Recent Highlights

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  At HLS, women judges’ conference draws more than 300 participants

  When the second wave of feminism swept the country in the early 1970s, a woman had never served on the United States Supreme Court. There had never been a woman Secretary of State. If there were any women attorneys general, CEOs, or law school deans, they were rarer than water vapor on the moon. Today, there’s nothing to hold women back. Right? Not so fast. That’s the message delivered by keynote speaker Nancy Gertner to the 300-plus attendees of the National Association of Women Judges’ (NAWJ) conference held at Harvard Law School in mid-March.

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  Vermeule explores how individuals and larger institutions together shape the constitutional order

  A scholar of administrative law and constitutional law and theory, Professor Adrian Vermeule ’93 has written the new book “The System of the Constitution” (Oxford University Press), in which he explores how individuals and larger institutions together shape the constitutional order. Vermeule recently spoke about his book and an event in London that featured discussion of his ideas.

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  Symposium explores Michelman’s contributions to comparative constitutional law and law and philosophy (video)

  An array of luminaries from academia and the bench—and from around the world—came to Harvard Law School to celebrate Professor Frank Michelman ’60 and his influential work, as he prepares to retire after nearly half a century on the HLS faculty.

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  Tea Party and Liberals convene at HLS to discuss Constitutional Convention (video)

  In response to a widely perceived dysfunctional political environment in Washington, D.C., attendees at a conference at Harvard Law School evaluated the potential and pitfalls of a possible remedy—a first-ever Article V convention to propose amendments to the Constitution.

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  Justice Breyer offers perspective as Tunisia prepares to design a constitution

  U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer ’64 discussed the foundations of American democracy with Tunisian scholars at a conference hosted by NGO Almadanya on July 22 in the Amphitéâtre César in Yasmine-Hammamet, Tunisia.

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  Is the Obama Health Care Reform Constitutional? Fried, Tribe and Barnett debate the Affordable Care Act (video)

  Debating what Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow called “one of the most important public policy issues and one of the most important constitutional issues,” three law professors offered different perspectives on whether the individual mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) violates the commerce clause of the Constitution and infringes on personal liberties.

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  Imagining a Liberal Court

  “Imagining a Liberal Court,” an article by HLS Professor Noah Feldman, appeared in the June 21, 2010, edition of the New York Times Magazine. A contributing writer to the New York Times, Feldman recently wrote a book entitled “Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of F.D.R.’s Great Supreme Court Justices,” which will be published in the fall.

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  Citizens United: Faculty roundup

  Harvard Law professors weigh in with reactions to the Supreme Court’s Jan. 21 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In the 5-4 ruling, Justices rejected corporate spending limits on political campaigns.

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  At annual Supreme Court Forum, experts discuss “system effects” and judicial elections (video)

  The Supreme Court’s 2008 ruling in Caperton v. A.T. Massey was the main focus of the Harvard Law Review’s Supreme Court forum this year. Held annually, the Supreme Court Forum focuses on the Law Review’s Supreme Court issue, which is published in November.