HLS News 2002

• Student Wins LA County Bar Association Competition

  Harvard Law School third-year student Brian Devine has won first prize in the Los Angeles County Bar Association Entertainment Law Writing Competition of 2001 for his paper 'Free as the Air' - Rethinking the Law of Story Ideas. Devine's paper surveys the current law of story idea submission claims, and suggests some changes that would improve the law. This issue frequently arises when a movie becomes a commercial success and someone claims the studio stole the idea.

• Randall Robinson to Discuss His New Book

  On Thursday, January 17, Randall Robinson, the founder and president of the TransAfrica Forum, will talk about his new book, "The Reckoning: What Blacks Owe Each Other". The event is sponsored by The Saturday School Program at Harvard Law School, the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research, the Cambridge Public Library, and WordsWorth Bookstore.

• Ernest J. Brown, 95

  Ernest Brown was one of the true giants of legal education at the Harvard Law School, said Dean Robert C. Clark. He served the School long and well, and was both a living legend and a dear friend. We mourn his passing.

• Clark Statement on the Appalachian School of Law

  It was with great shock and sadness that we learned of the tragic death of Tony Sutin. Our hearts and prayers go out to his family, friends, and members of the Appalachian School of Law community. I would also like to offer my condolences to the families and friends of the other victims of this senseless act of violence. Tony was a distinguished public servant and a pioneer in legal education. We were proud to have as an alumnus. His efforts will continue to serve as a model for students who aspire to improve the legal system. Though we mourn his loss, we celebrate his values and his life.

• PON to Examine Anti-Terror Coalitions

  On Wednesday, January 30, Michael D. Watkins, associate professor of management at the Harvard Business School and an authority on coalition building, will discuss the challenges of building and sustaining a coalition to fight terrorism.

• HLS to Offer Summer Program in Islamic Law

  This summer, the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School will offer a comprehensive curriculum on Islamic law. The five day program will explore Islamic banking and finance, family law, human rights developments, the law's history and its contemporary application, and law in the Gulf region.

• Alford to Testify Before U.S. Commission on China

  This Thursday, Harvard Law Professor Bill Alford will travel to Washington to testify at the first hearing of the newly established Congressional-Executive Commission on the People's Republic of China. Created last year to monitor human rights and legal developments in China, the committee has nine Senators, nine Representatives, and five senior officials from the Bush administration.

• Bert Huang Elected Harvard Law Review President

  The Harvard Law Review has elected second-year student Bert I. Huang as its 116th President. Huang, 27, was elected Saturday night, from a slate of seven candidates, after ten hours of debate.

• Conference to Explore Religious Tensions

  Beginning on Friday, February 16, Harvard Law School will host a three-day conference examining religion, human rights, and democracy. Speakers will include John Shattuck, former assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and John Hanford, the recently appointed Ambassador at Large on Religious Freedom.

• Goodman and Subramanian Join Harvard Law Faculty

  Continuing to enact an ambitious strategic plan that calls for expanding its core faculty and fostering greater student-faculty interaction, Harvard Law School has hired two new assistant professors. Ryan Goodman and Guhan Subramanian will officially join the Harvard Law faculty in July and begin teaching in the fall.

• ArtsPanel to Explore the International Art Trade

  On Thursday, February 21, the Harvard Law School ArtsPanel will be exploring the international art trade and the ethics of collecting. Speakers will include Ashton Hawkins, former general counsel of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; James Cuno, director of the Harvard University Art Museums and president of the Association of Art Museum Directors; James F. Fitzpatrick, senior partner at the law firm of Arnold & Porter; and Gary Vikan, director of The Walters Organization, a Baltimore-based museum.

• Panel to Explore Progressive Legal Scholarship

  On Wednesday, February 27, Harvard Law Professors Christine Desan, Martha Field, Janet Halley, Jon Hanson, David Kennedy, Duncan Kennedy, Frank Michelman, and Joseph Singer will form two panels to examine The Future of Progressive Legal Scholarship.

• International Financial Terrorism

  Beginning on February 27, Harvard Law School's Program on International Financial Systems will hold a symposium exploring terrorism against international financial systems, international corporate disclosure standards, and pension reform. The two-day event, Building the Financial System of the 21st Century: An Agenda for Europe and the United States, will be held at the Rüschlikon Center for Global Dialogue, the conference center near Zurich of Swiss Re, the lead sponsor.

• Harvard Law Record Reviews 1L Curriculum Changes

  With finals in the middle of January, the Class of 2004 wrapped up its first semester - a semester spent as the first guinea pigs of the Strategic Plan. In line with recommendations made in that Plan, which was finalized in the spring of 2001, HLS has made drastic changes to the 1L program in an effort to forge a more personal, student-centered experience.

• HLS Team Wins Northeast Regional Moot Court Round

  The Harvard Law School Jessup International Law Moot Court team recently won the northeast regional round of the Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, finishing first among 12 law schools. The team won all six of its moots, captured the award for best written memorial, and one of its team members, Jin-long Pao, was named among the best oralists at the competition.

• Law and the War on Terrorism

  The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy has released a special issue, Law and the War on Terrorism. The issue presents articles by over 20 of the most respected legal scholars in the country on issues that face America following the attacks of September 11. Topics addressed range from patriotism in the face of foreign hatred to the legality of President George W. Bush's planned military tribunals.

• Conyers on Higher-Ed Aff. Action

  On Tuesday, March 12, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, will join a panel of academic experts, practitioners and activists from across the nation for the Harvard Law School Journal on Legislation's spring symposium on affirmative action in higher education.

• Current State of Legal Scholarship

  On Thursday, March 14, the Harvard Law Review will present its spring symposium, Law, Knowledge, and the Academy. The event will address current intellectual trends in legal scholarship and explore directions for future work.

• Mock Trial Team Wins Boston Regional Competition

  The Harvard Law School Mock Trial Team captured first place at the Association of Trial Lawyers of America's Student Trial Advocacy Competition regional tournament held in Boston the weekend of March 2-3.

• HLS Hosts Debate on the Use of Military Tribunals

  On Monday, March 18, the Harvard Law School Federalist Society will sponsor a debate on the Bush administration's proposal to use military tribunals to try suspected foreign terrorists. John Yoo, deputy assistant attorney general, and Harvard Law School Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter will be the participants.

• Panel to Explore Progressive Law and Economics

  On Tuesday, March 19, 2002, the Harvard Law School chapter of the American Constitution Society will sponsor a panel entitled Progressive Law and Economics: An Oxymoron? The panel will look at the relationship between economic analysis and law, and discuss what role politics plays in this increasingly influential approach to legal studies.

• Harvard Law School Student Wins Deak Award

  Third-year student William Burke-White has won the 2002 Deak Award, for his piece Reframing Impunity: Applying Liberal International Law Theory to an Analysis of Amnesty Legislation, published in the Harvard International Law Journal. The Deak Award is an annual prize provided by Oceana Publications for the best student article in the United States appearing in a student-edited international law journal.

• Moot Court Team Wins U.S. Championship

  With playoff-round victories over the University of Michigan and the University of Georgia, the Harvard Law School Jessup International Law Moot Court team won the U.S. Championship of the 2002 Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. Despite being defeated in the international semi-finals by eventual champion South Africa, the team captured the award for best combined memorials, and third-year student David Mascari and LL.M. candidate Jin-long Pao were named fifth and eighth best oralists, respectively.

• Mock Trial Team Wins ATLA National Championship

  The Harvard Law School Mock Trial Team has won the Association of Trial Lawyers of America's national trial advocacy tournament held in Chicago from March 21 to March 25. The victory over 225 teams from more than 120 different law schools is the first national championship for the Harvard Mock Trial Team. The team of Matthew Whitley, Cecilia Dickson, Rick Su, and Rex Lee finished a perfect 11-0, winning 33 out of 35 judges in the process.

• Gammons to Address HLS Sports Law Conference

  On Friday, April 5, the Harvard Law School Committee on Sports & Entertainment Law will host its annual sports law conference. Peter Gammons, baseball writer for The Boston Globe and ESPN commentator, will give the keynote address. The conference will examine topics ranging from legal issues in player-agent-management relationships to regulatory issues in boxing.

• Dershowitz to Address the Struggle Against Terror

  On Tuesday, April 9, The Interdenominational Alliance for Israel (IAI) and the Jewish Law Students Association (JLSA) will sponsor a lecture by Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz on The Struggle Against Terror: From New York to Jerusalem.

• HLS Public Interest Auction Items Unveiled

  Harvard Law School's 9th annual student-run public interest auction today unveiled several of this year's highlighted items: a seven-day Mediterranean cruise, an adventure trip, a baseball signed by Mickey Mantle, and a trip to Disney World. Items will be auctioned on Thursday, April 11.

• HLS ArtsPanel Explores the NEA and Censorship

  On Thursday, April 18, the Harvard Law School ArtsPanel will explore controversies surrounding the National Endowment for the Arts and artistic funding in America. Topics to be addressed include the impact of NEA v. Finley, the relationship between censorship and arts funding, and the role of the NEA given the increase in private funding for the arts. The panel, featuring Marjorie Heins and Karen Elias, will begin at 3 p.m. in Hauser 104.

• 2002 Survey of American Law Dedicated to Tribe

  New York University honored Harvard Law School Professor Laurence H. Tribe on April 15 at a ceremony dedicating its 2002 Survey of American Law to Tribe. The dedication award, an annual event at NYU since 1944, was given in 2000 to former Senator George Mitchell, in 1999 to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in 1998 to Attorney General Janet Reno, and, in other recent years, to three of the current members of the Supreme Court (Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg).

• Justice O'Connor on Growing Up in the Southwest

  On Friday, April 19, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor will speak about her childhood in the American Southwest. O'Connor and her brother, H. Alan Day, recently co-authored a book entitled: Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest. Day will join O'Connor at the event.

• HLS Students to Participate Volunteer Service Day

  On Saturday, April 20, 300 Harvard Law School students are expected to participate in the inaugural Springfest Volunteer Service Day. Students will volunteer at more than 16 sites across Cambridge and Greater Boston including Habitat for Humanity, the Cambridge Family YMCA, and the CASPAR Homeless Shelter. Of the 300 volunteers, more than 120 students will participate in the Annual Earth Day Charles River Clean Up.2002-04-17

• HLS to Host a Discussion on the Voting Rights Act

  On Tuesday, April 23, the American Constitution Society and the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review will present a panel discussion on the future of the Voting Rights Act. The event will begin at 7 p.m. in the Langdell South classroom and is free and open to the public.

• Local Students to Argue Mock Legal Case at HLS

  As part of the Kids in the Court program, more than 200 local middle school students will argue legal cases on Wednesday, April 24 before a moot court composed of Harvard Law School students and professors.

• A Message from Dean Robert C. Clark

  In light of recent disturbing events at the Law School, I haveconsulted with various students and colleagues to consider what steps mightbe taken to create a better climate - an environment of genuine mutualrespect and improved behavior patterns.

• Berkman Center to Host Internet Law Summer Program

  This summer, Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society will once again conduct a summer session on the emerging field of cyberlaw. The Internet Law Program--which will hold classes both in Cambridge and in cyberspace--will bring together leading legal scholars to examine cutting-edge cyberlaw issues.

• Shavell and Slaughter Named Fellows at the AAAS

  Harvard Law School Professors Steven Shavell and Anne-Marie Slaughter were among five professors elected fellows in the field of law by the American Academy of Arts and Science. Fellows are nominated and elected for the lifetime appointment by members of their academic discipline--in this case, social sciences. The Academy will welcome this year's new fellows and foreign honorary members at the annual induction ceremony October.

• HLS Hosts Meeting of ALEA

  Harvard Law School recently hosted the 12th annual meeting of the American Law and Economics Association. The conference, which featured 28 panels with speakers presenting papers on different aspects of law and economics, was attended by more than 200 people from around the world. Topics explored in the panel discussions included bankruptcy law, patent law, and dispute resolution mechanisms.

• Slaughter Named Dean of Woodrow Wilson School

  This morning Princeton University announced that Harvard Law School Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter has been selected as the dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Slaughter will begin her tenure at Princeton on September 1.

• Lisa Dealy to Head Pro Bono Office

  Harvard Law School has announced that Lisa Dealy, formerly the director of the Law School's loan forgiveness and summer funding program, will head the School's Pro Bono Office. The office will direct the Law School's pro bono program which, beginning with next fall's incoming class, will require all students to perform a minimum of 40 hours of uncompensated public interest work.

• Alford Meets with China's President Zemin

  Harvard Law School Professor Bill Alford was part of a delegation, led by Harvard President Lawrence Summers, that recently traveled to China to meet with President Jiang Zemin and other political and academic leaders of the PRC. The meeting with President Jiang, which was held at the leadership's Zhongnanhai compound, lasted more than an hour and a half and covered a broad spectrum of issues ranging from the Chinese environment to the role of liberal arts education to the likely impact of the WTO and China on one another.

• Gonzales to Deliver 2002 Class Day Address

  On Wednesday, June 5, White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales will deliver Harvard Law School's 2002 Class Day address. The speech will begin at 2:30 p.m. on the steps of Langdell Hall on the Law School campus. For the first time in the Law School's history, the speech will be webcast live for those unable to attend the event.

• Alford Named Faculty Director of Graduate Program

  Dean Robert Clark has announced that William Alford, the Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law, has been named faculty director of Graduate and International Legal Studies at Harvard Law School. Alford's appointment will be effective on July 1.

• Gonzales Urges Graduates to Pursue Public Service

  Citing the attacks of September 11 in a call to public service, White House Counsel and Harvard Law graduate Alberto Gonzales urged Class of 2002 graduates to consider the responsibilities lawyers have to the Constitution.

• Colloquium Examines Risk-Based Capital Standards

  The Harvard Law School Program on International Financial Systems held a colloquium today that examined risk-based capital standards. Participants explored how capital requirements are currently determined for various financial firms and how they should be determined in the future. The discussion was extremely timely as capital standards are currently under active review by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision which is responsible for setting capital standards for internationally active banks.

• Berkman Center Examines Saudi Arabian Filtering

  Researchers from Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society have released a report concluding that the Saudi Arabian government maintains an active interest in filtering non-sexually explicit Web content.

• Southern African Tax Institute Established

  On June 23, the Harvard Law School International Tax Program joined with the University of Pretoria, University of the Witswatersrand, and the University of South Africa in establishing the Southern African Tax Institute in a ceremony at the University of Pretoria.

• Survey Examines Careers of Black Harvard Law Grads

  A new survey demonstrates that black Harvard Law alumni have achieved impressive professional success despite the fact that discrimination-based both on race and gender-remains an obstacle in today's workplace. The research, conducted by the Law School's Program on the Legal Profession, also indicates that black Harvard Law alumni devote a larger amount of time to pro bono work than the typical American lawyer.

• 2001-2002 Sears Prize Recipients

  Harvard Law School has awarded the Joshua Montgomery Sears, Jr. prize to five students for academic achievement during the 2001-2002 academic year. Christian Pistilli of Staten Island, New York; David Landau of Cambridge, Mass.; and Jared Kramer of Atkinson, NH were the first-year recipients. Michael Shah of Muttontown, New York and Michael Gottlieb of Hyattsville, MD were the second-year recipients.

• HLS Changes Its Military Recruiting Policy

  The following is a memo from Dean Robert C. Clark to the Harvard Law School community outlining changes to the school's military recruiting policy for the 2002-2003 academic year.

• Clark Urges Corporate Ethics in Speech to Students

  This afternoon, in his annual orientation speech to new students, Harvard Law School Dean Robert C. Clark spoke of the need for "moral courage" among the nation's lawyers and business leaders.

• Researchers Track China's Web Filtering Policies

  As part of its continuing efforts to study Web filtering policies of governments around the world, Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society is using an "open research" method to examine China's filtering policies. Visitors to the Berkman Center Web site (cyber.law.harvard.edu) can type in the address for an Internet site and learn instantly whether that site is being blocked in China.

• HLS Program to Study Labor and Worklife Issues

  Harvard Law School has announced the creation of a new research program, the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. The new program will bring the number of research centers at the law school to 18--with areas of focus ranging from Internet law to Islamic legal studies to international taxation. The Labor and Worklife Program will examine changes in labor markets and employment law; and analyze the effects of unions, business, and governments on the workplace.

• Conference Examines Accounting Reforms

  Beginning on Friday, September 20, the Harvard Law School Program on International Financial Systems will bring together policy makers from the United States and Japan to explore reforms in accounting and the operation of capital markets in the post-Enron world. The three-day event, "The Symposium on Building the Financial System of the 21st Century: An Agenda for Japan and the United States," will be held at the Airlie Center in Warrenton, Virginia.

• Ken Burns to Speak about Race and the Civil War

  On Friday, September 20, award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns will give an address on race and the civil war. This speech will begin at 2 p.m. in the Langdell South classroom of Harvard Law School. This event is free and open to the public.

• Symposium in Honor of Professor Arthur von Mehren

  On Friday, September 27, Harvard Law School will host a symposium exploring law and justice in a multistate world. The event will be held in honor of Emeritus Professor of Law Arthur Taylor von Mehren's 80th birthday. The symposium will feature discussions on each of Professor von Mehren's four areas of expertise: comparative law, choice of laws, international jurisdiction and recognition of judgments, and international arbitration.

• 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.

• Aharon Barak to Speak at Harvard Law Review Forum

  On Monday, Nov. 11, the Harvard Law Review will hold its annual Supreme Court Forum, a discussion by prominent constitutional law scholars that coincides with the release of the Review's Supreme Court issue, published each November. This year's Forum will feature President Aharon Barak, the chief justice of the Israel Supreme Court, who will discuss his foreword to the November issue, entitled "A Judge on Judging: The Role of A Supreme Court in a Democracy."

• Panel to Explore Baseball Labor Negotiations

  On Friday, Nov. 15, Harvard Law School will host a panel discussion on this summer's baseball negotiations. Speakers will include Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball's chief negotiator; Larry Lucchino, president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox; Mike Weiner, associate general counsel of the Major League Baseball Players Association; Peter Gammons, ESPN baseball analyst, and Professor Andrew Zimbalist of Smith College. The discussion will be moderated by Harvard Law Professor Paul Weiler.

• Justice Breyer to Judge 91st Moot Court Finals

  U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will be among the three judges evaluating the student arguments in the finals of Harvard Law School's 91st annual Ames Moot Court Competition. The event will be held today, November 19, 2002, and will be webcast live from the Ames Courtroom at 7:30 p.m.

• Conflict with Iraq: What Role for Negotiation?

  On Wednesday, Nov. 20, the Program on Negotation at Harvard Law School will host a panel discussion on the role that negotiation might play in the current Iraqi situation. Panelists will include Harvard Law School Professors Roger Fisher and Robert Mnookin, and Harvard Business School Associate Professor Michael Watkins.

• HLS Professor Scott on Intercollegiate Athletics

  On Friday, Nov. 22, Harvard Law School Professor Hal S. Scott will participate in a panel discussion on the role intercollegiate athletics play on college campuses. The conversation will focus on issues raised in Dr. James Shulman's book "The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values."

• Berkman Center Studies China's Web Filtering

  A new study by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society reveals the extensiveness of China's web filtering policies. Beginning in May 2002 and concluding in Nov. 2002, Berkman Center researchers attempted to access approximately 200,000 web sites through telephone dial-up links and proxy servers in China. The authors of the study tracked 19,032 web sites that were inaccesssible from China on multiple occasions while remaining available in the United States. These sites contained information about news, politics, health, commerce and entertainment.

• HLS Hosts Long Road to Justice Exhibit

  Harvard Law School is currently hosting an exhibit on the relationship between the African-American community and the Massachusetts courts from the colonial period to the present day. Long Road to Justice, assembled by the Justice George Lewis Ruffin Society, combines historical artifacts, court records, text and images to depict the compelling cases and courageous individuals who led the struggle to achieve racial justice in the Massachusetts courts.