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Ethics

  • Harvard immigration and Refugee logo

    Years of advocacy by HIRC culminate in landmark decision by First Circuit

    April 29, 2020

    Years of advocacy by Harvard Law School’s Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program have culminated in a landmark decision recognizing gender as basis for asylum claims.

  • Petrie-Flom 2020 student fellows

    At year-end celebration, Petrie-Flom student fellows present their independent research projects

    April 27, 2020

    Student fellows at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics recently celebrated their fellowships’ end virtually when their capstone meeting moved to Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Illustration of people being tracked by their cell phones.

    How much access to data should be permitted during the COVID-19 pandemic?

    April 14, 2020

    The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University is currently taking the lead in the effort to explore the ways data can be mined to increase understanding of COVID-19 and to fight it more efficiently.

  • Professor Charles Fried

    Charles Fried addresses Trump administration’s ‘contempt for the rule of law’

    April 10, 2020

    Harvard Law Professor Charles Fried, who served as solicitor general under President Ronald Reagan, joined 21 other conservative or libertarian attorneys in a statement condemning inspector general Michael Atkinson’s ouster as part of a “continuous assault on the rule of law.”

  • Doctors and Medical equipment

    Emergency statutes must be passed to protect doctors and hospitals from potential lawsuits, say Harvard Law professors

    April 7, 2020

    HLS Professors Glenn Cohen and Andrew Crespo discuss their proposals to protect doctors and hospitals from potential lawsuits and criminal prosecution during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • A hospital bill for $36,000 with a line item of various charges with a credit card and a ballpoint pen.

    ‘Medical debt is a violation of human rights’

    April 7, 2020

    At a March 27 Petrie-Flom event on medical debt and universal health coverage, health experts and journalists raise serious concerns about the affordability of testing and hospital care.

  • Delivering food ordered online while in home isolation during quarantine. Stay home we deliver sign on box.

    Waste not, want not

    April 1, 2020

    Harvard Law School Professor Emily Broad Leib ’08, director of the HLS Food Law and Policy Clinic, and her students have been working furiously to ensure that the most vulnerable—and ultimately the rest of us—are fed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Protecting rights in a global crisis

    March 25, 2020

    In a Q&A, scholars at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School raise important legal and ethical questions about health care delivery and the enactment of extraordinary public health measures in response to the ongoing epidemic.

  • Statue of Liberty with American flag and helicopter flying.

    Restricting civil liberties amid the COVID-19 pandemic

    March 21, 2020

    As federal and state governments take measures to curtail public activity during the COVID-19 outbreak, Charles Fried and Nancy Gertner agree that the restriction on individual freedom is largely appropriate for the circumstance.

  • Scales of Justice statue

    Overcoming obstacles to experiments in legal practice

    March 19, 2020

    This month, Harvard Law Professors Jim Greiner and I. Glenn Cohen teamed up with bioethics scholar Holly Fernandez Lynch to author “Overcoming obstacles to experiments in legal practice,” in which the collaborators argue in favor of randomized studies in legal research over the common practice of relying on the expertise and judgment of individuals.

  • Alexa Richardson ’21

    Setting a legal standard for affirmative consent in childbirth

    March 10, 2020

    Patients are often subjected to nonconsensual procedures and other mistreatment during the birthing process; Alexa Richardson, a student fellow at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, is working to bring this situation to light.

  • Chol Soo Lee and his fight for freedom

    February 28, 2020

    For the fourth consecutive year, the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA) welcomed the Honorable Judge Denny Chin of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit for a reenactment of a key trial that shaped Asian American history.

  • In soda tax fight, echoes of tobacco battles

    February 19, 2020

    Amid rising rates of diabetes and obesity in the nation, the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School recently hosted a panel discussion concerning levies—those enacted, those proposed and those failed—on sugary beverages in jurisdictions nationwide.

  • Carol Steiker and Cornell William Brooks sit in front of movie theater screen reading Just Mercy

    ‘Just Mercy’ in the criminal justice system

    February 18, 2020

    “Just Mercy,” the film based on the memoir by Bryan Stevenson ’85, ends with a sobering statistic: For every nine people executed in the U.S., one on death row is exonerated. As Professor Carol Steiker noted in a discussion following a screening of the film, that makes the U.S. No. 1 in a problematic category.

  • Crystal Yang

    Faculty Voices: Crystal Yang ’13 on fear and the safety net

    January 31, 2020

    Professor Crystal Yang ’13 discusses her paper "Fear and the Safety Net: Evidence from Secure Communities," which examines the link between tougher immigration enforcement in the United States and the lack of participation in government safety-net programs by Hispanic citizens.

  • Sharon Block introduces Clean Slate Initiative

    Harvard Law’s Labor and Worklife Program releases major report aimed at reforming American labor law

    January 23, 2020

    The Harvard Gazette sat down with Sharon Block and Benjamin Sachs of Harvard's Labor and Worklife Program to talk about their report "Clean Slate for Worker Power: Building a Just Democracy and Economy," and about what they envision for the future of labor law in the United States.

  • Nancy Pelosi stands holding the gavel during impeachment vote against President Trump.

    Minow, Gordon-Reed probe what impeachment means and where it leads

    December 19, 2019

    To gain a better understanding of the issues in play following the House impeachment of President Donald Trump, the Harvard Gazette asked faculty and affiliates in history, law, politics, government, psychology, and media to offer their thoughts.

  • On the Bookshelf: HLS Library Book Talks, Spring 2018 2

    On the Bookshelf: HLS Authors

    December 11, 2019

    This fall, the Harvard Law School Library hosted a series of book talks by Harvard Law School authors on topics ranging from forgiveness in law, transparency in health and fidelity in constitutional practice.

  • A post-screening Q&A with Martha Minow, 300th Anniversary University Professor, and the students of Harvard Law School's

    Focus on Justice

    November 25, 2019

    At a packed Brattle Theatre last week, five short films created by 12 Harvard Law students from eight countries debuted. The documentaries, ranging across topics from gentrification to climate change, are the results of an innovative January term workshop taught by Martha Minow, former Harvard Law dean and 300th Anniversary University Professor.

  • In chair lecture, Stephenson explores corruption and its impact

    November 20, 2019

    Stephenson, an expert in anticorruption law, legislation, and administrative law, commemorated his appointment as the Eli Goldston Professor of Law with a lecture at Harvard Law School titled, “Corruption and Anticorruption.”

  • Portrait of Toby Merrill

    Toby Merrill ’11 named to the TIME 100 Next list

    November 15, 2019

    Toby Merrill '11, founder and director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending, has been named to the first-ever TIME 100 Next list, an expansion of the TIME 100 list of the most influential people in the world.