HLS News February 2005

• Justice Goldstone reflects on war crimes and international law

  Justice Richard Goldstone, the first prosecutor for the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, addressed an audience at Harvard Law School last week to provide a firsthand account of the state of international criminal law.

• Federalist Society holds annual student symposium at HLS

  This weekend the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies will hold its 24th annual student symposium at Harvard Law School. The two-day event will feature six panel discussions and a keynote speech by Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Harvard President Lawrence Summers and HLS Dean Elena Kagan will also speak.

• Professor Kaufman sheds light on ethical codes for justices

  The following op-ed was written by Professor Andrew Kaufman and published in The National Law Journal on February 21, 2005: "Justice Breyer deserves much credit for taking seriously the question whether he should have recused himself in the sentencing guidelines cases, but the revelation that he sought advice from an academic expert raises another issue of judicial ethics that should not be lost."

• Harvard Law Review selects 119th president

  Second-year student Brian Fletcher has been elected the 119th president of the Harvard Law Review. Fletcher has advocated new policies such as changing submission guidelines in response to overwhelming feedback from professors for shorter articles and launched new initiatives like the "State of Scholarship" dinner series to make the Review an active part of the HLS community.

• HLS grad takes over Department of Homeland Security

  Following a unanimous confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate, this week President Bush swore in Michael Chertoff, a 1978 Harvard Law graduate, as the nation's secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. The new post is the latest in a series of public services positions Chertoff has held in both the executive and judicial branches of government.

• Rosenfeld Named 'Champion for Change'

  Diane Rosenfeld, lecturer on law, was recently named a recipient of the Champions for Change Award for her contributions in research and advocacy on the subject of sexual violence. The award, presented by the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center and co-sponsored by Beauty and Main and The Charles Hotel, honored Rosenfeld's work particularly in the area of education.

• Weiler Honored for Contributions to Canadian Labor Law

  Professor Paul Weiler has been named a recipient of the 2005 Bora Laskin Award, which recognizes achievements in Canadian labor law. The award is sponsored by the Centre for Industrial Relations at the University of Toronto and the Lancaster House, a publisher of books and articles on labor and employment law.

• Renovations to Hemenway Gymnasium slated for summer 2005

  Harvard Law School and Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences will collaborate to renovate Hemenway Gymnasium in a project slated to run from late May to September. The two schools will split the cost of the top-to-bottom interior rehabilitation of the 28,000-square-foot recreational fitness facility, which will be closed during construction.

• Professor Warren warns about risks of medical bankruptcy

  The following op-ed was written by Professor Elizabeth Warren and published in The Washington Post on February 9, 2005: "Nobody's safe. That's the warning from the first large-scale study of medical bankruptcy...."

• Bebchuk tells CEOs: 'If it wasn't earned, it must be returned'

  Professor Lucian Bebchuk, an expert on corporate governance and co-author of "Pay Without Performance: The Unfulfilled Promise of Executive Compensation," was interviewed recently on CNBC's popular business program, Kudlow and Cramer. After companies like Fannie Mae have restated earnings figures, Bebchuk argued that executives' contracts should include "give-back provisions that require the paying back of money that was raised on figures that had to be restated."

• Harvard study finds medical bills push many into bankruptcy

  Nearly half of all Americans who file for bankruptcy do so because of medical expenses, according to a new study released jointly by researchers at Harvard Law School and Harvard Medical School this week. The study, which is based on surveys of 1,771 individuals filing for bankruptcy, is the first of its kind to gather extensive information on the correlation between medical conditions and expenses and bankruptcy.

• HLS Conference Addresses Professions in China

  Scholars from as faraway as Hong Kong and as nearby as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences gathered last week at Harvard Law School for a conference on professionalism in China. The event, The Professions and Professionalism in China, sponsored by the East Asian Legal Studies Program and the Harvard University Asia Center, addressed fields ranging from law, medicine, and religion to journalism, architecture, and business.