HLS News 2013

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  In the news: HLS faculty weigh in on the ‘fiscal cliff’ negotiations

  In recent weeks, a number of HLS faculty have weighed in on issues surrounding the fiscal cliff negotiations.

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  Six from Harvard Law School awarded Skadden Fellowships

  Six from Harvard Law School recently were chosen by the Skadden Foundation to receive two-year fellowships to support their work in public service. This year’s recipients include current students Haben Girma ’13, Hunter Landerholm ’13, Adam Meyers ’13 and Mara Sacks ’13, and recent graduates Robert Hodgson ’12 and Daniel Saver ’12.

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  HLS program gathers leaders in Rio de Janeiro to explore financial issues affecting Brazil and the U.S.

  Professor Hal Scott, director of the Harvard Law School Program on International Financial Systems, recently gathered public and private sector financial leaders from Brazil and the U.S. to examine issues affecting the financial relationship between the two countries.

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  Tribe, panel urge culture change to target gun violence (video)

  At a Jan. 8 event, Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe participated in a panel discussion titled “Gun Violence: A Public Health Crisis.” The event, which was co-sponsored by the Reuters news agency and the Harvard School of Public Health, was part of The Forum at HSPH, a discussion series that aims to provide decision-makers with a global platform to address policy choices and scientific controversies.

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  Symposium at HLS marks launch of global network of interdisciplinary centers focused on the Internet and society

  On Dec. 6-8, 2012, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, together with seven international co-organizers, hosted a symposium  at Harvard Law School titled Internet-Driven Developments: Structural Changes and Tipping Points, convening representatives from Internet and society research centers spanning 5 continents and 22 countries.

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  SEC proposes corporate political spending rules urged by Bebchuk, committee

  The Securities and Exchange Commission recently indicated in an entry in the Office of Management and Budget’s Unified Agenda that it plans to issue by April 2013 a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on requiring public companies to disclose their spending on politics. The adoption of such a rule was urged in a rulemaking petition submitted by a committee of ten law professors co-chaired by Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk LL.M. ’80 S.J.D. ’84 and by a record number of supporting comments subsequently filed with the SEC.

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  ‘Courage to Dissent’ wins numerous awards

  “Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement” (Oxford University Press, 2011) by Harvard Law Professor Tomiko Brown-Nagin has received numerous awards and has been cited for offering an important new perspective on the civil rights movement. The book was released in paperback this past September by Oxford.

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  50 Years Ago at the HLS Forum, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

  In October 1962, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Harvard Law School on “The Future of Integration.” It was six months before he would be imprisoned in a Birmingham jail, 10 months before the March on Washington, almost two years before the signing of the Civil Rights Act and almost six years before his assassination.

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  Meltzer appointed next director of the American Law Institute

  Daniel J. Meltzer ’75, the Story professor of law at Harvard Law School, has been appointed as the next Director of the American Law Institute (ALI). The ALI announced the appointment on January 18, 2013.

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  HLS Library tells 'A Tale of True Crime'

  On Jan. 11, the Harvard Law School Library announced the opening of a new exhibit titled “Extra! Extra! Read All About It: A Tale of True Crime.” Featuring materials from the library’s Historical & Special Collections, the exhibit examines a short chapter in the United States’ history of true crime narratives, covering topics such as serialized true crime literature, crime photography in newspapers, and new angles on the media coverage of the Sacco and Vanzetti case.

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  HLS students help student startups, at Harvard and MIT

  The Harvard Law Entrepreneurship Project is the newest of 11 Student Practice Organizations at Harvard Law School and is providing free legal research and analysis for student-founded startups at Harvard and MIT.

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  NFL Players Association partners with HMS; Petrie-Flom Center will be involved

  The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) has granted Harvard Medical School a $100 million grant to create a transformative 10-year initiative⎯the Harvard Integrated Program to Protect and Improve the Health of NFLPA Members. The program will marshal the intellectual, scientific, and medical expertise throughout Harvard University to discover new approaches to diagnosing, treating, and preventing injuries and illnesses in both active and retired players. Members of the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School will help address ethical, legal and policy issues relevant to the health of current, future and retired players.

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  Social Media and Behavioral Economics Conference

  On Wednesday, Feb. 6, scholars from across Harvard University joined social media experts from Facebook, Twitter, Socialflow and Microsoft Research for a conference on social media, theory and practice, and their potential effects on voting behavior, electricity consumption, pro-social behavior and privacy. The event, “Social Media and Behavioral Economics Conference,” sponsored by Harvard Law School’s new Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy, was held at Harvard Law School.

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  Petrie-Flom Center will participate with HMS and University partners in 10-year project with NFL Players Association

  Members of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School will be key co-investigators with colleagues at Harvard Medical School and other parts of the University to help usher the National Football League (NFL) into a safer and more responsible future, said HLS Assistant Professor of Law I. Glenn Cohen, faculty co-director of the Center.

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  HLS debuts first online course

  Harvard Law School’s first ever online course launched Monday, opening up “Copyright,” a class taught by Law School professor William W. Fisher, III, to hundreds of people worldwide. HLS1x: “Copyright,” which is offered through the Harvard branch of the online learning platform edX, is closely modeled after the Law School course taught by Fisher since 1994.

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  Tribe testifies in Second Amendment Hearing (video)

  On Feb. 12, Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe ’66, a constitutional law scholar, participated in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Proposals to Reduce Gun Violence: Protecting Our Communities While Respecting the Second Amendment.”

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  Peter Barton Hutt: Celebrating 20 years at Harvard Law (video)

  A group of scholars gathered on Jan. 17 at Harvard Law School with Peter Barton Hutt ’59 to discuss and celebrate his career, including “20 years (thus far)” teaching an influential course at Harvard Law on food and drug law. Hutt, who has worked at the Washington, D.C. law firm Covington & Burling for more than five decades, has taught the course at HLS since 1993.

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  Grossman elected 127th president of the Harvard Law Review

  The Harvard Law Review has elected Gillian Grossman ’14 as its 127th president. Grossman succeeds Conor Tochilin ’13.

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  Panel discussion on "Gun violence after the Newtown tragedy"

  On Friday Feb. 15, Harvard Law School hosted "Gun violence after the Newtown tragedy: What can legal, public health and other efforts do?" The panel discussion, moderated by HLS Dean Martha Minow, featured David Hemenway, professor of health policy and management and director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center; Clinical Professor Ron Sullivan, director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute; and Alan A. Stone, Touroff-Glueck Professor of Law and Psychiatry.

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  Lessig on 'Aaron's Laws - Law and Justice in a Digital Age' (video)

  On Tuesday, Feb. 19, Lawrence Lessig marked his appointment as Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School with a lecture titled "Aaron's Laws: Law and Justice in a Digital Age." The lecture honored the memory and work of Aaron Swartz, the programmer and activist who took his own life on Jan. 11, 2013 at the age of 26. Swartz spent the last two years fighting federal charges that he violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

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  Sunstein appointed as Harvard University Professor

  Cass Sunstein ’78, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law and director of HLS’s new Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy, has been named a University Professor, Harvard University President Drew Faust announced today. Harvard’s highest honor for a faculty member, University Professorships were established in 1935 to recognize individuals whose work on the frontiers of knowledge crosses the traditional boundaries of academic disciplines.

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  Remembering Ronald Dworkin LL.B. '57

  Ronald M. Dworkin LL.B. ’57, renowned legal scholar and philosopher, died on Feb. 13, 2013. In the days since, a number of Harvard Law School professors have written pieces about Dworkin, who was a towering figure in the legal world.

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  Guinier and Ogletree honored by the Maynard Institute

  In commemoration of Black History Month, Harvard Law School Professors Lani Guinier and Charles Ogletree ’78 were recognized by the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education as two of 28 noteworthy African-Americans who have contributed to the “world of words.”

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  Harvard experts examine Gun violence and policy, post Newtown (video)

  On Feb. 15, a panel of legal and public-health scholars, moderated by Dean Martha Minow and including Clinical Professor Ron Sullivan and Alan A. Stone, professor of Law and Psychiatry, gathered at Harvard Law School for a public forum on gun violence, gun policy and the prospects for meaningful reform in a post-Newtown landscape.

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  President Of Kosovo Constitutional Court speaks at HLS

  On Feb. 4, more than 70 Harvard Law School students, faculty, and other members of the Harvard community gathered in Wasserstein Hall to hear Dr. Enver Hasani, president of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, speak on “European Self-Determination and the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on Kosovo.”

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  A conference on the dimensions of property law

  More than 100 legal scholars gathered in Geneva, Switzerland for the Geneva-Harvard-Renmin-Sydney Law Faculty Conference, a three-day event that brought together faculty from Harvard Law School, the University of Geneva, Renmin Law School (China), and Sydney Law School (Australia) to explore property law in its many dimensions.

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  Tan nominated to Massachusetts Juvenile Court

  Gov. Deval Patrick ’82 has nominated Gloria Tan, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Criminal Justice Institute, to a seat on the Massachusetts Juvenile Court. Tan is a leading national authority in the field of juvenile justice.

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  Legal Hackathon

  During the weekend of Feb. 22, at the first-ever Legal Hackathon, a group of 25 Harvard Law School students worked around the clock to confront the question of content-use policies for HarvardX, and what they may mean for Harvard University and the future of education.

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  Cultural exchange: Graduate Program hosts annual international party

  At the annual international party hosted by the Harvard Law School LL.M class of 2013,  students, faculty, staff and family members filled the Harkness Commons in the Caspersen Student Center for a chance to immerse themselves in the cultures of their graduate student classmates, who hail from more than 70 countries. 

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  Women’s Law Association conference focused on increasing women’s political participation (video)

  During the 2012 election cycle, a record number of women won seats in Congress. Still, women make up just 19 percent of Congress and hold only five governorships. In an effort to build momentum following the 2012 races, the Women’s Law Association hosted its annual conference on February 8, entitled “19%: When Will Women Have the Floor?”

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  P/Review of Health Law at Petrie-Flom Center (video)

  The past year was a historic one for health law, with the Supreme Court issuing the final word on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act alongside a host of other critical developments. In February, the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, in partnership with the New England Journal of Medicine, held its first annual Health Law Year in P/Review event.

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  Stein receives Viscardi Award for work on disability rights

  Harvard Law School Visiting Professor Michael Ashley Stein ’88 was awarded the 2013 Viscardi Award, which honors people living with disabilities for their work and influence in the global disability community.

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  Bernard and Sherley Koteen: Benefactors of HLS Office of Public Interest Advising

  Bernard Koteen '40, a telecommunications expert who endowed Harvard Law School’s Office of Public Interest Advising, died Feb. 22 in Washington D.C., suffering a fatal heart attack just three days after the death of his wife of 70 years, Sherley Koteen.

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  Cohen promoted to professor of law at Harvard

  Following a vote of the Harvard Law School faculty, I. Glenn Cohen, a leading expert on the intersection of health care, bioethics and the law, will be promoted from assistant professor to tenured professor of law, effective July 1. Cohen has served as an assistant professor since 2008, and as co-director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics since 2009.

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  Feldman examines corruption and political legitimacy in China

  At a Feb. 6 talk sponsored by the Harvard Law and International Development Society, Noah Feldman, Bemis Professor of International Law, focused on corruption in China and how it is likely to play out in the country’s political development.

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  Civics Education: Why it Matters to Democracy, Society and You

  On Monday, April 1, Harvard Law School and the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools present an all-day conference on Civics Education, including a noon-time conversation with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Justice David Souter, and other special guests. 

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  Harvard Law students featured in Business Insider

  Twenty-one students from Harvard Law School were profiled in the March 4 edition of Business Insider in an article that celebrates the extraordinary range of experiences and contributions of Harvard Law School students.

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  Haben Girma ’13 named a White House Champion of Change (video)

  Harvard Law School student Haben Girma ’13 was recently named a White House Champion of Change for her advocacy on behalf of deafblind individuals and her efforts in promoting educational excellence for African Americans.

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  At HLS award ceremony, Babbitt challenges ‘haphazard infrastructure decisions’ (video)

  On March 14, the Harvard Law School Environmental Law Society presented its annual Horizon award to Bruce Babbitt ’65, who previously served as secretary of the interior and governor of Arizona.The award is a means of recognizing great people who have accomplished great things in the field of environment and natural resources law, and to provide a forum in which to discuss those achievements. 

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  Library exhibit: HLS and the road to marriage equality

  The Caspersen Room in the Harvard Law School Library is currently displaying an exhibit documenting the involvement of Harvard Law School students, faculty and alumni in the long road to marriage equality. The exhibit includes a 1983 paper by Evan Wolfson ’83, “Samesex Marriage and Morality: The Human Rights Vision of the Constitution,” along with briefs and other exhibits from HLS Professors Elizabeth Bartholet ‘65, Lawrence Lessig, Frank Michelman ‘60, William Rubenstein ‘86, Carol Steiker ‘86 and Laurence Tribe, ‘66, and Lecturers on Law Kevin Russell and Benjamin Heineman Jr.

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  Backlash from Roe v. Wade continues to shape public discourse, says Klarman

  Forty years after the Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, the backlash it generated continues to shape the public discourse, says Harvard Law School Professor Michael Klarman, an expert on constitutional law and constitutional history.

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  Clinic and Human Rights Watch: Obama should urge Jordan to stop sending asylum seekers back to Syria

  While Jordan has accommodated more than 350,000 refugees since the start of the Syrian conflict in March 2011, it is routinely and unlawfully rejecting Palestinian refugees, single men, and undocumented people seeking asylum at its border with Syria, according to Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic and Human Rights Watch.

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  Cohen files amicus brief in gene patent case before the Supreme Court

  Harvard Law School Professor I. Glenn Cohen ’03 and Gideon A. Schor ’89 recently filed an amicus brief on behalf of Dr. Eric S. Lander in a pending Supreme Court case that will address whether human genes are patentable.  

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  Human Rights panel discusses cost of Iraq invasion, 10 years after (video)

  On March 26, representatives of a number of human rights organizations gathered at Harvard Law School to reflect on the lasting impact of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and to discuss their efforts to hold the U.S. government accountable for problems there during the occupation and ongoing to this day.

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  The Harvard Immigration Project: Fighting for the rights of immigrant detainees

  Following its second victory, the Harvard Immigration Project’s (HIP) Bond Hearing Project continues its new campaign to provide free legal representation to detained immigrants seeking release from immigration custody.

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  HLS establishes new Veterans Legal Clinic

  The Board of Veterans’ Appeals denies a soldier’s claim for disability benefits for an injury to his lower extremities. But the decision is handed down while the soldier is serving in Afghanistan, and he doesn’t realize he has the right to appeal until after he returns from his deployment—after the appeal deadline has passed.  For students in Harvard Law School’s new Veterans Legal Clinic, the chance to argue that the appeal deadline should have been tolled and the case allowed to proceed on the merits is proving invaluable educationally and personally.

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  PIFS symposium gathers senior executives, government officials

  Harvard Law School's Program on International Financial Systems (PIFS) hosted its eleventh annual Symposium on Building the Financial System of the Twenty-first Century: An Agenda for Europe and the United States on March 21-23 at the SwissRe Centre for Global Dialogue in Rüschlikon Switzerland. Co-hosted by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), the event gathered over a hundred senior executives and government officials from the financial industry, policymaking arenas, law, and academia.

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  From 2013 World Winter Games to Global Development Summit, Alford plays major role in Special Olympics International

  As an enthusiastic supporter of the Special Olympics who has worked for more than two decades with Special Olympics International, Harvard Law School Professor William P. Alford welcomed the opportunity to help bring about the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games, held in PyeongChang, Korea earlier this year. “One of the major messages of the Special Olympics is that having a disability need not be seen as being as limiting or disqualifying as some people might assume,” says Alford, director of East Asian Legal Studies and chair of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability (HPOD).

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  Gertner, Kaufman appointed to Advisory panel on Mass. federal court nominations

  U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has announced the appointment of an Advisory Committee on Massachusetts judicial nominations to solicit, interview, and comment on applications for federal District Court vacancies in Springfield and Boston. The Committee is comprised of distinguished members of the Massachusetts legal community, including Harvard Law School Professor Andrew Kaufman, and will be chaired by former District Court Judge Nancy Gertner, who is now a Professor of Practice at HLS.

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  Harvard Law faculty and alumni among 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America

  Several members of the Harvard Law School faculty and over a dozen alumni were named to The National Law Journal’s list of 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.

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  Tribe to receive honorary degree from Columbia

  Professor Laurence Tribe ‘66, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor, will be recognized by Columbia University with an honorary Doctor of Letters at the school’s commencement exercises on May 22, 2013.

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  The role of media in the U.S. political system: A Panel at Harvard Law School

  On April 3, a group of journalists gathered to discuss the changing relationship between political actors and journalists in a changing technological landscape at an event entitled “The Role of Media in the U.S. Political System.” The event was sponsored by the HLS American Constitution Society, and featured CNN’s John King, Melinda Henneberger, political reporter for the Washington Post, and Peter Hamby, national political reporter for CNN.

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  Blum, Feldman weigh in on aftermath of Boston Marathon bombings

  In the wake of Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings, experts across Harvard University analyzed the puzzle and potential of the attack’s aftermath.

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  Ken Burns offers preview of 'Central Park Five' at HLS (video)

  On March 12 at Harvard Law School, award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns joined Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree and two Central Park Five members for a film screening and panel discussion of his new documentary “The Central Park Five,” which tells the story of five Black and Latino teenagers who were wrongly convicted of raping and beating a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. The event was co-sponsored by Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice and the Prison Studies Project and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

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  Advanced Negotiation students advise Major League Baseball executives

  This year, Clinical Professor Robert Bordone ‘97, director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program (HNMCP), developed a capstone consulting project with Major League Baseball (MLB) for his course “Advanced Negotiation: Multiparty Negotiation, Group Decision Making, and Teams,” co-taught with Lecturer on Law Rory Van Loo ’07. MLB tasked the class with providing strategic advice for an upcoming negotiation aimed at the implementation of an international amateur draft. Six teams of Harvard Law School students participated in the semester-long project, competing for the opportunity to present their findings to the MLB. In his essay, “Note from the Big Leagues”, Chris Davis '14, a member of the wining team, reflects on his experience.

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  Associate White House Counsel Kathleen Hartnett '00 reflects on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

  As the gay rights movement continues to gain momentum, it's easy to forget just how recently the tides of change were moving in the opposite direction, Associate White House Counsel Kathleen Hartnett '00 said at an April 11 talk at Harvard Law School, hosted by the Harvard chapter of the American Constitution Society.

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  Confronting evil, embracing life

  The manhunt for a bombing suspect shut down the Boston area on Friday. With Harvard temporarily closed, a pair of two-day scholarly conferences had to be compressed into Saturday alone. But by chance, both provided perspective on the area’s brush with terror.

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  For second year in a row, Harvard Law School wins regional WTO moot court

  For the second year in a row, a team of Harvard Law School students won the North American regional moot court competition on WTO law at the ELSA Moot Court Competition (EMC²). The second annual competition was held in San Jose, Costa Rica and was organized in cooperation with the Costa Rican Society of International Law.

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  Manning elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

  John F. Manning ’85, the Bruce Bromley Professor of Law at Harvard, and an expert in administrative law, statutory interpretation, separation of powers law and the federal courts, has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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  Advocating for the rule of law in Belarus

  Like others in Harvard Law School’s LL.M. class of 2013, Maryna Kavaleuskaya practiced law abroad before coming to America for additional legal training. And, like many of her 187 classmates—most of them from overseas—she had to overcome obstacles along the way. But unlike most others, Kavaleuskaya will be unable to return to a normal life back home after she receives her Harvard degree.

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  Clinic students secure asylum for indigenous survivors of persecution in Guatemala

  Last month, as an historic trial continued in Guatemala against a former dictator charged with the genocide of indigenous Mayans, Lauren Herman ’13—a student in the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic (HIRC) —stood in court in Boston as a judge announced he was granting asylum to her Mayan client, who, with his family, had suffered persecution for decades before he came to the U.S. in 2009.