Legal History

Tomiko Brown-Nagin, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School, received the 2023 the Order of the Coif award for her book “Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality.”

Jill Lepore, award-winning American historian and writer, will join the Harvard Law School faculty as a professor of law.

Idriss Paul-Armand Fofana, a legal historian whose research examines the relationship between international law and global inequality, has joined the Harvard Law School faculty.

Oren Tamir, a post-doctoral fellow, says that many of the critiques of the major questions doctrine tend to miss the mark — and that, with some changes, the doctrine could be fixed in ways that would make it a valuable contribution for our law and democracy.

A friendly competition between four Harvard Law students in 1960 has grown into the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, with 700 students competing worldwide.

In his last lecture to the J.D. and LL.M. classes of 2023, Michael Klarman celebrates civil rights heroes and issues a clarion call for democratic engagement.

As the inaugural Fred N. Fishman Professor of Constitutional Law, Laura Weinrib described the arc of union power in the 20th century and its relationship to political spending.

At Harvard Law School, Canadian Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner discusses differences with the U.S. judiciary and argues that access to justice is a ‘democratic imperative.’

Speakers at a Radcliffe Institute conference look at the divisive, fraught history of Roe v. Wade and predict where legal battles will go next.

At Harvard Law’s Rappaport Forum, panelists debated the Supreme Court's reliance on history and tradition in recent decisions in Dobbs and Bruen.

In a Library book talk, Professor Vicki Jackson and panelists discuss constitutionalism, and rights to effective government

In the third of a yearlong lecture series examining “The Supreme Court in a Constitutional Democracy," panelists debate reforming the Court.

In remarks made as part of the biennial Vaughan Academic Program, Harvard Law Professor Adrian Vermeule argued that the late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia began his judicial career as a champion of the administrative state.

What are the real differences between common and civil law systems? Probably not the ones lawyers typically think about, said Harvard Law School Professor Holger Spamann S.J.D. ’09 in a lecture commemorating his appointment as Lawrence R. Grove Professor of Law.

A panel of experts say that a seminal Supreme Court decision on the powers of the president may raise more questions than it answers.

In the first of a Harvard Law School series on the Supreme Court and its role in American democracy, panelists debated the impact of politics on the Roberts Court.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin’s book recounts the remarkable — and too little-known — life and achievements of civil rights lawyer and judge Constance Baker Motley

Nikolas Bowie ’14, a scholar of constitutional law, local government law, and legal history, was named a professor of law at Harvard Law School.