Advanced Research Seminar on Law and Policy
Fall/Spring term, Block I
T 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Professor Philip Heymann
3 classroom credits LAW-95311A
(1 credit Fall + 2 credits Spring)
This seminar, which will meet every other week in the fall and every week in the spring, focuses on the blending of skills and styles taught at Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government in addressing major policy issues. Students will be encouraged to solve problems by simultaneously applying legal, managerial, empirical, economic, political, and ethical analysis. Discussions in the fall will use policy cases to illustrate the process of combining techniques that are then to be applied by students in their own papers, the Integrated Written Project required of joint degree students. Past fall case studies have included the investigation of Wen Ho Lee, detention of suspected terrorists, and global warming.
Students will present their work during the spring semester. The Integrated Written Project substitutes for the KSG Policy Analysis Exercise (PAE) for MPP students and Second-Year Policy Analysis (SYPA) for MPA/ID students and fulfills the HLS Written Work Requirement. The Project consists of a detailed plan of action for a public policy issue and should be directed to a particular public policy official, real or hypothetical.
Note: This seminar is required for students earning a joint degree from Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government, and while usually taken in the final year of that four-year program may instead be taken in the third year by petitioning the course professors. In addition to joint degree students, students pursuing concurrent law and policy degrees, may be admitted with the permission of the instructors. Upon completion of the Integrated Written Project, students will receive one KSG credit and one HLS written work credit. In exceptional circumstances, two HLS written work credits will be awarded.