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National and International Security

  • Education of an Idealist

    September 25, 2019

    Ambassador Samantha Power ’99 expressed both skepticism and hope for the current state of international affairs during a panel discussion of her new memoir "The Education of an Idealist."

  • Anna Khalfaoui head shot

    As Satter Fellow, Anna Khalfaoui LL.M. ’17 assisted in trial of Congolese militia leaders

    August 23, 2019

    The British-trained French attorney who chose Harvard Law School for its human rights training plans to continue working on international human rights and international humanitarian law litigation.

  • Michael Leiter walking down a hall

    Defending Domains

    July 29, 2019

    As a former top national security official and current adviser to companies in the defense, intelligence, and technology sectors, Michael Leiter ’00 has spent his life assessing threats.

  • Illustration of woman leaning against a tree with open books on the branches

    HLS Authors: A summer selection of alumni books

    July 22, 2019

    The latest from alumni authors, chronicling travels to the moon and the Arctic, the dawn of a code war, and the unwinding of a miracle.

  • Jessica Tisch ’08 at the New York Police Department

    A Conversation with Jessica Tisch ’08

    July 17, 2019

    Jessica Tisch has put data-driven policing tools in the hands of New York City’s 36,000 uniformed police officers, including 911 dispatch information and electronic report forms on iPhones.

  • Forging ahead

    June 12, 2019

    Six members of the Class of 2019 share their unique perspectives, varied experiences, and the lessons they will take with them from their time at Harvard Law School.

  • Military veterans taking notes

    HLS joins new initiative to attract and enroll veterans

    June 10, 2019

    Harvard Law School has formed a new partnership with Service to School’s VetLink program, an initiative that directly connects transitioning military veterans seeking higher education with partner schools that align with their academic goals, aspirations, and potential.

  • Logan Leslie at the doorway of the Caspersen Room at Harvard Law Library

    Logan Leslie: From active duty to actively recruiting veterans

    May 23, 2019

    Logan Leslie JD/MBA ’19 loved military service and planned to spend his lifetime in it. But a growing family—along with the ‘heartbreaking’ poverty and failed institutions he witnessed in Afghanistan—spurred him to serve in a different way.

  • Photo of Radhika Kapoor

    Radhika Kapoor: ‘I want to be able to help develop transitional justice norms’

    May 21, 2019

    Radhika Kapoor LL.M. ’19 came to HLS to take advantage of Harvard’s institutional expertise in international law, humanitarian law and post-conflict stability—and to foster her love of reading.

  • David Grossman Exemplary Clinical Student Team Award winners: Lisandra Novo ’19, Lindsay Bailey ’19, Elisa Quiroz ’19

    Three students win the David Grossman Exemplary Clinical Student Team Award

    May 20, 2019

    Lindsay Bailey’19, Lisandra Novo’19 and Elisa Quiroz ’19 are the winners of the team 2019 David Grossman Exemplary Clinical Student Award.

  • The White House with waving American flag

    Uncharted legal territory

    May 9, 2019

    Harvard Law scholars are weighing in on recent decisions made by the White House, the Department of Justice and Congress that mark a significant escalation in the protracted conflict over the Mueller report.

  • Parsing the Mueller report: A Q&A with Alex Whiting 1

    Parsing the Mueller report: A Q&A with Alex Whiting

    April 19, 2019

    Hours after the Mueller report was released, the Harvard Gazette spoke with former prosecutor Alex Whiting, a professor of practice at Harvard Law School who teaches issues and procedures related to domestic and international criminal prosecutions.

  • Julian Assange in a police van

    Benkler, faculty experts discuss the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

    April 12, 2019

    Nearly a decade after Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning shared classified materials with WikiLeaks, the site’s founder, Julian Assange, was arrested in London for his role in the disclosures. The Harvard Gazette recently spoke with three faculty members, including Yochai Benkler, the Harvard Law professor who has publicly defended the disclosure as whistleblowing.

  • Samantha Power headshot

    Samantha Power on Rwanda after 25 years: What was learned, what was forgotten

    April 5, 2019

    In a recent Q&A, Professor of Practice Samantha Power, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and author of the Pulitzer-prize winning 'A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,' reflects on the tragedy in Rwanda and the lessons learned—and not learned—since.

  • Modirzadeh urges UN Security Council to implement protections for humanitarian action

    At UN briefing, Modirzadeh urges safeguarding humanitarian action

    April 3, 2019

    Professor of Practice Naz Modirzadeh ’02, founding director of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, spoke before the United Nations Security Council in New York City on April 1 on safeguarding humanitarian assistance in counterterrorism contexts.

  • The White House with waving American flag

    Video: Sovereignty and the New Executive Authority

    March 22, 2019

    The Harvard Law School Library recently hosted Claire Finkelstein, professor of law and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, for a discussion on "Sovereignty and the New Executive Authority," a volume of essays exploring the growing struggle to maintain the legal and ethical boundaries surrounding executive authority in the post- 9/11 United States.

  • Redressing Harm through Restorative Justice

    Redressing Harm through Restorative Justice

    March 7, 2019

    The 2019 Harvard Negotiation Law Review symposium, “Redressing Harm Through Restorative Justice,” focused on the challenges of addressing power imbalances and trauma through implementation of restorative practices within communities.

  • Alford receives the Li Buyun Law Prize 2

    Alford receives the Li Buyun Law Prize

    March 5, 2019

    William P. Alford ’77, the Jerome A. and Joan L. Cohen Professor of East Asian Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, has received the Li Buyun Law Prize from the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law, a leading Chinese academic society.

  • Cravath 2019

    From Fiji to New Delhi, Cravath International Fellows pursue projects around the globe

    February 28, 2019

    During Winter Term, 12 Harvard Law School students traveled to 12 countries as Cravath International Fellows to pursue clinical placements or independent research with an international, transnational, or comparative law focus. Four of them share their experiences.

  • Illustration with books

    Law’s Influencers

    February 26, 2019

    HLS faculty blogs on law-related topics are reaching thousands—sometimes millions—and have become required reading for experts.

  • Europe’s Culture Crisis

    Europe’s Culture Crisis

    February 13, 2019

    Europe’s crisis—the challenges to liberal democracy across the continent, the rise of right-wing nationalist parties, the backlash against the European Union—isn’t a rebellion of economic have-nots, according to former HLS professor Joseph Weiler, who delivered the Herbert W. Vaughan Memorial Lecture, “The European Culture War 2003-2019,” on Feb. 6.

  • A call for a kinder capitalism

    A call for a kinder capitalism

    February 6, 2019

    Speaking at Harvard Law School, U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III '09 (D., Mass.) called Monday for a new national economic agenda based on “moral capitalism” that addresses the needs of embattled workers.

  • Daphna Renan

    Daphna Renan: Presidential Power, National Security

    January 29, 2019

    "I think criminal procedure is a very fundamental part of the constitutional law of democracy,” says Assistant Professor Daphna Renan, who writes about structural constitutional law, administrative law, and the Fourth Amendment. “When can the government use force against its own citizens? When can it search individuals, communities and communications? How do emergent technologies challenge existing legal frameworks? For anyone who cares about power and how law constrains and enables it, there are no more pressing questions than these.”

  • Samantha Power headshot

    Samantha Power to receive 2019 Moynihan Prize in Social Science and Public Policy

    January 24, 2019

    The American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) has announced that Ambassador Samantha Power '99, diplomat, academic, and human rights advocate, will receive the 2019 Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize in Social Science and Public Policy.

  • Whither that wall

    Whither that wall

    January 11, 2019

    President Trump may be able to build a wall along the Mexican border, Harvard analysts say, but then the ripples will widen.

  • Money as a Democratic Medium 4

    Money as a Democratic Medium

    January 11, 2019

    Harvard’s recent two-day conference, “Money as a Democratic Medium,” challenged its participants to re-examine the history of money in America, and to redefine its future.

  • Money as a Democratic Medium: A Q&A with Christine Desan

    Money as a Democratic Medium: A Q&A with Christine Desan

    January 11, 2019

    Christine Desan, the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, organized the conference, “Money as a Democratic Medium,” a two-day event that challenged its participants to re-examine the history of money in America, and to redefine its future.

  • Veterans Legal Clinic Wins Court Case for Massachusetts Post-9/11 Combat Veterans

    Veterans Legal Clinic wins court case for Massachusetts post-9/11 combat veterans

    January 4, 2019

    In a ruling issued on December 21, 2018, the Massachusetts Superior Court found in favor of three Massachusetts veterans represented by the Veterans Legal Clinic in their challenge to the state government’s denying them the Welcome Home Bonus, which these veterans earned by serving overseas in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

  • 200 Years, Countless Stories: Paul Clement

    200 Years, Countless Stories: Paul Clement

    December 19, 2018

    In the “Countless Stories” video series, Paul Clement ’92, a former United States Solicitor General and current partner at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis, discusses his advocacy before the Supreme Court.

  • John Gibbons ’50 (1924- 2018)

    John Gibbons ’50 (1924-2018)

    December 18, 2018

    John J. Gibbons ’50, a former federal judge who argued for rights for Guantánamo detainees and dedicated his five-decade career to protecting the rule of law in the United States, died Dec. 9. He was 94.

  • Monika Bickert and Jonathan Zittrain seated at the front of a classroom smiling and looking up at a screen

    The view from inside Facebook

    December 10, 2018

    Monika Bickert, head of global policy management at Facebook, joined Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain for a wide-ranging conversation hosted by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, about the social media giant’s policies and its evolution--including some tough questions from audience members on the company’s recent headline-making controversies.

  • 25 Million Sparks: Andrew Leon Hanna ’19 on his prize-winning book project

    25 Million Sparks: Andrew Leon Hanna ’19 on his prize-winning book project

    November 21, 2018

    Andrew Leon Hanna ’19 recently won the 2018 Bracken Bower Prize from the Financial Times and McKinsey & Company for the best book proposal about emerging businesses from someone 35 or under. Hanna’s book proposal, “25 Million Sparks”, aims to celebrate refugee entrepreneurs.

  • Ames 2018 3

    HLS teams compete in the 106th annual Ames Moot Court finals (video)

    November 16, 2018

    Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Sonia Sotomayor was at Harvard Law School on Nov. 13 to hear finalists in the 2018 Ames Moot Court Competition.

  • M. Alejandra Parra-Orlandoni ’15

    M. Alejandra Parra-Orlandoni ’15: engineer, naval officer, and lawyer

    November 11, 2018

    After serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy, M. Alejandra Parra-Orlandoni focused on international law and national security during her time at Harvard Law School. But the most important things she learned, she says, were the ability to think critically and the importance of learning from the experience of others.

  • From active duty to service through law: Military veterans at Harvard Law School

    From active duty to service through law: Military veterans at Harvard Law School

    November 6, 2018

    The service and unique perspective of the veterans currently enrolled at Harvard Law School enrich the entire HLS community, elevating awareness about the legal and policy issues affecting veterans and the significance of law in contemporary warfare; three military veterans in this year’s entering class shared their experiences in the military and at HLS.

  • Eve Howe ’21: 'I want to use my degree or knowledge to help'

    Eve Howe ’21: ‘I want to use my degree or knowledge to help’

    November 6, 2018

    Eve L. Howe ’21 is an expert in nuclear submarines -- specifically, the fluid systems that cool the nuclear reactors in military submarines. Drawn to military service because she wanted to use her engineering skills for public service, Howe spent five years as an officer in the U.S. Navy, where she solved complex technical problems to ensure the submarines would be able to accomplish their missions.

  • Stephen Petraeus

    Stephen Petraeus ’21: Continuing a legacy of service

    November 6, 2018

    During his undergraduate studies, Stephen Petraeus wanted to explore a different world from the military life in which grew up. But as a sophomore, Petraeus felt a longing for that world and joined ROTC—a decision that led to eight years in the U.S. Army and two deployments to Afghanistan, including with the storied 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.

  • Sara Plesser Neugroschel LL.M. ’19: Serving to prevent injustice, tyranny, and terrorism

    Sara Plesser Neugroschel LL.M. ’19: Serving to prevent injustice, tyranny, and terrorism

    November 6, 2018

    With no other members of the military in the extended family, the parents of U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Sara Plesser Neugroschel LL.M. ’19 were “very, very surprised” when she decided to commission in the Navy after her 2L year at the University of Miami Law School, from which she graduated in 2009.

  • Reflections from the border

    Reflections from the border

    November 2, 2018

    Students and faculty from the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program spent a week in Texas volunteering at the Karnes Detention Center, where they met with fathers and sons who had been forcibly separated from each other under President Trump’s zero-tolerance policy. They offer their thoughts on this powerful and eye-opening experience.

  • Lee Gelernt: A fierce advocate reuniting separated families

    Lee Gelernt: A fierce advocate reuniting separated families

    October 31, 2018

    On Oct. 22, Lee Gelernt, the ACLU lawyer who spearheaded a national class action lawsuit against the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy on immigrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, spoke to HLS staff and students about the litigation’s claims and the ongoing efforts to reunite families.

  • $7.5 Million Gift from the Debra and Leon Black Family Foundation to Support Student Fellowship Program for U.S. Veterans and Active Duty Military Members

    $7.5 million Black Family Foundation gift to support veterans and active duty military fellowships

    October 18, 2018

    U.S. veterans and active duty military members who want to pursue graduate studies at Harvard will now have even more support thanks to a new graduate studies fellowship announced today by the Harvard Kennedy School.

  • Courts under political pressure

    A View from Europe: Courts under political pressure

    October 18, 2018

    Dieter Grimm LL.M. ’65, a noted scholar, academic and public intellectual, and former justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, returned to Harvard Law School on September 18 to speak on “Courts under Political Pressure.”

  • Outbreak Week: How prepared are we for the next health crisis?

    Outbreak Week: How prepared are we for the next health crisis?

    October 5, 2018

    Last week, Harvard commemorated the centennial of the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people worldwide with Outbreak Week, a series of events across the university.

  • Urs Gasser

    Why your online data isn’t safe

    October 3, 2018

    In a Q&A with the Harvard Gazette, Urs Gasser LL.M. ’03, executive director of the Berkman Klein Center, discusses what might be done to protect users from companies that profit from people’s data.

  • 65 Years, Countless Stories: Loretta Lynch ’84

    65 Years, Countless Stories: Loretta Lynch ’84

    September 14, 2018

    Former Attorney General of the United States Loretta Lynch ’84, the first African-American woman attorney general, shares her HLS experience and discusses her career as the country’s chief law enforcement officer. Lynch will be one of hundreds of Harvard Law alumnae gathered on campus on Sept 14-15 to commemorate Celebration 65. 

  • Sen. Flake challenges Class of 2018 to protect the rule of law 1

    Sen. Flake challenges Class of 2018 to protect the rule of law (video)

    May 23, 2018

    On Class Day, May 23, U.S. Senator Jeff Flake told the Class of 2018 assembled on a sunny Holmes Field that they were entering the legal profession in a critical moment.

  • Amy Volz ’18

    Volz, Jung win David Grossman Exemplary Clinical Student Award

    May 22, 2018

    In recognition of their demonstrated excellence in representing clients and undertaking advocacy or policy reform projects, Amy Volz ’18 and Ha Ryong Jung (Michael) ’18 were named the 2018 recipients of the David A. Grossman Exemplary Clinical Student Award, named in honor of the late Clinical Professor David Grossman ’88.

  • 20 years of the Laws of Cyberspace 1

    20 years of the Laws of Cyberspace

    May 16, 2018

    It’s been two decades since Harvard Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig published ‘The Laws of Cyberspace;’ recently, an event at the Berkman Klein Center celebrated how that groundbreaking paper provided structure to the Center's field of study.

  • Human Rights in a Time of Populism (video)

    Human Rights in a Time of Populism (video)

    May 9, 2018

    The global impact of populist movements was the topic of “Human Rights in a Time of Populism,” a two-day symposium held at Harvard Law School, where participants examined the challenges that current developments characterized as populist pose to the goals of the international human rights system.

  • Emerging Technologies: Privacy by Design

    Emerging Technologies: Privacy by Design

    April 18, 2018

    Students of Professor Urs Gasser’s Spring 2018 Comparative Digital Privacy seminar hosted a symposium on 'Privacy by Design,' convening experts from government, private practice, industry, and academia to weigh in on all things privacy-related, from the difficulty of defining privacy to a comparison of the regulatory regimes in the United States and the European Union.