HLS News October 2002

• Lakhdar Brahimi Receives Great Negotiator Award

  Today the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School honored Lakhdar Brahimi with its annual Great Negotiator Award. Brahimi, the United Nations secretary general's special envoy to Afghanistan, has also headed special U.N. troubleshooting missions to hotspots such as Yemen, Liberia, Sudan, Nigeria, South Africa, the former Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), and Haiti.

• HLS Conference Explores the Future of Ground Zero

  On Monday, October 7, the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School will tackle the future of ground zero. With countless visions for the space, the conference will examine how a consensus can be reached. A wide range of panelists will present some of the financial, legal, cultural, spiritual, and design constraints involved in redeveloping the site. The event will begin at 6:45 p.m. in the Arco Forum at the Kennedy School of Government.

• U.S. Sen. Boxer to Speak on Election Issues

  On Monday, October 21, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer will speak on a number of issues that are central to the upcoming mid-term elections. Boxer is expected to address situation in Iraq, homeland security, the economy, the environment, and women's issues. The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 4:15 p.m. in the Ropes Gray Room in Pound Hall.

• HLS Professors Honored

  Three Harvard Law School professors were recently honored for exceptional work in their respective academic fields. Professor Elena Kagan was selected as the American Bar Association Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice's 2001 Scholarship Award winner, Professor Elizabeth Warren received the Commercial Law League of America's Lawrence King Excellence in Bankruptcy Award, and Professor Arthur von Mehren was presented with Canada Prize of the International Academy of Comparative Law.

• Hale and Dorr Professorship of IP Law

  Harvard Law School Dean Robert Clark has announced the establishment of the Hale and Dorr Professorship of Intellectual Property Law. A reception in honor of this professorship will be held this afternoon at the Law School.

• Pozen Calls Social Security Accounting Misleading

  Harvard Law School Visiting Professor Robert Pozen, a former vice chairman of Fidelity Investments, says Social Security accounting makes "the Enron debacle look like a minor bookkeeping error." Writing in the November 2002 Harvard Business Review, Pozen goes on to say that if a U.S. company tried similar accounting for its pension liabilities, "surely someone would go to jail for securities or accounting fraud."

• Tax Treaties and the Taxation of Business Profits

  Last week, the Harvard Law School International Tax Program hosted a three-day conference on tax treaties and the taxation of business profits. The program, attended by government officials as well as academics and private sector representatives from 18 nations, sought to identify problems with the current treatment of business profits under tax treaties and explore alternative solutions to these problems.