HLS News April 2001

• HLS Receives Major Collection of Rare Books

  Harvard Law School announced today that its library-the largest law library in the world-has received its most significant gift in more than 150 years, a major collection of rare English law books spanning 400 years of legal writing from 1481 to 1881. The books, which total more than 1,000 volumes, are a gift of the late Henry N. Ess III and include a treatise known as Abridgements of the Statutes, which some scholars believe is the first legal book ever printed in England.

• HLS Symposium to Address Online Entertainment

  On April 21, Harvard Law School will host one of the first academic symposia to analyze the fluctuating landscape of the music industry due to the growth of the Internet and online entertainment. The event, titled "All Shook Up: The Music Industry Confronts the Internet and Consolidation," will feature some of the most prominent executives in the online entertainment industry including Nicholas Butterworth, CEO of MTVi; Matt Oppenheim, head of anti-piracy litigation for the Recording Industry Artists Association; and Manus Cooney, Vice President for Corporate and Policy Development at Napster.

• HLS to Host Senate Democratic Leader

  This Thursday, U.S. Sen. Thomas Daschle, the Senate Democratic Leader, will address the future of the Democratic Party in a speech at Harvard Law School. Daschle will examine topics ranging from the current budget battles to the possibility of Democrats recapturing the Senate in the 2002 mid-term elections. His speech will be followed by a question and answer period.

• HLS Auction Offers Pieces of History

  The election might be over, but on April 19, Harvard Law School students are offering an opportunity to bid on history. Among the items available at the annual Harvard Law School Public Interest Auction is an official Broward County election ballot signed by all four members of the canvassing commission, and Bush v. Gore legal briefs signed by authors Ted Olson and Laurence Tribe. The silent auction begins at 5:30 p.m. with the live auction following at 7 p.m. in Austin Hall.

• Noted Author to Discuss Gender Studies

  The Harvard Law School Alliance of Independent Feminists will host a presentation by Christina Hoff Sommers on Wednesday, April 18, at 7 p.m. in the Langdell South classroom. Sommers' address is titled "Gender Studies: Legitimate Academic Discipline or Political Agenda?" The event is free and open to the public.

• Q & A with...Heather Gerken

  Assistant Professor Heather Gerken discusses the current Supreme Court session and expectations for the High Court's future.

• Expert Panel to Examine the Aftermath of Lockerbie

  More than 12 years after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, verdicts were handed down in the trial of the two men accused of the crime. On Wednesday, April 11, the Harvard International Law Journal will present a panel discussion to evaluate the aftermath of the verdict that sent one man, Abdel Baset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, to jail for the murder of 270 people, and another, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, home to Libya-his name cleared in a court of law, if not in the court of public opinion.