2020 in pictures
A look back at the year at HLS.
An Election for the History Books?
Harvard professors place the 2020 presidential race in historical context and consider its impact on our future.
Charles Fried addresses Trump administration’s ‘contempt for the rule of law’
Harvard Law Professor Charles Fried, who served as solicitor general under President Ronald Reagan, joined 21 other conservative or libertarian attorneys in a statement condemning inspector general Michael Atkinson’s ouster as part of a “continuous assault on the rule of law.”
Restricting civil liberties amid the COVID-19 pandemic
As federal and state governments take measures to curtail public activity during the COVID-19 outbreak, Charles Fried and Nancy Gertner agree that the restriction on individual freedom is largely appropriate for the circumstance.
Who needs foreign law?
The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia ’60 believed America had much to learn from laws adopted by nations abroad, according to Harvard Law School Professor Mary Ann Glendon. In an address titled “Who Needs Foreign Law?,” Glendon, the Learned Hand Professor of Law, gave a clear, if somewhat surprising, answer: Scalia did.
Experts explore the thorny legal and political implications of trying to unseat Trump
Harvard faculty explore the thorny legal and political implications of trying to unseat Trump, and whether it will matter in the end if it reaches the Republican-controlled Senate.
Collaboration zone
Library event provides unique opportunity for faculty-student interaction.
Video: Sovereignty and the New Executive Authority
The Harvard Law School Library recently hosted Claire Finkelstein, professor of law and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, for a discussion on “Sovereignty and the New Executive Authority,” a volume of essays exploring the growing struggle to maintain the legal and ethical boundaries surrounding executive authority in the post- 9/11 United States.
Europe’s Culture Crisis
Europe’s crisis—the challenges to liberal democracy across the continent, the rise of right-wing nationalist parties, the backlash against the European Union—isn’t a rebellion of economic have-nots, according to former HLS professor Joseph Weiler, who delivered the Herbert W. Vaughan Memorial Lecture, “The European Culture War 2003-2019,” on Feb. 6.
Judges and their toughest cases
“Tough Cases,” a new book in which 13 trial judges from criminal, civil, probate, and family courts write candid and poignant firsthand accounts of the trials they can’t forget, was the subject of a lively discussion at a panel sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library, which drew a packed house at Wasserstein Hall in October.