National and International Security

In the unusual year of 2020, Harvard Law authors continued to do what they always have: Write.

The Harvard Law School Library's Nuremberg Trials Project has been used by students, academics, filmmakers and artists among others to support their work in the retelling and documentation of World War II and the atrocities committed during that time.

Can President Donald J. Trump pardon himself before his term ends in January? This hotly debated legal question was given new urgency by the president’s recent decision to pardon Michael T. Flynn, his first national security adviser who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his contacts with Russia.

In a recent Harvard Gazette roundup, Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Phil Torrey and other university scholars, analysts, and affiliates took a look at what the election tells us about the prospects for greater unity and progress, and offered suggestions and predictions about where the new administration will, and should, go.

Ahead of the 2020 presidential election in the United States, experts from the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society convened to discuss how platforms are approaching mis- and disinformation and what they can improve going forward.

Andrew H. Choi ’23 was eager for a serious challenge in his first Army posting, so he chose as radically different an environment as he could imagine: Fairbanks, Alaska.

After training as a military police officer in the U.S. Marines, Mtume Sangiewa ’23 found himself with an extraordinary assignment: he was headed to Washington, D.C. to guard President Barack Obama ’91.

When she was pursuing her J.D., Lieutenant Commander Elizabeth Hutton LL.M. ’21 knew that she wanted to enter public service, but wasn’t sure exactly how she would do so.

Given the strong possibility that Tuesday night’s presidential election will not go off without a hitch, a group of Harvard Law School students have launched a website that explores every other possible election scenario.

In an effort to combat multiple potential vectors of attack on the 2020 U.S. election, two Berkman Klein Center affiliates have published a package of “tabletop exercises,” freely available to decisionmakers and the public to simulate realistic scenarios in which disinformation threatens to disrupt the 2020 election.

In the “good old days” of cybersecurity risk, we only had to worry about being hacked or downloading malware. But the stakes have ramped up considerably in the past decade, say Berkman Klein directors James Mickens and Jonathan Zittrain.

A new report from the HLS International Human Rights Clinic and the Conflict and Environment Observatory establishes a new framework for addressing human harm resulting from the environmental consequences of conflict.

Harvard Law Today spoke Monday with tax experts Keith Fogg and Thomas Brennan about the New York Times' report on President Donald J. Trump’s taxes.

In the first colloquium of a sweeping new series, “COVID-19 and the Law,” five Harvard Law faculty members grappled with the challenges, limitations, and opportunities of governmental powers during a public health crisis.

Two clinics at HLS— the Cyberlaw Clinic and the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic—partner on a case involving warrantless device searches at the U.S. border

Cass Sunstein ’78, the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard, has been tapped by the World Health Organization to chair its Technical Advisory Group on Behavioural Insights and Sciences for Health.

“Confused,” “frustrating,” “fragmented,” “acute,” and “a reckoning” were just some of the ways three health care experts described the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic during a recent Berkman Klein virtual discussion.

Andrew Crespo ’08 recently discussed the federal government’s law enforcement actions in Portland, Oregon with Harvard Law Today.

Effective July 1, two faculty members were promoted and a new scholar joined the Harvard Law School faculty.

Daphna Renan, a scholar of presidential power and administrative governance, has been promoted to professor of law at Harvard Law School, effective July 1.

Harvard Law Today spoke with Professor Benjamin Eidelson about the legal reasoning behind the Supreme Court's surprising ruling on DACA and what the decision means moving forward.

In an open letter to the community, Harvard Law School professors and other associates condemn President Trump’s statements about recent protests

With the aim of advocating for refugees, Niku Jafarnia J.D. / M.P.P.’20 focused on the intersection of refugee rights, armed conflict, and counterterrorism as joint law and public policy student at Harvard.

Harvard Law School Professor of Practice Naz Modirzadeh combines levity with earnestness in last lecture to the graduating class.

In her Last Lecture on May 13, Harvard Law School Assistant Professor Daphna Renan emphasized her kinship with the Class of 2020. She had…

The 2020 Last Lecture Series is an HLS tradition where selected faculty members impart insight, advice, and final words of wisdom to the graduating class. Speakers this year included Dehlia Umunna, Daphna Renan, Ruth Okediji, and Naz Modirzadeh.

In a Q&A, Yee Htun, clinical instructor in the International Human Rights Clinic, talks about systemic discrimination and violence against ethnic Rohingya in Myanmar and how Rohingya refugees are coping in the midst of a global pandemic.

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.”

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.

In the Berkman Klein Center's Medium collection, BKC fellow and S.J.D. candidate Beatriz Botero Arcila talks about governments' use of digital technologies and big data analytics in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

Harvard’s Animal Law & Policy Program filed its first Supreme Court brief challenging the Trump administration’s waiver of laws regarding the U.S.-Mexico border wall construction. Ashley Maiolatesi ’20 recently corresponded with Harvard Law Today about what is at stake, the specific ramifications of these waivers, and her own personal connection to the project.

In “Unmaking the Presidency,” HLS lecturer on law Benjamin Wittes and Susan Hennessey ’13 say Trump has bucked norms and expanded power, but whether others will follow his lead is unclear.

On Jan. 29, attorneys from HIRC submitted a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of their client, an Iranian student who was denied entry to the U.S. despite having a valid visa.

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.

Ambassador Samantha Power ’99 reflects on her life and career in her new memoir "The Education of an Idealist."

Nasredeen Abdulbari LL.M. ’08 discusses the significant role he has now undertaken as Sudan's Minister of Justice. In September, he was sworn in as Minister of Justice in the cabinet of Sudan’s new Prime Minister, Abdalla Hamdok.

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.

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.”

Watch the story of how Harvard Law School's Veterans Legal Clinic helped Paul, a man who served his country in one of the longest and deadliest wars in U.S. history, gain access to vital benefits denied him for decades.

Four of the 26 current and former members of the U.S. armed forces in this year’s entering class at Harvard Law School share their experiences in the military and at HLS.

With a lifelong commitment to helping people in need, especially those in impoverished countries, Brandon Ricaurte joined the U.S. Army to become a Special Forces soldier, whose mission is to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.

As a U.S. Air Force Nuclear and Missile Operations officer, Riley Vann was one of 90 missileers whose job it was to ensure that U.S. nuclear weapons are ready to launch on command. The experience taught her how to cope—and maintain leadership—under pressure.

U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr Anthony P. “Tony” Sham LL.M. ’20 has served in Afghanistan as a legal adviser to American military leaders and at the Pentagon as a deputy executive assistant to the Judge Advocate General of the Navy.

Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel Hanan Melcer, who chaired Israel's Central Elections Committee, shared his experience protecting Israel's elections from online manipulation and cyber threats.

Seventy-four years later Setsuko Thurlow still remembers the moment of detonation after the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the first of two exploded over the island nation, a deployment that proved so horrendous the weapons have never been used since.

Bonnie Docherty ’01, associate director the Armed Conflict and Civilian Protection Initiative (ACCPI) at Harvard Law School, discusses humanitarian disarmament, and a recent discussion with Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow.

Photo exhibit traces the history of nuclear weapons from the devastation of early use and testing to the current global effort to eliminate them.

Harvard faculty explore the thorny legal and political implications of trying to unseat Trump, and whether it will matter in the end if it reaches the Republican-controlled Senate.