International

When Professor Elizabeth Bartholet ’65 spoke at a conference on international adoption in Guatemala City early this year, she addressed a room full of activists, lawyers and politicians. But at the heart of her speech, and her pro bono advocacy, are children–living in institutions or foster care around the world.

Few students admitted to Harvard Law School question whether they should build roads instead. But when Rebecca Hamilton '07 spent the summer of 2004 in Sudan trying to help thousands of displaced people get home, she found herself longing for such concrete solutions for the war-torn country.

Through literature and law, Larissa Behrendt LL.M. '94 S.J.D. '98 speaks for aboriginal rights.

After her people were slaughtered by neighbors, Geraldine Umugwaneza LL.M. '05 knows that forgiveness is elusive, but she is determined to help Rwanda move forward.

Paul V. Applegarth J.D./M.B.A. '74 runs a government corporation with a new approach to foreign aid.

Nick Brown '02 gained fame as a contestant on the reality show "Survivor." Today his reality is the Green Zone in Baghdad, where he carries a laptop and a rifle as a U.S. Army JAG officer.

Expanded program helps Harvard lawyers advance human rights abroad.

On a day when Israeli and Palestinian forces clashed in Gaza and negotiations in the region were at a standstill, a group of Harvard Law students in a classroom half a world away examined some of the challenges that have made the negotiation process so difficult in the Middle East and other lands torn by ethnic and religious strife.

In April, during one of the most violent periods of fighting in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, Assistant Professor Ryan Goodman's Public International Law class struggled to determine when the use of force is legal and what to do when force may be illegal yet legitimate.

In his more than 20 years working and teaching in the field of international law, Professor David Kennedy '80 observed something he thought no one was talking about--the negative consequences of good intentions. Kennedy discusses his book on the topic, "The Dark Sides of Virtue: Reassessing International Humanitarianism," published by Princeton University Press this spring.

It was December 2000 in Ingushetia, Russia, where 170,000 displaced citizens of neighboring Chechnya were hiding from Russia's federal forces. Leonard Rubenstein ' 75 sat talking with a young man, one of dozens of Chechens he interviewed during his monthlong stay.

When Brett Dakin '03 was living in Laos, he sneaked into a performance not meant for foreigners, commemorating the founding of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party.

HLS faculty and students look to other countries to better people's lives and increase their own understanding of the world of law.

Years ago, when Wes Williams' children attended their first knighting ceremony, they asked, "Is there going to be a beheading?"

A Harvard Law School student works a few weeks in a London firm over the summer and can’t get back to the United States in time for his fall semester.

Amnesty International still fights torture, arbitrary detention, and unfair trials, says Secretary General Irene Khan LL.M. '79, but now it's also taking on hunger, illiteracy, and discrimination.

In 30 years of practicing law, corporate bankruptcy attorney David Erne '68 had been in many negotiations--but none like this one.

Radio talk show host Juan Manuel García-Passalacqua '62 is urging his listeners--again--to go out and demonstrate. This time it's to stop the U.S. Navy from testing weapons on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

Roy Prosterman '58 wants people in the poorest countries to own property. Think of it, he says, as an insurance policy for the planet.

Eli Rosenbaum '80 is driven to bring Nazis to justice before it's too late.

Wildlife photographer Bobby Haas '72 has discovered a place and a passion that have changed his view of the world.

Cynics call them do-gooders, hopelessly naïve people disconnected from the real world. These days, the cynical view could easily prevail.

"We ordinarily don't try to respond to the news of the hour," said Frank Vogel, director of the HLS Islamic Legal Studies Program. But for Vogel, like for so many other people, everything changed on September 11.

HLS Celebrates Second Worldwide Alumni Congress in the City of Light.

Jenö Staehelin LL.M. ’65 is the Swiss ambassador to the United Nations. A member of the HLS Dean’s Advisory Board, Staehelin last fall hosted more…

Natalie Reid ’03, William Burke-White ’02, Wade Coriell ’01 (standing), and Woo Lee ’01 at the en banc courtroom of the 5th Circuit Court of…

Credit: Christoph Niemann A Harvard law degree is not always advantageous. In fact, for Nguyen Ngoc Bich LL.M. ’73, it was downright dangerous. Largely because…

Most law school papers don't get glowing reviews from the New York Times Book Review. But most law school papers aren't like Mohsin Hamid's.

The new leader of Taiwan's capital city, Ma Ying-jeou S.J.D '81 has already tackled a controversy over prostitutes' licenses and overseen disaster relief following an earthquake. Now he's busy working on public safety and creating "an Internet city."

Sandra Babcock '91 fought long and hard on behalf of client Stanley Faulder, a Canadian citizen who spent 22 years on death row, employing a novel legal argument in her struggle to save his life.

Professor Abram Chayes ’49 received the HLSA Award, the association’s highest honor, for his service as an "inspirational teacher and distinguished scholar, advocate for the rights of sovereign nations and the protection of the global environment, [and] beloved mentor to generations of Harvard Law students."