HLS News April 2004

• iLaw to Tackle Internet Challenges, Controversies and Opportunities

  Five of the most distinguished faculty in cyberlaw will convene at Harvard from May 13 to 15 to teach about the challenges, controversies and opportunities that today’s Internet has created.

• Webcast: Discussion of David Kennedy's Book on the 'Dark Sides of Virtue'

  On April 21, a panel of legal scholars, including Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan and Professors Bill Alford, Ryan Goodman and Duncan Kennedy, explored issues raised in Professor David Kennedy's new book, The Dark Sides of Virtue: Reassessing International Humanitarianism. A webcast of the discussion is now available on the HLS Webcast page.

• International Coalition Organized to Monitor Internet Censorship

  An international team of academics from Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, the University of Cambridge and the University of Toronto has begun monitoring worldwide Internet censorship and surveillance.

• HLS Student Takes on the Presidential Debates

  Rather than providing insight into the candidates' views, the presidential debates are intentionally designed to limit the danger to the major party candidates, according to a new book from second-year Harvard Law student George Farah.

• HLS Wins U.S. Moot Court Championship

  Harvard Law School recently captured the U.S. championship of the 2004 Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, defeating the University of Georgia and Columbia University in elimination rounds. The HLS team consisted of second-year students Naomi Loewith and Hugo Torres, first-year student Erica Fung, and third-year student Nathaniel Stankard.

• 'The Crucible' to Open Tonight

  Starting tonight, April 20, Harvard Law School will kick off five productions of The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s provocative 1953 play about the Salem witch trials. Professor Bruce Hay will direct a cast of Harvard students in a version of the play that will incorporate a scene not often used in previous productions. Tonight's opening performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Ames Courtroom.

• Ogletree Appointed Director of New Harvard Institute

  Professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr., the Jesse Climenko professor of law and vice dean for Clinical Programs at Harvard Law School, has been appointed director of the new Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice.

• Learning & Mentorship Project Makes an Impact

  LAMP, a school-based mentoring program that matches law students with local high school students, is a result of that commitment. The basic goal of LAMP is to reverse the trend of underachievement particularly, but not exclusively, among students of color.

• Islamic Legal Studies Program to Explore Islamic Law in Modern Indonesia

  On April 17 and 18, the Islamic Legal Studies Program will present a conference on Islamic Law in modern Indonesia as part of its year-long focus on Indonesia and the application and understanding of Islamic law there. The conference, which will begin at 9 a.m. in Pound 101, is free for Harvard affiliates. There is a $25 registration fee for the general public.

• Williston Competition Winners Honored

  The winners of Harvard Law School's 51st annual Williston competition were recognized in a reception in Pound Hall on Tuesday, April 6. The competition, sponsored by the Board of Student Advisers, offers first-year students the opportunity to practice negotiation and contract drafting. Forty-two teams of two students participated in the competition.

• Harvard To Celebrate 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education

  Harvard University is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the landmark United States Supreme Court decision in the case, Brown v. Board of Education, with a weeklong series of lectures and panel discussions sponsored by Harvard Law School, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, beginning Monday, April 12 through Saturday, April 17. Events are free and open to the public, and will be held on the campus of Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass.

• HLS Wins National Trial Advocacy Competition

  Last week, a team of Harvard Law students won first place at the 14th annual National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition in Chicago. The competition, which is co-sponsored by the Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association and John Marshall Law School, was held on April 1-3.

• Dershowitz on the Tyco Mistrial

  Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Professor Alan Dershowitz considers the Tyco mistrial. "The mistrial declared in the Tyco case reflects at once a vulnerability and a strength of our jury system…. Had this case been tried in one of the several states that have abolished the unanimity requirement -- a 9-3 verdict is acceptable in some of those states -- there probably would have been a conviction days before the mistrial was declared. But New York has retained the unanimity requirement..."

• Berkman Center Study Considers iTunes' Future

  Though iTunes has offered a promising model for selling music online, the service could face obstacles as it considers expanding beyond U.S. markets, according to a new study from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.