Teaching & Learning

The new curriculum embraces law’s increasingly transnational nature

Harvard Law School’s new program, and its faculty director, aim to change the way we think about environmental law

A new clinic lets students step up to environmental challenges—and onto the first rungs of their careers

This January, when the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor resumed in The Hague, much of the world was watching. So were 11 Harvard Law students—from about 20 feet away.

There are now 16 clinics at HLS, enabling students to do fieldwork at home and abroad. Here are stories from three of them, taking students inside inner cities and inner sanctums.

Proliferating programs, for getting out in the field

Often, there’s a bond between the donor of a new chair and the scholar who occupies it.

The past five years have brought remarkable growth and change to Harvard Law School. Here, the Bulletin takes a time-out for a brief recap and puts five questions to Dean Elena Kagan ’86.

The International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) at Harvard Law School and the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) have joined together to release "Prosecuting Apartheid-Era Crimes? A South African Dialogue on Justice," a report examining recently intensified questions about prosecuting crimes committed during apartheid.

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society received some major media recognition this week with the publication of a June 10 article in USA Today headlined "Berkman pioneers steer the course of cyberspace."

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week at its Berkman at 10 Conference entitled "The Future of the Internet." The two-day event features discussions celebrating the work the Berkman Center has done over the past decade, as well as looking ahead to what it hopes to accomplish in the future.

Phil Malone and Wendy Jacobs ’81 have been appointed clinical professors of law, Dean Elena Kagan ’86 announced today.

When the U.S. Supreme Court took up a landmark case on the constitutionality of Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban in March, a trio of Harvard Law students could claim modest credit for helping shape the argument. The students assisted lawyers arguing for preserving the ban in the gun-control case—D.C. v. Heller—as part of their work in a new clinical course this year, Supreme Court and Appellate Litigation.

William T. Coleman Jr. '46--the former secretary of transportation and one of the lead strategists and co-authors of the legal brief for the appellants in Brown v. Board of Education--was the guest speaker Friday afternoon for a lecture series, sponsored by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice.

Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey, will be the 2008 Class Day speaker at Harvard Law School. Booker will address graduating students and their families on Wednesday, June 4, as part of Class Day exercises.

During a luncheon event at Harvard Law School's recent Public Interest Celebration, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm ’87 and First Gentleman Daniel Mulhern ’86 offered advice about forming a career in public service, running for elected office, and being involved in government.

In a move that will further strengthen its commitment to public service, Harvard Law School is announcing that it will pay the third year of tuition for all future students who commit to work in public service for five years following graduation.

Panelists at a February 23 event on the Harvard Law School campus discussed the benefits and consequences of pursuing “color-blind” policies.

Editors of the Harvard Law Review announced the launch of an online version of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation on February 15. The standard citation guide for American legal writing, The Bluebook is widely used throughout legal practice, by paralegals, attorneys, professors, and students.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission was on the Harvard Law School campus today to hear testimony about whether or not Internet service providers deliberately blocked users from sharing files online. In a packed Ames Courtroom, the five commissioners heard from representatives of Comcast and Verizon about their network management practices, as well as from academics and small business owners who urged more freedom on the Internet.