Faculty Scholarship

Philip Alston, Harvard Law School’s Sidley Austin Visiting Professor of Law, received an honorary doctorate from Maastricht University in the Netherlands on Jan. 20 as part of the university’s 35th anniversary celebration.

An op-ed by HLS Professor Alan Dershowitz “The U.N. gangs up on Israel – again,” appeared in the January 26, 2011 edition of the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of numerous books, including “The Trials of Zion,” “The Case for Moral Clarity: Israel, Hamas and Gaza,” and “Finding, Framing, and Hanging Jefferson: A Lost Letter, a Remarkable Discovery, and Freedom of Speech in an Age of Terrorism.”

On January 7, in a ruling that will likely affect the entire banking industry, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court found that Wells Fargo and US Bancorp had wrongly foreclosed on two homes because the banks could not prove that they owned the mortgages at the time of the foreclosure sales in July 2007. Max Weinstein, a Clinical Instructor at the Wilmer Hale Legal Services Center, represented one of the mortgagers, Antonio Ibanez.

Harvard Law Professor Jeanne Suk ’02 was named a “Top Woman of the Law” by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and honored at a reception on Dec. 3.  The award recognizes women who have made inspiring contributions and who are pioneers, educators, trailblazers and role models.

In a Jan. 18 op-ed in The New York Times, “China’s Currency Isn’t Our Problem,” HLS Assistant Professor Mark Wu assesses the impact of the value of China’s currency, the renminbi, on the the American economy.

A bi-partisan ABA Administrative Law Section task force, co-chaired by HLS Professor Charles Fried, issued a report recommending significant changes to federal lobbying laws. The proposed changes would broaden disclosure required by those involved in lobbying campaigns, address fundraising participation by lobbyists and strengthen enforcement of current law.

Leo E. Strine, Jr., the Austin Wakeman Scott Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, was confirmed to a second 12-year term on the Delaware Chancery Court by the Delaware Senate.

Professor Charles Fried joined NPR's On Point to discuss Congress's unprecedented decision to read aloud the full text of the U.S. Constitution as the year's first order of business.

Harvard Law School Professor William Alford ’77 received an honorary degree from the University of Geneva in December 2010, recognizing him as “an eminent person of contemporary international law … whose reputation extends far beyond the borders of the United States.” Other recipients in 2010 included the Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, José Manuel Barroso, head of the European Commission, and several distinguished European intellectuals. (See the complete list.)

HLS institute seeks to broaden the solutions to global challenges.

In 2009, HLS Professor Yochai Benkler ’94 and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society were commissioned by the FCC to do a study on broadband deployment throughout the world.

Assistant Professor Gabriella Blum LL.M. ’01 S.J.D. ’03 is a specialist in the laws of war. Professor Philip Heymann ’60 is an expert in domestic law enforcement. With these different backgrounds, they decided to teach a course together on counterterrorism.

Harvard Law School Lecturer on Law Stuart N. Brotman has been appointed to the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy (ACICIP).

Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ‘84, director of the Program on Corporate Governance, was selected as one of 2010’s top 10 “governance stars” by Global Proxy Watch, an international corporate governance newsletter.

In a Dec. 15 letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation urged the Committees to hold oversight hearings on the implementation through rulemaking of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Cambridge University Press has published a festschrift paying tribute to Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Detlev Vagts ’51, expert on international law, whose career at HLS has spanned more than a half century.

The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, an independent research organization directed by Harvard Law School Professor Hal Scott, reported on Dec. 9, 2010 that, during the first 3 quarters of 2010, the competitiveness of U.S. public equity markets in global markets showed slight improvement over 2009.

In a November lecture marking his appointment as the Henry N. Ess III Professor at Harvard Law School, Professor John G. Palfrey ’01 called for a new legal information system "grounded in a set of open data."

On Nov. 18, as part of the 2010 National Lawyers Convention in Washington, D.C., HLS Professor Chares Fried participated in a debate on the constitutionality of the federal health care legislation—the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—signed into law by President Barack Obama ’91 last March.

Harvard Law School Professor David Wilkins ‘80 delivered a lecture, “Making Global Lawyers: Legal Education, Legal Paradox, and the Paradox of Professional Distinctiveness” on Oct. 19th to mark his appointment as the Lester Kissel Professor of Law.