Faculty Scholarship

Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren was on hand in Washington, D.C. this week as U.S. senators introduced legislation to create a new government agency, the Financial Product Safety Commission, to help consumers obtain financial products and services without predatory or deceptive financial practices.

On March 6, HLS Professor John Palfrey ’01, vice dean, library and information resources at HLS, and Adam Thierer, a senior fellow at The Progress & Freedom Foundation and director of its Center for Digital Media Freedom, participated in an online debate on Ars Technica on the Communications Decency Act and whether ISPs and social networking sites should be more liable for the things their users post. The debate, The Future of online obscenity and social networks, is included below.

In March 2009, HLS Dean Elena Kagan ’86 was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the 44th solicitor general of the United States. Kagan, the first woman to hold this position, joins a long line of solicitors general with ties to Harvard Law School.

Born Digital, a book by HLS Professor John Palfrey ’01 and Urs Gasser L.L.M. ’03, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, was named a Best Science and Technology Book of 2008 by the Library Journal, in March.

The following op-ed, “Keeping stimulus spending in check,” by HLS Professor Martha Minow appeared in the March 1, 2009, edition of The Boston Globe.

HLS Professor Hal S. Scott and Maxwell Jenkins ’11 co-wrote the following op-ed, “The US Treasury is a public, not a private, investor,” that appeared in the March 2, 2009, edition of the Financial Times.

Today, the U.S. government outsources a significant portion of its work—in such key areas as national security, military intelligence, environmental monitoring, prison management, and interrogation of terrorism suspects. It’s a reality that's here to stay, according to Professors Martha Minow and Jody Freeman LL.M. ’91 S.J.D. ’95, and it raises important questions about accountability, transparency and the rule of law.

William Stuntz, the Henry J. Friendly Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, is an expert on criminal law and procedure and crime policy. He has co-written a casebook on criminal procedure and published numerous articles on all aspects of the criminal justice system, in law reviews, journals, and periodicals.

The following op-ed, “We need a truth commission to uncover Bush-era wrongdoing,” by HLS Clinical Professor James Cavallaro appeared in the Feb. 20 issue of The Christian Science Monitor. Cavallaro is executive director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School.

Professor Bruce H. Mann has been elected a fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society and a member of the American Antiquarian Society.

Professor Anne L. Alstott, a tax and social welfare policy expert, joined the faculty in 2008 as the Manley O. Hudson Professor of Law and Director of the Fund for Tax and Fiscal Policy Research.

The following article, “In Defense of Secrecy,” by HLS Professor Noah Feldman appeared in the February 10, 2009 issue of The New York Times Magazine.

In an essay, “How to get our democracy back,” that appeared in the Feb. 3, 2010, edition of in The Nation, Professor Lawrence Lessig argues that if Americans want to change, they have to change Congress.

The nomination hearing for Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan ’86 to become the U.S. Solicitor General took place today. The Senate Judiciary Committee  also considered the nomination of Thomas Perrelli ’91 as Associate Attorney General during the same hearing. (Watch a CSPAN webcast.) A blog account of the hearing is here. 

The following op-ed co-written by HLS Professor Hal Scott, R. Glenn Hubbard, and Luigi Zingales, “From awful to merely bad: Reviewing the bank rescue options,” was published in the Feb. 7, 2009, edition of the Wall Street Journal.

HLS Professor Mary Ann Glendon, the United States Ambassador to the Holy See during the past year, resigned her post in January to allow President Barack Obama to choose a new U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

The following op-ed by HLS Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80, S.J.D. ’84, “Pay Cap Debate: They don’t go far enough … ,“ was published in the Feb. 6, 2009, edition of the Wall Street Journal.