Recent Highlights

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  HLS conference focuses on Mexican drug cartels

  Harvard Law School Professor Philip Heymann contends that the crisis in Mexico involving drug cartels needs to be examined from the broader perspective of organized crime and its use of violence—not just as a drug-trafficking issue. For the second year in a row, a working group was assembled to take the next step of addressing the issues in very concrete detail. About 30 law-enforcement officials, prosecutors, investigators, legal scholars and proponents of treatment and prevention were in attendance.

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  In "Race and Justice: The Wire" - A novel approach to thinking about law (video)

  Over five seasons on HBO, the show "The Wire" tackled topics such as the drug war, wiretapping, corruption, and intergenerational incarceration—all topics worthy of examination inside and outside the classroom, according to Professor Charles Ogletree '78. That is why he established a new class based on the show—“Race and Justice: The Wire”—whose curriculum includes readings and discussions on drug policy, police practices, and legal tactics.

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  Harvard Law student argues appeal of music-sharing fine

  A Harvard Law School student appeared before the First Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday as the lead lawyer in an illegal downloading and sharing lawsuit brought against a Boston University student by the music recording industry. This is the first case of its kind to reach the federal appellate level.

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  William Stuntz [1958-2011]: An examined life of thoughtfulness and grace

  William Stuntz, a renowned scholar of criminal justice at Harvard Law School,  an evangelical Christian and a teacher much beloved by students and colleagues, died March 15 after a long battle with cancer.

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  Steiker discusses the invisibility of race in capital punishment (video)

  The history of the death penalty in America has been racially inflected, yet the death penalty reforms and regulations that have taken place over the past 40 years have given very little mention to race. That was the core message delivered by Harvard Law School professor Carol Steiker in a talk sponsored by the Harvard Law School American Constitutional Society.
  

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  Professors Heymann and Blum receive award for their book “Laws, Outlaws, and Terrorists”

  Professor Philip Heymann ’60 and Associate Professor Gabriella Blum LL.M. ’01 S.J.D. ’03 received the 2010 Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize for their recently published book “Laws, Outlaws, and Terrorists” (MIT Press, 2010).

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  Whiting to join International Criminal Court

  Alex Whiting, an assistant clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School, will join the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the investigation coordinator this December. Serving as the deputy to the chief of investigations, he will be responsible for managing and providing legal guidance and direction to all of the ICC’s investigations in this new post.

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  "It is easier to build strong children than fix broken men:" At HLS summit, Edelman says we must move from punishment to justice (video)

  For ten of thousands of young people, childhood can consist of a pipeline to prison. On Thursday, April 29, 2010, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School hosted a conference addressing the issue locally: “Coming Together to Dismantle the Cradle to Prison Pipeline in Massachusetts: A Half-Day Summit of Community, Faith and Policy Leaders.”

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  A celebration in honor of William J. Stuntz (video)

  On March 26 and 27, a large group of the many admirers of Henry J. Friendly Professor of Law William J. Stuntz gathered at HLS for a two-day conference to celebrate his career. Stuntz has exerted a tremendous influence on the fields of American criminal justice and criminal procedure while at the same time having a profound effect, professionally and personally, on so many who know him.