At “HLS Thinks Big” on May 23, Professor Jon Hanson argued that understanding what moves people may be the most important question for law in the future.
Six Harvard Law School professors with six ideas worth spreading in 60 minutes
“HLS Thinks Big,” inspired by the global TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) talks and modeled after the college’s “Harvard Thinks Big” event, was held at Harvard Law School on May 23 in Austin North.
The event, moderated by Dean Martha Minow, featured topics ranging from risk analysis in constitutional design to understanding what moves people.
Over the course of one hour, Clinical Professor Deborah Anker LL.M. ’84 examined legal assistance for undocumented students, while Professor Randall L. Kennedy stressed the importance of not turning only to the justice system but also to the other branches of government to glean insight into race relations in law.
Professors John Manning ’85 and Adrian Vermeule ’93 discussed the difference between “mind-numbingly precise phrases” and “breathtakingly open-ended phrases” in statutes. Professor Jon Hanson discussed social psychology and Professor Mark Roe ’75 introduced the audience to the ideas of chaos, path dependence and punctuated equilibrium.