Faculty Scholarship

For all his eloquence and conviction, Jack Goldsmith is a quiet man. For three years, he remained silent about his brief and controversial stint as head of the Office of Legal Counsel in George W. Bush’s Department of Justice. And even following the much-publicized publication of his book “The Terror Presidency” in September, Goldsmith does not relish the steady demand for comment about his Department of Justice tenure.

Two years ago, HLS Professor Roberto Unger LL.M. ’70 S.J.D. ’76 publicly denounced the government of his native Brazil, calling it “the most corrupt in history.” He also called for the impeachment of its president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known throughout Brazil as “Lula.”

A renowned expert on trusts and estates, Professor Robert Sitkoff joined the HLS faculty this fall from New York University School of Law. He says we are in the midst of a “quiet revolution in modern American trust law.” Here, he explains.

Deborah Anker, director of the HLS Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program and a clinical professor of law, has received an award from the Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN) in New York recognizing her pioneering work in humanitarian protection for immigrants fleeing protection.

Individual free choice, an idea that permeates common sense and legal theory, assumes that actions reflect the stable preferences of individual actors. Individuals are responsible for their actions (that is, their preference-driven choices), and laws can therefore be designed on that assumption.

This weekend, leaders from the United States and Japan will gather in Hakone, Japan, to examine challenges facing the financial sectors of the two countries.

South Africa’s constitution and Bill of Rights are relatively new, but there is already a growing body of decisions interpreting or wrestling with what they…

Faced with important decisions about their lives, people often make pretty bad choices—choices they would not have made if they paid full attention and possessed complete information, unlimited cognitive abilities, and complete self-control. To take just one example, many people never get around to joining their employer’s retirement savings plan, even when it is heavily subsidized.

The following op-ed written by Professor Jon Hanson, "In crisis, beware illusion of reform," was published in the October 2, 2008, edition of the Providence Journal.

Is the proliferation of online customized news sources a boon or a hindrance to democracy?That was the question posed by Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein in his Constitution Day lecture, entitled “Free Speech in the Age of the Internet.” Watch the webcast.

The following article by Professor Noah Feldman, "When judges make foreign policy," was the cover article for the September 28, 2008, New York Times Magazine.

The following op-ed by Professor Howell Jackson '82, "Build a better bailout," was published in the September 25, 2008, edition of the Christian Science Monitor.

About a hundred years ago, when Milton Hershey founded the Hershey Company—now the largest confectionery company in North America—he also established a school for needy children, and a charitable trust for the benefit of the school. Today, the trust—worth over $8 billion—holds a controlling interest in the publicly traded Hershey Company.

The following op-ed, "Let's get the bank rescue right," was co-authored by Harvard Law School Professor Hal Scott, Dean of Columbia Business School R. Glenn Hubbard, and University of Chicago Graduate School of Business Professor Luigi Zingales. It appeared in the September 24, 2008 edition of the Wall Street Journal.

“City Bound: How States Stifle Urban Innovation,” forthcoming from Cornell University Press in December, examines how state laws shackle cities. Barron and Frug look at how state law determines what cities can and cannot do to raise revenue, control land use and improve schools.

In a new book, Professor Louis Kaplow '81 "steps back and considers the relationships among the parts." The book -- “The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics” (Princeton 2008) -- stands to secure him a place in the firmament of public economists and scholars in public finance.

In a wide-ranging interview, John Palfrey and Jonathan Zittrain survey the future of the Internet.

The U.S. Constitution is 219 years old now, and the revolutionary system of government it created has survived and spread across the globe. No wonder many Americans consider it an almost sacred document, the final say on governmental powers and individual rights.

On executive power, war and anti-terrorism, scholars have a lot to say--and lawmakers are listening.