HLS News August 2006

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  Court decision on human rights marks important victory for HLS students

  A group of Harvard Law students has helped to bring about a landmark decision by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which ruled earlier this month that the Brazilian government bears responsibility for the death of a patient in a state-affiliated psychiatric hospital.
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  Harvard Law grad named next attorney general of New Jersey

  Last week, Harvard Law graduate Stuart Rabner was appointed attorney general of New Jersey by Governor Jon Corzine. Rabner is a member of the class of '85.
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  Hanson examines downsides of athlete worship

  An op-ed co-written by Professor Jon Hanson: To sports fans, it probably wasn't a surprise to learn that former Ohio State University football star Maurice Clarett was arrested again the other week. The evasive running back who had carried the Buckeyes to the 2002 National Championship was unsuccessful in evading the police in a car chase that occurred near the home of a witness in his upcoming robbery trial.
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  Tribe argues that executive branch has overstepped its bounds

  This week, Professor Laurence Tribe argued in an interview on WBUR's program "On Point" that the executive branch has exceeded the scope of its constitutional power. Tribe debated the question of wartime powers with Douglas Kmiec, a professor of law at Pepperdine University.
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  Desan says look to local government for campaign finance reform

  The following op-ed, co-written by Professor Christine Desan, A model for fair campaigns, appeared in The Boston Globe on August 18, 2006: With less than three months until the November election, the governor's race is heating up in Massachusetts.
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  Let cities regulate 'big-box' retailers, says Barron

  The following essay by Professor David Barron, Boxed Out, appeared in The Boston Globe on August 13, 2006: Not so long ago, America's big cities were so desperate to attract commercial development they gladly would have given away the store to get one. But not now, as Wal-Mart and other super-retailers recently discovered.
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  Minow examines ways to prevent wartime atrocities

  The following op-ed, co-written by Professor Martha Minow, Relearning Vietnam's painful lessons, appeared in The Boston Globe on August 14, 2006. Current events make the Vietnam era more relevant than ever. We are engaged in a war without plan or prospects for disengagement. The conflict seems part of a global danger, but we also seem interlopers -- and attractive targets -- in a civil war.
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  Professor Stuntz on 'Lessons from London'

  In the wake of September 11, there was a lively debate about the optimal mix of "hard" versus "soft" power--guns versus diplomacy, military force versus foreign aid. Thursday's foiled plot to blow up commercial jets shows that a similar divide informs the world of police work. Scotland Yard and the FBI sometimes stop terrorists by shooting them, just as the criminal justice system sometimes stops attempted murders by incarcerating the would-be killers.
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  Tribe says 'signing statements' are the wrong target

  The final report of the American Bar Association Task Force opposing presidential "signing statements" barks up a constitutionally barren tree. It's not the statements that are the true source of constitutional difficulty. On the contrary, signing statements, which a president can issue to indicate the way he intends to direct his administration to construe ambiguous statutes, are informative and constitutionally unobjectionable.

• Wikimania 2006 at HLS

  This weekend, HLS's Berkman Center for Internet and Society co-hosts Wikimania 2006, the second annual Wikimedia conference. Berkman fellow and Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales will open the conference this morning on the Harvard Law School campus.