Today Posts

A group of Harvard Law students has helped to bring about a landmark decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which ruled earlier this month that the Brazilian government bears responsibility for the death of a patient in a state-affiliated psychiatric hospital.

Last week, Harvard Law graduate Stuart Rabner was appointed attorney general of New Jersey by Governor Jon Corzine. Rabner is a member of the class of '85.

An op-ed co-written by Professor Jon Hanson: To sports fans, it probably wasn't a surprise to learn that former Ohio State University football star Maurice Clarett was arrested again the other week. The evasive running back who had carried the Buckeyes to the 2002 National Championship was unsuccessful in evading the police in a car chase that occurred near the home of a witness in his upcoming robbery trial.

The following op-ed, co-written by Professor Christine Desan, A model for fair campaigns, appeared in The Boston Globe on August 18, 2006: With less than three months until the November election, the governor's race is heating up in Massachusetts.

The following essay by Professor David Barron, Boxed Out, appeared in The Boston Globe on August 13, 2006: Not so long ago, America's big cities were so desperate to attract commercial development they gladly would have given away the store to get one. But not now, as Wal-Mart and other super-retailers recently discovered.

The following op-ed, co-written by Professor Martha Minow, Relearning Vietnam's painful lessons, appeared in The Boston Globe on August 14, 2006. Current events make the Vietnam era more relevant than ever. We are engaged in a war without plan or prospects for disengagement. The conflict seems part of a global danger, but we also seem interlopers -- and attractive targets -- in a civil war.

In the wake of September 11, there was a lively debate about the optimal mix of "hard" versus "soft" power--guns versus diplomacy, military force versus foreign aid. Thursday's foiled plot to blow up commercial jets shows that a similar divide informs the world of police work. Scotland Yard and the FBI sometimes stop terrorists by shooting them, just as the criminal justice system sometimes stops attempted murders by incarcerating the would-be killers.

The following op-ed by Professor Lucian Bebchuk, Investors must have power, not just figures on pay, was published in The Financial Times on July 28, 2006: The US Securities and Exchange Commission's vote this week to expand disclosure requirements for executive pay is a major step forward.

The mainstream U.S. media have covered this worldwide uprising; it is, after all, a glimpse into the sentiments of our enemy and its allies. And yet it has refused, with but a few exceptions, to show the cartoons that purportedly caused all the outrage.

As a former curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum stands trial in Italy for criminal conspiracy to receive stolen goods, curators all over America are nervously rethinking their antiquity collections.

David Shapiro represents the true Renaissance man of legal academia. He has been a scholar, reformer, advocate, public servant and teacher, and at every turn, he has been a leader and model of excellence. There is much in his brilliant career to celebrate.

Imagine for a moment a lawsuit involving, as so many of them do, a dispute over accounting practices. Now add some complex questions of federal jurisdiction and procedure. Then assume that the parties decide—wisely—to settle. As the saying goes, “Who you gonna call?”

The influence of a great teacher like Dave Herwitz brings him nearer to immortality than most of us get. In my own nearly 50 years of professional life, I have met numerous wonderful individuals and benefited from the wisdom and character of many.

Scholars have long been fascinated by the democracy of classical Athens and the ways it is mirrored in democratic governments of today. Athenian law, on the other hand, has received little attention, since no modern legal system is descended from it.

The Bulletin asks Professor William P. Alford ’77 about the development of the legal system amidst the historic changes taking place in China.

Can law keep up with technology? Some Harvard lawyers are finding out.

Annette Lu LL.M. ’78 was wary of Ma Ying-jeou S.J.D. ’81 when they were students at HLS. Today she is vice president of Taiwan, and he is a leader of the opposition. Their intertwined stories may foretell Taiwan’s future.