Dozens of notable speakers and panelists visited Harvard Law School in recent months. Here’s what some of them had to say.
“The text of the statute is not … the law.”
Richard Ekins
During the 2025 Vaughan Memorial Lecture in November, Richard Ekins, a law professor at the University of Oxford and Notre Dame Law School, argued that textualists’ approach to statutory interpretation could lead to incorrect conclusions about the law and said legislative intent should be prioritized when interpreting the legal meaning of statutes.
“We live in a time of uncertainty, of geopolitical change.”
Mark Wu
Mark Wu marked his appointment as the Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law on Nov. 3 with a talk on security internationalism, arguing that the U.S. should consider the lessons from Stimson’s service as secretary of war during World War I, secretary of state under Herbert Hoover, and secretary of war again during World War II.
“Public banking is revolutionary; it is also extremely old-fashioned.”
Christine Desan
In early November, HLS Professor Christine Desan co-hosted a summit on public banking as a tool for community development and economic justice. Using the Bank of North Dakota as a case study, the assembled experts analyzed the concept of moving banking and finance away from the private sector and toward the public good.
“It just can’t be right that one district judge can stop a nationwide policy in its tracks.”
Ketanji Brown Jackson ’96
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson ’96 reflecting on what “extraordinary training ground” clerkships were for her career as a litigator, at the fifth Celebration of Black Alumni, on Sept. 12-14, where she received the Harvard Law School Association Award for being a “trailblazing jurist” and “steadfast defender of the Constitution.”
“It just can’t be right that one district judge can stop a nationwide policy in its tracks.”
Jonathan H. Adler
At February’s Rappaport Forum, legal scholars Jonathan H. Adler (on screen), William & Mary Law School, and Kate Shaw (left), University of Pennsylvania, debated whether the increased use of the so-called “shadow docket” is a response to rising presidential power or a threat to the rule of law. The talk, moderated by HLS Professor Richard Re (right), covered the docket’s evolution and how it might continue to shape the law and litigation.
“To enforce the law means understanding which principles you care most about and how to vindicate them.”
Nikolas Bowie ’14
At a February forum titled “ICE, Federalism, and the Rule of Law,” University Professor Emeritus Laurence Tribe ’66 (right) and HLS Professor Nikolas Bowie ’14 (left) voiced deep concern about federal immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota and communities across the nation, but also praised public responses from the courts and community members.
“If you shut the door to facts, you shut the door to the rule of law.”
Jack Smith ’94
In February, former U.S. Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith ’94 (left) discussed his Harvard years, his long career as a prosecutor, and his belief in the rule of law with HLS Professor of Practice Alex Whiting (right).