Teaching & Learning

Academics from the fields of law, neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and economics convened at Harvard Law School April 15 and 16 to discuss the moral and…

Founded five years ago as a think tank to respond to the need for leading legal scholarship at the intersection of medicine, science, and law, the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School tackles a wide range of issues, bringing together top scholars from a variety of fields in an interdisciplinary approach to some of the thorniest problems faced by society today.

During the winter term, 10 Harvard Law students participated in the school’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, led by Lecturers Thomas Goldstein, Amy Howe, and Kevin Russell—all of whom are leading Supreme Court practitioners and experts on appellate litigation. The clinic gave students the opportunity to spend the month of January in Washington, D.C., working on actual cases that would be heard before the Court.

Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of a petition for certiorari in a major corporate Alien Tort Statute case, Presbyterian Church of Sudan v. Talisman Energy, Inc. The Clinic served as counsel on behalf of international law scholars and jurists to argue that those who knowingly aid and abet egregious human rights violations can be held liable under customary international law.

In an address to the Harvard Law School community, HLS Dean Martha Minow offered a survey of "The Past, Present, and Future of Legal Education: HLS and Beyond.” After discussing the historical evolution of legal education up to the present "time of innovation and renewal,” she offered a preview of future trends and developments.

Legal academia is not famous for collective displays of appreciation, and even less so for the humility of its members. So the celebration of the work of William Stuntz held at Harvard Law School on March 26 and 27 was doubly extraordinary.

Solitary confinement in federal prisons is detrimental to the human brain and to the overall health of prisoners: This was the assessment of Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and associate professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health.

As the three most popular sports leagues in the United States all confront the end of their collective bargaining agreements in 2011, industry representatives previewed the key issues affecting negotiation, during the second annual Sports and the Law Symposium held on March 26.

The 16th annual Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., lecture in Ethics and Public Policy was delivered by HLS Dean Martha Minow at Notre Dame University on March 16th. Her talk focused on education as a tool in preventing violent conflict, as well as the role of the International Criminal Court in jumpstarting and promoting education as a tool in fostering coexistence and peace.

Harvard Law School’s Program on the Legal Profession (PLP) and leading European law firm Plesner announced a strategic collaboration today. Plesner will become the first European affiliate and supporter of PLP’s Center on Lawyers and the Professional Services Industry, which conducts and sponsors empirical research on the central questions facing the legal services industry.

On Friday, Feb. 19, the Women’s Law Association of Harvard Law School hosted the panel discussion “Change in the Community” as part of its fourth annual conference.

Advocacy and litigation on behalf of women’s interests has expanded the rights and protections available to women, according to a group of panelists assembled for a recent women’s law conference, “Women for Women: Advocating for Change,” hosted by the HLS Women’s Law Association at Harvard Law on Feb. 19.

“Put yourself in the path of lightning,” was the advice of Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, speaking at the Harvard Law School Women’s Law Association spring conference on February 19, 2010. The conference, entitled “Women for Women: Advocating for Change,” brought together leaders in the legal profession to discuss the challenges that women face in the courtroom, the workplace, and in the community.

In 2003, a year after the International Criminal Court was created—the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal—Luis Moreno-Ocampo became its first prosecutor.

Harvard Law School's Problem Solving Workshop gives every 1L an early look at what lawyers really do

“Localization of Immigration Law” was the subject of a Feb. 5 HLS symposium featuring speakers who took divergent views on the current American immigration enforcement scheme and its reliance on state and local law enforcement.

This January, Cleveland Browns Quarterback Brady Quinn brought his expertise to the Harvard Law School classroom as a guest in Lecturer on Law Peter Carfagna’s course “Representing the Professional Athlete.” Through a frank two hour question-and-answer session, students got an inside look at the numerous behind-the-scenes negotiations that are a part of every athlete’s career.

Most lawyers, irrespective of their specialty, must negotiate. Litigators resolve far more disputes through negotiation than by trials. Business lawyers — whether putting together a…

On Dec. 14, Harvard Law School Professor Adriaan Lanni gave the annual Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Lecture on Aristotle and the Moderns at Columbia University. The title of the talk was “Reconciliation after Mass Atrocity: Lessons from Ancient Athens.”