Topics
National and International Security
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Harvard Law School’s Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program has released a report on the effects of President Trump’s Executive Orders on people seeking asylum protection in the United States under long-standing provisions of U.S. and international law, including refugee law and the Convention Against Torture.
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In the wake of executive orders restricting immigration, HLS clinic provides legal support and advocacy
February 1, 2017
The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program has been addressing the legal concerns of Harvard students, faculty, staff, and individuals affected in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by recent executive action on immigration.
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Harvard Law School: 2016 in review
December 22, 2016
A look back at 2016, highlights of the people who visited, events that took place and everyday life at Harvard Law School.
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Rebecca Tushnet, a leading First Amendment scholar, will join the faculty of Harvard Law School as the inaugural Frank Stanton Professor of First Amendment Law.
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HLS students Tony Garofano LL.M. ’17 and Sarah Grant ’19 spoke with writers for Harvard Law Today about their experiences serving in the military and studying at Harvard Law.
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15 years later, Harvard Law reflects on 9/11
September 8, 2016
In commemoration of the 15th anniversary of 9/11, Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow asked faculty, alumni and staff to share brief personal reflections about that day and the post-9/11 world in which we live.
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A citizen’s constitution
September 6, 2016
In a speech lasting six minutes and one second, Khizr Khan, LL.M. ’86, whose son Capt. Humayun Khan was killed in Iraq, stepped out from behind the curtain of private pain and into the public spotlight, attracting worldwide attention.
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Berkman Klein Center announces 2016-2017 community
August 11, 2016
A number of new fellows, faculty associates, and affiliates will join the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University for the 2016-2017 academic year.
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Naz Modirzadeh named professor of practice
May 16, 2016
Naz K. Modirzadeh '02, the founding director of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC), has been appointed as a professor of practice at Harvard Law School.
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Quiet Intelligence
May 10, 2016
For more than seven years, John Carlin ’99 has been at the center of the most sensitive counterterrorism cases, which have often involved tricky technological questions—first as an adviser to FBI Director Robert Mueller and then at the National Security Division.
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The New Age of Surveillance
May 10, 2016
The Internet of Things may be about to change our lives as radically as the Internet itself did 20 years ago. The implications for privacy, national security, human rights, cyberespionage and the economy are staggering.
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Wise Promoter of Accountable Government
May 10, 2016
For more than half a century, Phil Heymann has served the nation— and Harvard Law School—with distinction.
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When Wendy Sherman, former under secretary of state for political affairs, was in the midst of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, she often felt that her team was playing “several games of multidimensional chess at the same time.” On April 20, Sherman delivered a guest lecture to the Harvard Law School Negotiation Workshop.
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Students host mini-symposium on data privacy
May 2, 2016
On April 12, students in Professor of Practice Urs Gasser’s Spring 2016 Comparative Online Privacy Seminar at Harvard Law School hosted a student-led mini-symposium on data privacy in the U.S. and the EU with experts from private companies, law firms, and academia.
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Presidential power in an era of polarized conflict
April 21, 2016
On April 1, Harvard Law School hosted a conference on 'Presidential Power in an Era of Polarized Conflict,' a daylong gathering in which experts from both sides of the aisle debated the president’s power in foreign and domestic affairs, and in issues of enforcement or non-enforcement.
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Gabriella Blum named Andrew Carnegie Fellow
April 19, 2016
Gabriella Blum LL.M. ’01 S.J.D. ’03, Rita E. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Harvard Law School has been named a 2016 Andrew Carnegie Fellow by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
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In a report issued last week, the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic and Human Rights Watch call for countries to retain meaningful human control over weapons systems and ban fully autonomous weapons, also known as 'killer robots.'
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Former national security adviser Juan Zarate on money laundering in real estate industry
April 4, 2016
Harvard Law School Visiting Lecturer Juan Carlos Zarate ’97, a former deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes, recently spoke with The Harvard Gazette about the problem of money-laundering in the real estate industry—the scope of it, and what new oversight might portend.
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Star Negotiator: Law School event highlights James B. Donovan, alum at center of Cold War drama
March 30, 2016
How can you defend a foreigner who came to the United States with the likely intent of causing harm to Americans? For attorney James B. Donovan, a 1940 graduate of Harvard Law School, the real question at the height of the Cold War was: How can you not?
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At HLS symposium, military and academic leaders explain legal and cultural issues in counterterror operations
March 11, 2016
Harvard Law School hosted the first-ever Legal, Cultural and Strategic Issues in Counterterror Operations Symposium bringing together military officers from the 3rd Legal Operations Detachment and academic scholars whose work focuses on areas of Islamic and human rights law as well as on cultural and international security issues.
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Reconciling perspectives: New report reframes encryption debate
February 3, 2016
A new report by The Berklett Cybersecurity Project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University,“Don’t Panic: Making Progress on the ‘Going Dark’ Debate,” examines the high-profile debate around government access to encryption, and offers a new perspective.
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Fighting for disarmament: Docherty calls for stronger regulation of incendiary weapons
January 2, 2016
For Bonnie Docherty, a lecturer on law and a senior instructor at the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, the battle to protect civilians from suffering caused by armed conflicts continues.
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At HLS, DOJ’s top national security lawyer discusses U.S. vulnerability to cyberterrorism
December 8, 2015
John P. Carlin ’99, assistant attorney general for National Security, spoke last week at Harvard Law School on the National Security Cyber Threat, at an event hosted by the Harvard National Security Journal.
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For French scholar, hope survives terror
November 19, 2015
It was with tragic timeliness that Professor Patrick Weil discussed “After the Paris Attacks: What Is the Future for French Society?” on Wednesday, November 18 at Harvard Law School.
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Growing from all branches of the Armed Forces: A look at this year’s military service members
November 9, 2015
Harvard students who have served in the various branches of the Armed Forces represent a diverse range of backgrounds and experience, but all have at least one thing in common: a profound dedication to serving the nation, under the most perilous of circumstances.
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Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus delivers Disabled American Veterans Distinguished Lecture at Harvard Law School
October 27, 2015
Delivering the 2015 Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Distinguished Lecture at Harvard Law School on Oct. 22, Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus ’75 told attendees that “one of my proudest moments as Secretary” was the reinstatement of the Reserve Officers Training Program on the Harvard campus in 2011.
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A Leader on National Security
October 5, 2015
After 15 years in Congress, Adam Schiff has emerged as a leading Democratic voice on national security.
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HLS Authors: Selected Alumni Books – Fall 2015
October 5, 2015
“Seattle Justice: The Rise and Fall of the Police Payoff System in Seattle,” by Christopher T. Bayley ’66 (Sasquatch Books). In the early 1970s, as the newly…
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Doctors who provide medical assistance to people labeled terrorists are increasingly vulnerable to prosecution in the United States and other Western democracies, according to a law briefing by the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC).
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Mohammad Hamdy awarded ASIL international law fellowship
July 24, 2015
Mohammad Hamdy, an S.J.D. candidate at Harvard Law, was selected by the American Society of International Law (ASIL) as a 2015 Helton Fellow.
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In Memoriam: Daniel J. Meltzer ’75
May 26, 2015
Daniel J. Meltzer '75, a renowned legal scholar and expert on federal courts and criminal procedure, and a valued legal advisor to President Barack Obama ’91, died on May 24, after a courageous battle with cancer. Meltzer was the Story Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he served on the faculty since 1982.
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Power–and Peril–to the People
May 4, 2015
In a new world of technology, Gabriella Blum and Benjamin Wittes argue, we are more powerful and more vulnerable than ever
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‘Voices of Syria:’ Unique survey offers an inside look at a worn-torn country and its people
April 10, 2015
Vera Mironova, a graduate research fellow at Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation, was one of the lead authors of the “Voices of Syria” project, which covered topics such as current living situations, safety concerns, the future role of religion — among other key issues in Syria’s government. Mironova, a fifth-year year Ph.D. candidate at the University of Maryland, oversaw and coordinated the operation on the ground. Her goal: to capture the civil war in its most raw form.
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The value of a clear understanding of your country’s objectives and the power of personal relationships — along with the wisdom of not drinking too much lemonade — were among the insights former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright shared with an audience at Harvard Law School's on April 2.
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In a recent interview in the Harvard Gazette, Harvard Law School Professor Noah Feldman, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Nicholas Burns, and Wall Street Journalist Farnaz Fassihi offer their analyses of the recent conflicts in the Middle East and the historic political, social, and military transformation taking place in the region.
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In a talk sponsored by International Legal Studies on February 11, former NPR correspondent Sarah Chayes, currently senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment, spoke to HLS students about the links, historical and current, between corruption and global security.
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Jane Harman on the evolving threat of terrorism (video)
November 26, 2014
In a question-and-answer session with Dean Martha Minow at Harvard Law School on Nov. 6, former Congressman Jane Harman '69 reflected on her political career and discussed a range of issues from the fallout from the midterm elections to U.S. intelligence, foreign policy and the evolving threat of terrorism.
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New head of VA looks to put system’s troubles behind
November 26, 2014
At the inaugural Disabled American Veterans Distinguished Speaker Series at Harvard Law School, U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald said the troubled agency is making progress in getting its house in order, citing more — and more timely — appointments and authorizations to see private doctors for veterans who live far from VA hospitals.
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Home Rule within Enemy Lines: Capturing life in a WWI internment camp
November 24, 2014
During World War I, about 400,000 “enemy aliens” were imprisoned by all sides in camps on nearly every continent. During that time, Germany’s only exclusively civilian prison camp, Ruhleben Gefangenenlager, became a model of civil functionality.
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At HLS, former secretary of state Kissinger reflects on career, surveys current affairs
November 13, 2014
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visited the Harvard Law School campus last week to share some of the lessons learned as adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
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Analysts discuss the origins, motivations, and ambitions of surging ISIS movement (video)
October 27, 2014
Credit: Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer Harvard Law School’s Noah Feldman (from right) joined NPR correspondent Deborah Amos and Professor Kristen Stilt to discuss the fast-moving…
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Harvard Law School Professor David J. Barron '94, an expert in administrative law and the separation of powers, has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
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Koh receives 2014 Great Negotiator Award (video)
May 13, 2014
Ambassador Tommy Koh LL.M. ’64 of Singapore was recently presented with the 2014 Great Negotiator Award by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Future of Diplomacy Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
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Taking Care of Business (and Nonprofits, too)
May 12, 2014
We follow 5 clinical students into the lab, the barbershop and the labyrinth of condominium governance.
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Harvard’s Berkman Center to launch global network focused on youth-oriented hate speech
April 16, 2014
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University has announced an effort to form a first-of-its-kind thematic network of experts, educators, practitioners, and ambassadors that will facilitate, promote, and strengthen collaboration to counter youth-oriented hate speech online.
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Running the marathon, no end in sight: A blind Harvard Law student takes on the challenge (video)
April 15, 2014
For Kristin Fleschner ’14, running in next week’s Boston Marathon is a way to fight back against the bombing that terrorized last year’s runners. She has worked for the federal government in national security since 2008, and she’ll continue her work for the federal government after she graduates from Harvard Law School this spring.
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Human Rights Clinic: ‘Myanmar Military Must Reform Policies’
March 27, 2014
In a memorandum released on March, 24, Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic stated that the Myanmar military must reform policies and practices that threaten civilian populations in the country.
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On March 25, Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project, came to Harvard Law School to discuss his experience as Edward Snowden's legal advisor at an event sponsored by the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, Harvard National Security Law Association, Harvard Law School National Security Journal, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, Unbound: Harvard Journal of the Legal Left, the HLS American Constitution Society and the HLS American Civil Liberties Union.
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Three Harvard Law professors and a Harvard Law alum recently participated in debates on Intelligence Squared, a public policy debate series airing on PBS.
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Lessons on studying security: Sunstein discusses his work with panel tasked with reviewing U.S. surveillance (video)
January 31, 2014
On Tuesday, Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein, a member of a five-person advisory panel created by President Obama to make a sweeping review of U.S. surveillance activities, discussed the group’s efforts and the 46 recommendations it released last month, including major reforms to the way the intelligence community does business.