Health Law & Policy

On March 9, the Food Law and Policy Clinic of Harvard Law School and the Natural Resources Defense Council, released “Don’t Waste, Donate: Enhancing Food Donations through Federal Policy,” presenting actions the federal government should take to better align federal laws and policies with the goal of increasing the donation of safe surplus food.

In a recent appearance at HLS, Ayelet Waldman ’91 -- a former criminal defense lawyer and federal public defender -- discussed her book “A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life,” using it as a backdrop to delve into the social and racial dimensions of the war on drugs.

As Harvard Law School's Public Service Venture Fund enters its fourth year, HLS is looking back on all that its awardees have accomplished since the first awards were conferred in 2013.

Harvard Law School Professor Glenn Cohen co-authored an article for the journal Science Translational Medicine on the legal and ethical considerations regarding in vitro gametogenesis (IVG), a new, experimental technique that allows scientists to grow embryos in a lab by reprograming adult cells to become sperm and egg cells.

Science journalist and author Gary Taubes ’77 made his case that sugar consumption — which has risen dramatically over the last century — drives metabolic dysfunction that makes people sick. The hour-long talk was sponsored by Harvard Law School's Food Law and Policy Clinic and drawn from Taubes’ new book, “The Case Against Sugar.”

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.

A system that makes healthy food expensive and junk food cheap should be fixed, said a panel of experts who gathered at Harvard Law School on Nov. 30 to discuss “Transforming Our Food System,” a discussion sponsored by the HLS Food Law and Policy Clinic in partnership with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

On November 9, 2016, the Honorable Robert Russell, founder of the nation’s first Veterans Treatment Court delivered the 2016 DAV Distinguished Speaker Lecture at Harvard Law School.

In October, Kristin Fleschner ’14 returned to the Harvard Law campus to share with current students her work in disability rights and her experiences as a blind lawyer. Her talk was followed by a showing of “Blind Ambition,” a documentary that she produced as a 2L with the support of the Dean of Students Office.

It’s been eight years since Massachusetts voters decriminalized the possession of one ounce or less of marijuana. On Tuesday, they’ll decide whether to tax and regulate the sale and adult consumption of it. The initiative, known as Question 4, would legalize and create a commission to regulate marijuana in Massachusetts.

With his recent gift of $1 million and a subsequent matching gift of $500,000 to support individual donations of up to $50,000 through December, Charles Thomas is hoping to make farm animals central to animal cruelty prevention.

In the summer of 2016, 19 students traveled to 13 countries through the Chayes International Public Service Fellowship Program. Chayes Fellows spend eight weeks working within the governments of developing nations, or with the inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations that support them.

As a child, Raymond Atuguba was regularly confronted by the harsh realities of poverty in Ghana. His father, a civil servant posted to rural areas, owned the only car for miles around. “Every emergency was brought to our door. If the car was not functioning, people died—on a daily basis—because they could not get to the hospital,” recalls Atuguba. “When I grew up, I said, ‘No, this has to change.’”

Professor Glenn Cohen breaks down complex topic for Ed Portal and online audience.

The Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School (CHLPI) is undertaking a new advocacy campaign to enforce the health care rights guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for people living with HIV and other chronic conditions.

Food recovery entrepreneurs, farmers, business persons, academics, government officials and many others converged at Harvard Law School for two days of learning, strategizing, and networking to address the growing issue of food waste.

The Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC), a non-profit organization with a vision of improving advanced illness care for all Americans, and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School co-hosted the inaugural event for their new collaboration: The Project on Advanced Care and Health Policy.

Charles Ogletree '78, the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School, recently announced that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He said he will work to raise awareness of the disease and its disproportionate effect on African Americans.

More than 125,000 veterans who have served since 9/11 are denied access to basic services like health care by the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a report by the Veterans Legal Clinic at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School.

Harvard Law School Professor I. Glenn Cohen, faculty director of the School's Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics spoke with the Harvard Gazette about Monday's ruling by the Supreme Court that overturned a Texas law requiring that abortion clinics maintain hospital-like standards at their facilities as well as admitting privileges at local hospitals.

This spring, more than 370 people interested in food systems attended a two-day conference at Harvard Law School, the 2016 Just Food? Forum on Land Use, Rights and Ecology.