September 2010

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  A roundup of recent fellowship and scholarship winners at Harvard Law School

  Here is a roundup of fellowships and scholarships awarded this year to Harvard Law School students and recent graduates to pursue domestic and international work or educational opportunities. The list includes the names of the recipients, their grants, and the places where they will be working.

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  Minow in the Boston Globe: Lessons from literature

  HLS Dean Martha Minow was interviewed on August 22 for the ‘Bibliophiles’ column in the Boston Globe. In the Q&A, Minow talks about her own summer reading list, book groups with the President, and the relevance of fiction and poetry in advancing our national dialogue on ethnic and religious conflict.

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  Eleven Harvard Law grads are U.S. Supreme Court clerks for 2010-2011

  Of the 39 law school graduates who are serving as clerks to the U.S. Supreme Court justices and retired justices in the 2010-2011 term, 11 hail from Harvard Law School—the highest number from a single law school this year.

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  Suk in WSJ: Schumer’s Project Runway

  If it’s illegal to copy books and paintings, why should fashion designs be any different? That was the question posed by HLS Professor Jeannie Suk ‘02 and Columbia Law Professor C. Scott Hemphill in a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal

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  Feldman looks at the end of the combat mission—and a 'very long engagement' ahead (audio)

  In his recent Wall Street Journal op-ed and subsequent appearance on the radio program 'The Takeaway,'  Harvard Law School Professor Noah Feldman discussed the Obama administration's pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq by Oct 2011. He argued that, if the nation is to flourish as an independent nation, the U.S. will be required to play a continuing role in maintaining security there for a long time to come.

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  Palfrey essay released by Time Warner Cable research program

  Time Warner Cable recently announced that it has released five essays on the future of digital communications, policy and technical perspectives based on its Research Program on Digital Communications. One of the five was written by Harvard Law School Professor John Palfrey, who contributed an essay entitled "The Challenge of Developing Effective Public Policy on the Use of Social Media by Youth."

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  Neuman elected to the Human Rights Committee

  Harvard Law School Professor Gerald Neuman ’80 has been elected to the Human Rights Committee, the premier treaty body in the UN human rights system. The committee monitors compliance by 166 states parties with their obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is part of the “International Bill of Rights.”

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  Goldsmith in Washington Post: A way past the terrorist detention gridlock

  Nine years after Sept. 11 and 20 months into the Obama presidency, our nation is still flummoxed about what to do with captured terrorists, writes HLS Professor Jack Goldsmith in an op-ed in today's Washington Post. In his op-ed, "A way past the terrorist detention gridlock," Goldsmith says that while there is no "silver bullet" for this problem, there are several steps the administration could take toward resolution. 

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  Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic wins rehearing of child asylum case in First Circuit

  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has granted a rehearing in Mejilla-Romero v. Holder, vacating its original published decision denying a child asylum applicant’s petition for review. The order granting rehearing now directs the Board of Immigration Appeals to address the special treatment of child asylum applicants as set forth in guidelines issued by the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the United Nation High Commission for Refugees.

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  French and Feldman mine Supreme Court’s decision in Martinez religion case

  In Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, the Supreme Court ruled 5-to-4 last June that a public law school did not violate the First Amendment by withdrawing recognition from a Christian student group that excluded gay students. On Sept. 8, the Harvard Federalist Society sponsored a discussion of Martinez and its implications for religious freedom.

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  Scott urges major Federal Reserve input to CFTC rules on conflicts of interest in derivatives clearinghouses

  The Commodities Future Trading Commission and the Securities Exchange Commission should closely consult the Federal Reserve on conflicts of interests affecting the nation's over-the-counter derivatives clearinghouses, wrote HLS Professor Hal Scott, director of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, in a letter to the chairman of the CFTC. 

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  Endicott looks at the territorial extent of human rights

  In early September, Timothy Endicott, dean of the faculty of law at Oxford University and a professor of legal philosophy, spoke to an overflow audience in Pound Hall on how judges in Europe and the United States have ruled on the territorial extent of human rights.  

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  Program on Negotiation honors Martti Ahtisaari with the Great Negotiator Award

  On Monday, September 27, Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation will honor the former President of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari, with the 2010 Great Negotiator Award.

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  Klarman in L.A. Times: The political risks of supporting gay rights

  “Historically, American presidents have rarely gotten far ahead of public opinion on civil rights issues, and the few times they have, they’ve paid a substantial price for doing so,” writes HLS Professor Michael Klarman in an L.A. Times op-ed, entitled “The political risks of supporting gay rights.”

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  Greenhouse assesses the direction of the Roberts Court: “The government wins”

  In a Harvard Law School lecture sponsored by the American Constitution Society, Linda Greenhouse, former Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times, discussed “the Roberts Court at Five.”

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  When ‘The Nine’ Overrule the Ninth: O’Scannlain ponders 10 years of reversals

  Over the past decade, the U.S. Supreme Court has overruled the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 148 of 182 cases—a “strikingly poor record” for the circuit court, said Ninth Circuit Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain ’63 in a talk at Harvard Law School on September 17.  The event was sponsored by the Federalist Society.

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  Goldsmith on NPR: Extending The Law Of War To Cyberspace (audio)

  Harvard Law School Professor Jack Goldsmith recently spoke on NPR about the potential consequences of the ambiguity surrounding legal and ethical limits of state behavior in cyberspace.

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  Professor Annette Gordon-Reed ’84 wins a MacArthur Fellowship (audio)

  Annette Gordon-Reed ’84, an award-winning historian, is one of 23 recipients of the 2010 MacArthur Fellowship, more commonly known as the MacArthur “Genius Award.” Gordon-Reed—the recipient of the National Humanities Medal, the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award—was recognized for dramatically changing the course of Jeffersonian scholarship. 

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  Bebchuk in Project Syndicate: Politics and Corporate Money

  In an op-ed for Project Syndicate, Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk raises questions about the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which grants corporations greater leeway in political spending.

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  Latest CCMR study confirms resumed deterioration in competitiveness of U.S. public equity markets

  The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, an independent and nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving the regulation and enhancing the competitiveness of U.S. capital markets, released data confirming that the competitiveness of U.S. public equity markets in global markets has resumed its deterioration throughout this year’s first half.  

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  Bellinger, former State Department Legal Adviser, offers advice to Harvard Law School students

  On Sept. 13,  John B. Bellinger III '86, chief legal adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during the Bush Administration, gave a talk to students on how to launch and develop careers in international and public-interest law. The talk was sponsored by HLS's Office of Public Interest Advising.