July 7 in the Wall Street Journal) and “With the Bulger Brothers, the Cover-up Continues" (published July 8 on boston.com).

Harvard Law Professors Jonathan Zittrain ‘95 and Lawrence Lessig explored the role of journalists and information in the age of blogs, Twitter and Julian Assange, as part of a recent panel at the Aspen Ideas Festival.