Constitutional

In March, speakers at the Harvard Journal on Legislation’s 2017 Symposium, “Legislating on the World Stage,” explored the unique challenges of lawmaking in a context where domestic and international concerns frequently overlap and come into tension with one another.

Former U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus ’75 returned to the Harvard Law School campus on Feb. 8 for a question-and-answer session moderated by HLS Professor William Alford ’77, vice dean for the Graduate Program and International Legal Studies.

As part of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association’s (APALSA) annual conference, “Soft Power Hard Knockout: The Asian American Punch,” on Feb. 4, Harvard Law School presented a reenactment of the Vincent Chin trial, written by Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

On March 6, John Manning ’85, Harvard Law School deputy dean and Bruce Bromley Professor of Law, delivered a talk, "Without the Pretense of Legislative Intent," as part of the Scalia lecture series at HLS.

Congressman Adam Schiff ’85 (D-Calif.) is in the middle of one of the year’s biggest news stories – the investigation of Russia’s role in the last U.S. Presidential election. He brought some perspective on that story to Harvard on Tuesday, when he spoke at this week’s Journal on Legislation symposium.

When Sen. Ben Cardin (D.-MD.) spoke on foreign affairs at Harvard Law School this week, he began by identifying the greatest threat to global security in the world today: Russia, and, by extension, President Donald Trump’s cozy relationship with that country.

The family of the late Antonin Scalia ’60, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, has announced that it will donate his papers to the Harvard Law School Library.

During a recent lecture hosted by the Harvard Law School Forum called “Why Trump? What Now?”, Harvard Professor Michael Sandel took a hard look at Donald Trump’s emerging presidency and the social and economic discontent that put him in office.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer LL.B. ’64 sometimes says that his job and that of other members of the Supreme Court is to speak for the law. He does not mean that justices are Platonic Guardians, with ironclad power to impose their will on the nation despite being unelected. The job calls for deference to the elected branches of government, he emphasizes, and, even more, for caution and doubt. The United States is built on the principles of liberty, he quotes from a famous speech by Judge Learned Hand, and liberty’s spirit is “the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.”

The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program filed an amicus curiae brief on February 16 in the Eastern District of New York case against President Trump’s executive orders on immigration -- one of several cases currently challenging the president’s actions on immigration.

Khizr Khan LL.M. '86, the Gold Star father who gained fame for his speech at the Democratic National Convention, joined HLS Professor Intisar A. Rabb, director of the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School, to discuss civil liberties and political action.

Alexander Acosta, a 1994 graduate of Harvard Law School, is President Donald Trump’s pick as the next Secretary of Labor.

In early February, Harvard Law School hosted the New England Regional of the National Trial Competition, the largest law school trial advocacy competition in the country.

Harvard Law School’s Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program has released a report on the effects of President Trump’s Executive Orders on people seeking asylum protection in the United States under long-standing provisions of U.S. and international law, including refugee law and the Convention Against Torture.

During this year’s spring semester, Mark Tushnet, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, is teaching a novel seminar called “Diversity and Social Justice in First Year Classes.” It combines classroom teaching with an eight-part public lecture series examining how issues of diversity and social justice can be integrated into the core 1L classes.

Describing him, among other things, as "a man of enormous achievements," HLS scholars say Supreme Court nominee Neil M. Gorsuch '91 -- selected by President Donald Trump to replace the late Antonin Scalia -- would alter the tone, if not the balance, of the Court, if appointed.

The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program has been addressing the legal concerns of Harvard students, faculty, staff, and individuals affected in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by recent executive action on immigration.

With just under two weeks left in the presidency of Barack Obama ’91, Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates spoke at Harvard Law School about recent strides in criminal justice reform and why she is optimistic that progress will continue in the new presidential administration.

A look back at 2016, highlights of the people who visited, events that took place and everyday life at Harvard Law School.

Professor Michael Klarman’s “The Framers’ Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution” gathers for the first time in a single volume the tumultuous story of the 1787 creation of our nation’s founding document, in the kind of rich detail earlier reserved for multivolume works.

During the fall 2016 semester, a group of leading scholars came together at Harvard Law School for the lecture series, "Diversity and US Legal History," which was sponsored by Dean Martha Minow and organized by Professor Mark Tushnet, who also designed a reading group to complement the lectures.