Today Posts

When Navi Pillay LL.M. '82 S.J.D. '88 was growing up in South Africa, there was no international court in which apartheid could be prosecuted as a crime against humanity. Now there is--and she's on it.

Compared with that of a lawyer in private practice, a judge's schedule may be more flexible. But not when compared with the life of an academic, says Professor Charles Fried.

So, what, exactly, is an "activist judge"? Most judges say they don't have time to think about it.

With a little help from your friends: Amicus briefs are meant to offer judges some extra information. But is amicus practice getting out of hand?

Harvard Law students hoping to learn how to argue before the Supreme Court need go no farther than the Ames Courtroom or a winter-term classroom.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer '64 talks with the Bulletin in chambers.

In "Preemption: A Knife That Cuts Both Ways" (W. W. Norton, 2006), Professor Alan M. Dershowitz examines America's increasing reliance on pre-emptive action to control destructive conduct, and discusses the implications for civil liberties, human rights, criminal justice, national security and foreign policy.

Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s opponents have seized upon two memorandums he wrote when he was a junior lawyer in the office of the solicitor general....

Imagine a game in which two people--strangers--are told they will be given $100 to share, and that one of them will have the power to decide how much to offer the other.

Recent events have reminded us all of the importance of the judiciary in shaping legal rights and responsibilities. With the confirmation of two new Supreme…

After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, many HLS students felt helpless watching news accounts of the unfolding devastation while beginning fall classes. The law school had posted links for the university's matching donations program and announced plans to host 25 law students from Tulane and Loyola tuition-free. But HLS students sought their own ways to donate their time and talents.

Several school boards have recently mandated that science curricula include the teaching of intelligent design--the theory that all advanced life forms are so complex that they must have been designed by an intelligent force.

Thursday, April 20 marks the beginning of the ninth Harvard Latino Law and Public Policy Conference, with a keynote address by Maria Echaveste, former deputy chief of staff to President Clinton. The three-day event will address the growth of Latino communities in the United States and their relationship to Latinos abroad.

Susan F. Cole, a clinical instructor at the Hale and Dorr Legal Services Center, recently won the 2006 Legal Services Award, presented by the Massachusetts Bar Association. The award honors an attorney for exceptional work in providing legal services to low-income groups.

Last summer in Kelo v. City of New London, the Supreme Court upheld a redevelopment plan for New London, Conn., that involved seizing private homes to enable commercial development near a major pharmaceutical company. New London argued the plan would jump-start the stalled local economy, and the decision, a 5-to-4 vote, affirmed the government's power under the Constitution to use eminent domain to take private property for economic development as long as just compensationis paid.

Martin Kurzweil, 2L, recently won two prominent awards along with co-authors William Bowen, the former President of Princeton University, and Eugene Tobin, former president of Hamilton College. This week, their book, "Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education," won both the 2006 Outstanding Book Award from the American Education Research Association and the University Continuing Education Association's 2006 Philip E. Frandson Award for Literature.

On Wednesday, April 12, the Supreme Court of the Navajo Nation will covene in the Ames Courtroom at Harvard Law School to hear the case of Perry v. Navajo Nation Labor Commission. The Navajo court will not only hear a current case while at Harvard, but also offer students the chance to gain first-hand insight into one of the nation’s most influential tribal courts.

On Tuesday, April 11, Judge Richard C. Wesley of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit will speak at Harvard Law School about legal issues arising from the war on terrorism. His speech, titled "Presidential War Powers in a Post-9/11 World," is sponsored by the HLS Federalist Society.

Three major U.S. corporations -- AIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Time-Warner -- recently amended their corporate by-laws in response to stockholder proposals submitted by Professor Lucian Bebchuk.

Tonight, HLS's Committee on Sports and Entertainment Law will host a panel discussion entitled, "Agents and the Changing Economic and Political Landscape of Baseball." Baseball agent Scott Boras and the Chief Executive of the Major League Baseball Players Association, Donald Fehr, will be among the panelists. The event – which is free and open to the public – will take place on the HLS campus at 7 pm.