HLS in the World

HLS in the World officially begins with a procession from Harvard Law School to Sanders Theatre for a special program with Harvard University President Drew Faust, HLS Dean John F. Manning ’85, and Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Professor Philip Heymann '60 discusses with Robert Zoellick J.D./M.P.P. '81--former World Bank president, U.S. trade representative, deputy secretary of state--his extraordinary career in public service and the major issues facing the world’s economy today.

The Criminal Justice Institute (CJI) is the curriculum-based criminal law program of Harvard Law School. Since its founding in 1990 by Professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr., CJI’s mission has been to educate Harvard Law School students in becoming effective, ethical, and zealous criminal defense lawyer-advocates through practice in representing indigent individuals involved in the Massachusetts court system, as well as to research and present issues and debates about the criminal and juvenile justice systems in order to affect local and…

Past and present community members reflect on turbulent moments in critical legal movements at Harvard Law School.

Disclosure is everywhere. Sellers are required to disclose information about what we eat, what we wear, what we drive, what we borrow and more. Indeed, disclosure mandates are perhaps the most commonly used regulatory tool. And yet the science of disclosure is at its infancy. For a long time, policymakers were content to just pile on more information, without giving much thought about how this information will be used by consumers, or if they use it at all. But things…

Apart from the constant of student prayer before exams, the study of religion and law has changed and evolved over the years at the law school. On one hand, faculty and alumni on the courts have long engaged the topic of church and state in U.S. constitutional law, making important contributions to doctrine and practice. On the other, faculty have delved deeply into world religions and their legal traditions, especially those of Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism, as well as Judaism,…

“The oldest colony in the world.” That was the name José Trías Monge ’44 gave to his home, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, where he served as attorney general and chief justice. As the moniker suggests, the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States—a democracy founded on the principle of self-determination—has always been complex, and throughout that history, Harvard Law School has played a significant supporting role. At the outset, the intellectual framework for the Insular Cases, which held…

Experts with a variety of experiences and perspectives will discuss whether and how international human rights law has real world effects in preventing and redressing human rights abuses. The panel includes HLS graduates with experience in government, business, international organizations, advocacy, and academia, and a political scientist who studies the question empirically. After hearing insights from the panelists, the conversation will continue with the audience.

Over the past decade and following the global economic crisis, how have many successful businesses navigated the enormous legal complexities arising from globalization, technological advances, cybersecurity concerns, and ever-evolving and often conflicting regulatory systems? Primarily, by broadly expanding the roles and responsibilities of their general counsel, according to the groundbreaking research of HLS Professor David Wilkins '80 and the HLS Center on the Legal Profession (which was founded and is led by Wilkins). What is the role of law schools…

The shaping of international criminal law began with the Nuremberg Trials after World War II and continued with the creation of ad hoc international criminal tribunals in the 1990s to address atrocity crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia. It culminated in the creation of the International Criminal Court, a permanent court in The Hague to try war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in conflicts around the world. The individuals on this panel have all…

Lawyers have long enjoyed a critical place in the entertainment industry. But in recent years, they have been uniquely tasked with guiding corporate and individual clients alike through an era of unprecedented transformation across media and entertainment. This panel of alumni, who represent a broad cross-section of the most prominent talent in film and television, will explore the attorney’s fast-evolving role in an even faster-evolving industry. How has that role changed in recent years, and how do these attorneys stay…

Cities are the epicenter of challenges and opportunities in the 21st century. Regardless of the changing landscape brought about through executive and legislative changes at the federal level, local elected officials have the responsibility of ensuring that their residents and businesses thrive. They hold the ultimate responsibility for the well-being of all of their residents. Tackling challenging problems is the daily bread and butter of mayors and other city leaders. Harvard Law School-educated leaders held an interactive discussion about leading…

What should be the roles of money and markets in a just society? Are there some things that money should not be able to buy? Professor Michael Sandel leads a lively discussion of controversial uses of markets in areas such as health, education, environmental protection, politics, and law.  

In this session we discuss the role of the office of legal counsel in advising the president and the executive branch more broadly, with particular reference to the challenge of providing legal advice concerning national security and presidential power.

Many people have seen the shocking internet video of a teenage African-American girl getting flipped in her desk by a South Carolina school resource officer. We have learned that she was a 12th-grade student who was making up a ninth-grade class. We understand that she had a good relationship with her teacher and was doing well in this class, having not finished this ninth-grade class earlier. The not-uncommon school rule was that no cellphones were allowed in class. On this…

This session will address the question, “what should law schools teach law students about technology and innovation?” This encompasses narrow questions, such as “should we teach law students to write code?,” “how should we use technology in service of teaching subjects not substantively related to tech?,” and “how do we best equip newly-minted lawyers to grapple with complex legal, ethical, and business issues associated with rapid technological advances?”During this session, we’ll tease out various approaches to educating students about technology…

In this wide ranging dialogue we explore why and how practicing law remains important to each of our alumni in their roles as team and league counsels. In particular, we will explore the common issues with which each of them deal on a regular basis (including collective bargaining and player discipline-related issues). In that context, we will also consider those cutting edge legal issues that are uniquely important to each league, and HLS alumni's special contributions to the field of…

From North Korea to Syria, from ISIS to cyberattacks, from Mother Nature to industrial disasters, from the rise of populism to the rise of authoritarianism, the world can often seem to be in search of order. This session will discuss how globalization brings tremendous benefits but creates innumerable vulnerabilities.

The law, politics, and scholarship of criminal justice reform has been shifting in potentially tectonic ways. After several decades of increasingly punitive policies across the country, which resulted in surging incarceration rates, the last several years have seen an increasingly bipartisan shift towards a critique of what has come to be called mass incarceration. Yet the recent presidential election signals a shift in federal priorities away from a reform agenda—a development that may (or may not) have consequences for the…

It is a striking fact that a significant number of CEOs of companies are HLS alumni. Do their success stories simply reflect the innate ability and interests of these CEOs, or did their legal education also play a role? If so, what role? Does the answer depend on the kind of business in which their company engages? These and related questions and observations are discussed by our distinguished panelists.

There is a widespread consensus that the practice of law has changed dramatically in the last several decades, and most expect that these changes will only accelerate in the coming years. And yet, the model of legal education used in most law schools around the world is similar to what it was in not only the last century but also the century before last. In this panel, we will explore how the large-scale forces that are transforming law practice--the globalization…

The experience of the past 16 years suggests that war, in one form or another, is here to say. Looking at the global map, is there a real prospect for a decline in the need or appetite for the employment of U.S. military powers abroad? If not, what are the ramifications for being in an “endless war”? And what role can lawyers play in guiding American decision-makers in this regard?

Professor Klarman’s recently published book, "The Framers’ Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution" (Oxford University Press, 2016), describes how the framers at the Philadelphia convention managed to write a Constitution that was far more nationalizing and democracy-constraining than most Americans anticipated or wanted. Professor Klarman also examines why the Philadelphia convention was so unrepresentative of national opinion and how the framers were able to convince ordinary Americans to approve a scheme that drastically reduced their political influence on…

What corporate structures, rules, and practices would be most conducive for long-term value creation? Some argue that shareholder pressures make boards and managers focus excessively on the short-term, while others argue that insulating boards and managers from such pressures would be detrimental. The ongoing debate involves a wide range of topics including control contests, dual-class structures, antitakeover arrangements, private equity, executive pay design, and short-termism. Beginning with comments from several capital market participants with different perspectives, this session focuses on…

This moderated discussion among justices from high courts around the world focuses on, among other topics, the challenges justices face, the ways they interpret their constitutions and similar documents, and the roles of international and comparative law in their work.  

The death of factory farming places animal agriculture in the cross hairs. The factory farming of animals has become a global catastrophic problem that many believe can, and should be, eliminated. Environmentalists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and advocates for animal, labor, and human rights, as well as several high-profile investors, are now bringing a concerted focus to hastening the end of factory farming and perhaps even replacing animal agriculture altogether. In this multifaceted effort, law not only matters but is deeply intertwined…

This session explores the career of the first tenured African-American professor at Harvard Law School, his controversial protests, and his legacy in legal academia.

At the core of criminal justice reform are stories—the narratives of how we achieve justice, and how actors throughout the system dispute and re-shape what that means. In these Moth-style talks, we hear from practitioners with deep experience operating within, and attempting to transform, the criminal justice system.

HLS alumni have served in Congress since the law school’s earliest years. The first graduates to serve in Congress were John Gardner Abbot, Class of 1832, and Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Class of 1839, who both represented Massachusetts in the 44th and 43rd Congresses, respectively. John Wentworth, Class of 1841, was also an early HLS graduate who served in Congress: He represented Illinois in the House of Representatives for six terms beginning in 1843, two years after his law school graduation.…

This session will examine the nature of the 2008 crisis, the legislative and regulatory responses, centered around the Dodd-Frank Act, and current calls for changing that response.

Loretta Lynch ’84 and Annette Gordon-Reed ’84 look back on their time together at the law school, their years together as young associates at Cahill, Gordon, & Reindel, and their subsequent careers. They also discuss the issues of women and blacks in the legal profession.

New technologies with implications for human health and enhancement are developing at break-neck speed, with fundamental changes in genomic medicine, reproductive technology, neuroscience, and even how we die. Each of these technologies raises important questions at the intersection of ethics, law and politics. What role should the government have in regulating scientific innovation? How should we weigh potential risks and benefits, to individuals, vulnerable populations, and even the environment? Can these technologies be used to promote justice, or do they…

Participants will discuss the delights, the challenges, and the conflicts that emerge in the course of teaching about the legal systems of other countries.

Rick Buchanan ’88, executive vice president and league counsel for the NBA; Dan Halem ’91, chief legal counsel for MLB; and Jeffrey Pash ’80, executive vice president for the NFL, deal with the ultimate legal questions that can determine the direction of their leagues as they lead their in-house legal staff; strategically involve outside counsel; and work on a regular basis with each league's owners and commissioners. They share issues in common, but each league presents its own unique legal…

For over 30 years, the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic (HIRC) has influenced the development of U.S. and international refugee law and assisted people from around the world fleeing serious human rights abuses. HIRC is also involved in appellate and policy advocacy at the local, national, and international levels. This session brings together former clients--including an activist for gender equality, teachers’ rights, and human rights from Honduras; a domestic violence survivor from Kenya; and an opposition-party supporter and advocate against…

Private equity has become an increasingly powerful player in the U.S. and global economies. As private equity attracts more and more capital, can it continue to generate alpha for investors? Down the road, what will be its biggest internal and external challenges? How is globalization creating new risks and opportunities?

In keeping with the bicentennial theme of “Why Law Matters,” this session will be a conversation between Governors representing various perspectives on the school and the challenges of governing. Governors Dukakis, Granholm, Patrick and Weld, attended Harvard Law School in different periods of its recent history, and each faced different challenges in governing. Each will also offer differing perspectives on the challenges of governing under law today. Through conversations among the panel and with the audience, we'll examine a number…

In this session, participants have the opportunity to engage with the authors of the Harvard Law Review’s publications on the bicentennial. Dean John Manning and Professors Kimberlé Crenshaw, Jeannie Suk Gersen, Vicki Jackson, Frederick Schauer, and Adrian Vermeule discuss critical approaches to law, legal education, the role of courts in our system of government, statutory interpretation, jurisprudence, and the administrative state.

The impeachment provision is an unused key that unlocks the meaning of the American Constitution. In this talk, Professor Sunstein explains the origins of the provision, the meaning of "high crimes and misdemeanors," and the link between impeachment, the American Revolution, and those shots fired in Concord on April 19, 1775.

What do we do about the fact that private practitioners have priced themselves out of a large segment of the legal market? Panelists discuss with the audience what seem to be the most promising approaches to remedying the problem.

The legal situation of LGBT people has changed dramatically in the past 50 years, and Harvard Law School and its alumni have been at the forefront of that revolution. As late as the 1960s, every state in the country criminalized sex between consenting adults of the same sex, considered homosexuality a mental illness, provided no legal recognition of same-sex couples, and regularly deprived LGBT parents of custody and visitation rights. In the past two decades, the Supreme Court has issued…

While civil libertarians and conventional national security advocates have typically found little to agree on, today they share a profound anxiety about the trajectory of state intelligence gathering. For some, this reflects concern about invasions of privacy made possible by a digital environment in which every click and inquiry can be tracked and where our homes and workplaces have welcomed internet-aware appliances that could be repurposed for surveillance. For others, there is a sense of undue empowerment of those who…

In this session, we will feature several HLS alumni whose practice and work has focused substantially on negotiation, mediation, and dispute resolution. Each will present a brief (8-10 minute) story, styled on the popular NPR Radio program, Stories from the Moth, sharing a unique and engaging perspective on negotiation and conflict management. Featured speakers include Sheila Heen, David Hoffman, and others. Bob Mnookin and Bob Bordone will host.

Some of the world’s most pressing problems concern environmental protection, climate change, and energy policy. Is American environmental law robust enough to respond to these challenges? What does the future hold with a new administration? Has American leadership on global environmental issues reached its zenith? These and other pressing questions about the past and future of environmental law are addressed by a distinguished panel of former senior government officials: A. James Barnes, Gina McCarthy, and Bill Reilly. The discussion is…

No doubt because of the contentious nature of the events that trigger their appointments, the work of special prosecutors and independent counsels is inevitably the subject of much debate and controversy. In what was a rich and engaging exchange of ideas, Visiting Professor of Law David Strauss led a discussion about the role of special prosecutors and independent counsels with HLS alumni and faculty who have been involved--on either the prosecution or defense team--in almost every major investigation of the…

Edward Felten, one of the nation's leading experts on artificial intelligence, and Stasia Kelly, a leader of DLA Piper, discuss the effects of artificial intelligence on the practice of law. When clients get their answers from machines, what's left for lawyers to do?

Race, punishment, and the law: a re-examination of the Eighth, 13th, and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The challenges that confront the federal judiciary are complex, urgent, and changing. How do federal judges think about their role, including in interpreting the Constitution, interpreting statutes, and checking Congress and the Executive Branch?

The forces propelling globalization have ushered in benefits for a wide range of American corporations and consumers. However, the rising tide has not lifted all boats, at least in recent years. For some Americans, greater foreign import competition and increased offshoring/outsourcing have triggered economic upheaval that threatens their way of life. Complicating policy matters further is the fact that the major driver of such upheaval is not necessarily globalization but rather technology and automation. In light of these trends, what…

This roundtable discusses the contributions of Harvard Law School alumni to the creation and growth of the fields of civil liberties and civil rights lawyering. Panelists also discuss the directions of the fields going forward in the context of our turbulent times.

Many questions remain unanswered regarding the future of the country, and both parties need to take an active part in solutions to tackle the difficult issues ahead. What plans will Congress and the Trump administration pursue to grow the economy? Where is the country headed on energy, immigration, health care, the environment, jobs, and taxes? How will we face the development of increasingly complex and dangerous threats to national security? On what issues will both parties be able to work…

It is now unfortunately commonplace to say that we live in an era of "post-truth" politics in this country and, more broadly, around the world. In such an era, canons that call for careful weighing of evidence and the testing of judgments about what is true are either overtly rejected and disparaged or silently disrespected and unheeded. It has also been a jurisprudential commonplace--albeit a contested one--that the worlds of law and politics are importantly distinct. This panel will consider…

Institutions of higher education have been required by the federal government–under Title IX’s ban on discrimination based on sex and thus as part of federal law on sexual harassment–to develop programs to respond to student complaints of sexual misconduct by other students and by members of their academic community generally. Harvard University and Harvard Law School have been active sites of debate and institution-building in response to this mandate. This panel reviewed the progress made so far and the problems…

Ambassador Samantha Power ’99 and Yale Law School Professor Harold Koh ’80 approached what it means to be a professor while also an NGO activist and a government official, respectively. Together, they discussed their positions and the related challenges that arise in their roles.

A moderated discussion among justices from high courts around the world about, among other topics, the challenges they face, the ways they interpret their constitutions and similar documents, and the role of international and comparative law in their work.

A panel of HLS faculty discuss the current state of major tax reform proposals.

In the midst of an ongoing national debate over how to fix our broken criminal justice system, Harvard Law School continues to be a central voice through the work of its recently launched Criminal Justice Policy Program, its Criminal Justice Institute and Fair Punishment Project, its vibrant and growing criminal justice faculty, and the myriad efforts of its students and alumni. This interactive session explored the connection between legal education and the current movement for criminal justice reform by asking…

There is no proposition to which virtually all members of the Harvard Law Faculty would assent, except perhaps one: The exception is the idea that, in law, the rejection of formalism is the beginning of all wisdom. Exactly this thought is conveyed in the popular academic slogan, “We are all realists now.” This situation is more than a little ironic because the founder and great expositor of formalism is said to be none other than renowned Harvard Law School Dean…

Legal practitioners and courts deploy, apply, and adjudicate evidence concepts daily. Yet, the United States legal profession rejects efforts to generate rigorous empirical evidence about itself, evidence that would inform day-to-day practices. To justify its resistance, the profession recites arguments identical to those articulated in the 1940s by interest groups resisting medicine’s then-evolving insistence on randomized evaluation of new drugs. Why does the U.S. legal profession resist rigorous empiricism? And what can be done about it?

Food law and policy is one of the fastest growing areas of law, and Harvard Law School is at the forefront of this exciting field. From obesity to food waste to GMO labeling to agricultural subsidies, this field of law affects not only issues of everyday life but also some of the biggest social issues facing our nation and the globe. Learn what this field entails and how it is developing among U.S. law schools and hear perspectives from HLS…

From Sheryl Sandberg to Paulina Porizkova, there is no shortage of commentary on the experience of women in leadership positions. Women graduates of HLS have reached the pinnacle of power in law firms, boardrooms, nonprofits, and government. How did they get there? How do they stay there? And how do they bring others along? While many panels at the bicentennial celebration featured distinguished alumnae, this panel focuses specifically on the opportunities and challenges women face when breaking new ground.