International

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…

By the 20th time Wade Coriell ’01 argued for this year’s Philip C. Jessup International Moot Law Court Competition, he was certain he could respond…

A Harvard law degree is not always advantageous. In fact, for Nguyen Ngoc Bich LL.M. ’73, it was downright dangerous. Largely because of his HLS…