A comparative scholar beyond compare Professor Arthur T. von Mehren ’45, a world-renowned scholar in international and comparative law whose work influenced generations of lawyers throughout the globe, died Jan. 16 of pneumonia. He was 83. Fluent in several languages, von Mehren had studied extensively abroad. He was the author of 10 books and hundreds […]
Scott Worden ’00 tackled legal challenges in historic elections in Afghanistan
HLS students learn the lessons of Nuremberg in Cambridge, Arusha and The Hague.
When Navi Pillay LL.M. ’82 S.J.D. ’88 was growing up in South Africa, there was no international court in which apartheid could be prosecuted as a crime against humanity. Now there is–and she’s on it.
As the marshal shouted “Let justice be done,” Peter von Hagenbach was beheaded in 1474, after being tried and convicted by the first international criminal tribunal. Created by the Archduke of Austria, the tribunal consisted of 28 judges from different states in the Holy Roman Empire. Von Hagenbach, appointed governor by Charles the Bold, Duke […]
The following essay by Professor Alan Dershowitz, What Kind Of Justice Will Alito Be?, appeared in Forbes on January 13, 2006: Almost all justices vote almost all of the time in accordance with their own personal, political and religious views. That is the reality, especially on the Supreme Court, where precedent is not as binding, and where cases are less determined by specific facts than by broad principles.
Professor Mary Ann Glendon writes: At first glance, it is hard to see why these side-glances at what other countries do have provoked such alarm. True, the references have increased somewhat, but they remain rare, and no one suggests that the court has directly based any of its interpretations of the Constitution on foreign authority.
The following op-ed by Professor Alan Dershowitz, This time, peace may be real thing, originally appeared in the Chicago Tribune on September 9, 2005: There have been many false starts in establishing a two-state solution to the Arab-Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but this time all the basic elements appear to be in place.
As a renowned international attorney and a Holocaust survivor, Samuel Pisar LL.M. ’55 S.J.D. ’59 has experienced mankind’s capacity for genius and madness. His survival was a triumph of human spirit. His advocacy for peaceful coexistence is a message from one who has lived through hell on earth.
Harvard-trained negotiators are working hard on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, in which everyone seems to know where they want to go but no one knows quite how to get there.
