Opinion
I used to tell people that if they were ever lacking in self-confidence, they should apply for a tenure-track position in a philosophy department somewhere. In return, you get what amounts to a mail-away self-esteem kit: a letter praising your accomplishments, expressing astonishment at your charm and sophistication, and assuring you that you will be a great success wherever you ultimately gain employment. It's extraordinarily fulfilling to hear your praises sung by people of such power and influence, in particular if you have no interest in taking a crucial step towards adulthood. Only, again, you know – they don't want to actually hire you. It isn't an experience I expected to repeat when I enrolled at Harvard Law School.
Opinion
Most people focus on Iran's alleged ambition to join the exclusive club of nuclear weapons nations as a grave security threat. Whether or not Iran actually aspires to acquire nuclear capability is debatable, but what is certain is that examining the nuclear program in isolation of the political landscape within Iran and the broader strategic environment in the Middle East is a fatal mistake. The problem with Iran is more complex than a clandestine nuclear program or the enrichment of uranium; the problem is what Iran stands for and represents: a religious response to the problem of governance in the Middle East.
News
Emboldened by the victory of Scott Brown, Republicans across the country are preparing challenges against Democratic incumbents in the 2010 midterm elections. But before Ted Kennedy's passing opened the field in Massachusetts, recent Harvard Law School grad Joel Pollak '09 had already thrown his hat in the ring in northern Illinois. Now that Pollak has secured the Republican nomination in the Ninth District, he will be taking on incumbent Janice Schakowsky in the general election this year, and he sees it as the first serious contest his home district has seen in a generation.
Opinion
Zinn celebrates democracy, albeit a version of American democracy that deeply emphasizes extraparliamentary and extraconstitutional movement as the engine of meaningful change. His stance raises questions about the extent to which he would continue to embrace these ideas today. The increasing noise made by the Tea Party movement is a reminder that plenty of "people's movements" never made it into Zinn's history – those that didn't fit his ideological valence. Radical libertarians and religious fundamentalists have also had a significant – if sometimes frighteningly destabilizing – influence on American history. As much justice resulted from the courageous acts of many individuals Zinn celebrates, the rule of law can be bent both ways.
News
What was once an obscure idea hidden in the introduction to an edited volume of scholarly work burst onto the political scene last fall, when the Senate held confirmation hearings for Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein '78, nominated to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). Opponents on both the left and the right scoured the prolific scholar's writing for ammunition, including a proposal to give animals legal standing to appear in court. A variant of that idea has proven somewhat less controversial in Switzerland, however, where a proposal to initiate criminal prosecutions on behalf of animal victims is going before voters in a referendum.
News
When Google unveiled its new Buzz social network for GMail users last week, many were perturbed by the fact that the service automatically created networks out of their email contacts. In many cases, these ad hoc networks exposed correspondence that users would have rather kept private. Now, a Harvard Law School student is bringing a massive class action lawsuit against the internet company, claiming that it severely compromised her and others' privacy.
News
Phoenix, the fastest growing major city in the country, with a population of over 1.7 million, has just surpassed Philadelphia to become the fifth largest metropolis in the nation. But this rising star in the Southwest has an estimated 300,000 undocumented immigrant residents, leading to a rising xenophobic discontent among local residents and increasing burdens on law enforcement, especially due to the organized crime operations smuggling immigrants across the border.
Opinion
In 2010, the European Convention on Human Rights will celebrate its 60th anniversary. One might think this is a reason to celebate, but for Thorbjørn Jagland, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, the Convention's institutional mother, it's not. In December 2009, he warned that the European Court of Human Rights, which oversees compliance with the Convention, was in a "desperate situation" and "no longer able to function as it should". Still, there are silver linings to the clouds that Secretary General Jagland saw during a year when the Court should be celebrating.
Opinion
Forest Gump's mother famously said that life was like a box of chocolates: "You never know what you're gonna get." The same holds true for international law. Taking the box of chocolate und accepting "what you're gonna get", independent of whether you like the particular praline, is what international law is all about. Since the famous Peace of Westphalia of 1648, which brought along the emergence of today's international legal system, states have taken the box and eaten both the bitter chocolate (i.e., they have accepted their obligations and changed their behavior accordingly) and the nougat (when they have enjoyed the international legal rules that reaffirmed their interests).
News
Last month, the Supreme Court authored 183 pages of opinions in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, fomenting the ire of Congress, President Barack Obama '91, and the legal community. Expressing their own disappointment with the decision, for two profoundly different reasons, were Professor Larry Lessig, director of the Safra Foundation for Ethics, and attorney Jeff Clements, who authored an amicus brief in support of the lower court's decision. The two offered their independent critiques at a panel last week hosted by Harvard's chapter of the American Constitution Society.
Opinion
Into this evolving and deeply problematical world, Ralph Nader '58 released his interesting new book, Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us! (Seven Stories Press). This novel combines real-world politik with an imaginative story—a fantasy of what could happen if 17 of the nation's wealthiest and most influential persons combined to move the needle back toward the middle, accomplishing political reform and economic restructuring. Can such a group transform our long-term future and diffuse interests (the environment, our children and our legacy) by expanding their secondary, public relations "fig leaf" roles into actual, real-world influence?
Opinion
Citizens United v. FEC is the kind of opinion that deserves fierce and decisive condemnation by the American public. Indifferent to the threat of unrestrained economic power, and wedded to a rhetoric of corporate personhood that only seems plausible in the realm of disorienting metaphor, it preaches a vision of free speech that most Americans have rejected for over a century. Judicially rewiring the First Amendment into an efficient convertor of economic might to political influence, Justice Anthony Kennedy '61 et al. rewrote a major swath of constitutional law in answer to a question posed only by the majority to itself. As a result, our First Amendment will spend the foreseeable future frozen in irony – a status born of the role it now plays in gutting the very right it exists to champion.