Elizabeth Bartholet
Morris Wasserstein Public Interest Professor of Law, Emeritus
Elizabeth Bartholet is Professor of Law, Emeritus. She served until June 30, 2021 as the Morris Wasserstein Public Interest Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Child Advocacy Program (CAP), which she founded in the fall of 2004. Her specialties include civil rights and family law, specializing in child welfare, adoption, and reproductive technology. Before joining the Harvard Faculty, she was engaged in civil rights and public interest work, first with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and later as founder and director of the Legal Action Center, a non-profit organization in New York City focused on criminal justice and substance abuse issues. She is the author of many publications on child welfare, http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/bartholet/pubs.php, including two books, NOBODY’S CHILDREN: ABUSE AND NEGLECT, FOSTER DRIFT, AND THE ADOPTION ALTERNATIVE (Beacon Press, 1999) and FAMILY BONDS: ADOPTION, INFERTILITY, AND THE NEW WORLD OF CHILD PRODUCTION (Beacon Press, 1999), and FAMILY BONDS: ADOPTION, INFERTILITY, AND THE NEW WORLD OF CHILD PRODUCTION (Beacon Press, 1999). Bartholet earned a B.A. degree from Radcliffe College and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School.
Representative Publications
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Elizabeth Bartholet, Homeschooling: Parent Rights Absolutism vs. Child Rights to Education & Protection, 62 Ariz. L. Rev. 1 (2020). -
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Elizabeth Bartholet, Differential Response: A Dangerous Experiment in Child Welfare, 42 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 573 (2015). -
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Elizabeth Bartholet, International Adoption: The Human Rights Position, 1 Global Pol'y 91 (2010). -
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Elizabeth Bartholet, Nobody's Children: Abuse and Neglect, Foster Drift, and the Adoption Alternative (Beacon Press 1999). - Sean Hughes, Naomi Schaefer Riley, Marie Cohen et al., Why Foster Children Are Sleeping in Offices and What We Can Do About It (2023).