Faculty Scholarship

After President Obama ’91 nominated Elena Kagan ’86 to be the solicitor general of the United States on January 5, 2009, the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary received many letters in support of the Dean from her colleagues at the law school, alumni, former students, and attorneys.

Professor Adrian Vermeule’s newest book is likely to raise a few judicial eyebrows. “Law and the Limits of Reason,” just published by Oxford University Press, is a broad-based criticism of the dominant role played by courts in the American lawmaking process.

Professor Adrian Vermeule’s newest book is likely to raise a few judicial eyebrows. “Law and the Limits of Reason,” just published by Oxford University Press, is a broad-based criticism of the dominant role played by courts in the American lawmaking process.

2008 was a prolific year for HLS scholars. Here is a roundup of this year’s faculty books.

The following article written by HLS Professor Noah Feldman, “Fighting the last war,” was published in the Nov. 30, 2008, edition of The New York Times Magazine. He is a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Coming of Age with Clarence Assistant Professor Jeannie Suk ’02
The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 12 “If the metric we are using is the abuse…

At first, the notion that Israel could sit down with its sworn enemies and achieve a limited agreement to protect civilians seemed far-fetched to Gabriella Blum LL.M. ’01 S.J.D. ’03. The year was 1997, Blum was a young officer in the Israel Defense Forces, and she’d just been assigned to a group with the task of monitoring that noble, if dubious, effort.

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.