Faculty Scholarship

At an FCC broadband workshop entitled “International Lessons” held on August 18, Harvard Law School Professor and Faculty Co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society Yochai Benkler ’94 advised the FCC to look to other countries in formulating a national broadband strategy. (Watch a webcast of the workshop.)

Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84 submitted a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission calling for the adoption of a rule that would facilitate shareholder director nominations. The letter was signed by a bi-partisan group of 80 professors of law, business, economics, and finance, representing 47 universities around the U.S.

The following op-ed by Lecturer on Law Ganesh Sitaraman ’08, “The land of 10,000 wars,” appeared in the August 17, 2009, edition of the New York Times.

President Barack Obama ’91 has nominated Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow, along with John Levi '72 LL.M. '73 and Gloria Valencia-Weber '86, to the board of the Legal Services Corporation, a bi-partisan, government-sponsored organization that provides civil legal assistance to low-income Americans. The nominations require approval by the Senate.

The following op-ed by HLS Professor Lani Guinier and Columbia Law Professor Susan Sturm, “America’s Best Colleges: Merit by the Numbers” appeared in the August 5, 2009, edition of Forbes. Guinier and Sturm are the co-authors of “Who’s Qualified: A New Democracy Forum on the Future of Affirmative Action” (Beacon Press, 2001).

The following op-ed by Harvard law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’81 S.J.D. ’84, “Regulate financial pay to reduce risk-taking,” appeared in the August 3, 2009, edition of the Financial Times. It builds on his June 11 testimony before the financial services committee of the US Congress and his white paper, co-authored with Holger Spamann, on Regulating Bankers’ Pay

The following book review co-authored by Harvard Law School Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 and University of Chicago Law School Professor Eric Posner ’91, entitled “Outcomes, outcomes,” will appear in the forthcoming August 12, 2009, edition of The New Republic. In the article, Vermeule and Posner discuss the book, “The Constitution in 2020.”

On July 29, HLS Professor John C. Coates testified during a hearing of the Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance and Investment of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.  In the hearing titled “Protecting Shareholders and Enhancing Public Confidence by Improving Corporate Governance,” Coates offered his recommendations for corporate governance reform.

Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84, director of HLS’s Program on Corporate Governance wrote “Let the Good Times Roll Again?” for his July column for Project Syndicate, an international association of 425 newspapers in 150 countries. His recent article draws on his testimony before the Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, and his white papers “Equity Compensation for Long-Term Performance” and “Regulating Bankers’ Pay.”

On July 28, HLS Professor Hal Scott testified before the Senate Banking Committee at hearings held by committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., addressing how the insurance sector could be better regulated.

The following op-ed “Race and Reality in a Front-Porch Encounter” by HLS Professor Lani Guinier appeared in the July 30, 2009 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Harvard Law School Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 discussed the social structures that keep the internet “safe from chaos” at this year’s TED Global Conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design). The conference, which took place at Oxford, brought together intellectual leaders from around the world to discuss its theme, “The Substance of Things Not Seen.”

On Friday July 24, President Barack Obama ’91 announced that the United States will sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, joining more than 100 other nations. The Harvard Law School Project on Disability played a prominent role in the negotiations leading up to the convention, which is the first global human rights treaty of the 21st century.

The following op-ed “The Fed Can Lead on Financial Supervision” co-written by HLS Professor Hal Scott appeared in the July 24, 2009 edition of the Wall Street Journal. Scott, the director of HLS’s Program on International Financial Systems, co-wrote the op-ed with R. Glenn Hubbard, dean and professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School, and John Thornton, chairman of the Brookings Institution.

The following op-ed by Harvard law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’81 S.J.D. ’84, “Paying for performance at Goldman,” appeared in the July 24, 2009, edition of the Wall Street Journal.

HLS Professor Laurence Tribe ’66, an expert on constitutional law who has argued 35 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, served on the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, which selects participants for one of the country’s most prestigious programs for leadership and public service.

The following commentary by HLS Professor Jonathan Zittrain ’95 on Google’s new operating system, Chrome, appeared in The New York Times on July 19 and in Newsweek on July 9. Zittrain is the author of “The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It.”

The following op-ed by Harvard Law School Professor Mark Roe ’75, “What happens when the government enters the ring?” appeared in the July 21, 2009, edition of Forbes.

The following commentary by Professor Laurence Tribe ’66 appeared in the Washington Post on July 13 and July 14, 2009.

The following op-ed by Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren, “Consumers need a credit watchdog,” appeared in the July 15, 2009 edition of Business Week magazine.

The following commentary is excerpted from the New York Times blog, Room for Debate: