News
What appeared to be a surprising surge in the popularity – and electability – of Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley's Republican challenger, Scott Brown, has thrown the Coakley campaign into disarray. A poll showed Coakley's lead trimmed to 9%. Subsequent polls have confirmed gains for Brown, but differ over whether they are much larger or smaller than those reported by Rasmussen. Suddenly, the Coakley campaign has found itself under attack for not going on the offensive since the Attorney General's primary victory, resting on its laurels for a presumed victory in the last round of the special election, which is scheduled for January 19th.
Opinion
On behalf of my Muslim colleagues and other Nigerians here at Harvard, I strongly condemn this attempted act of terrorism as a heinous and callous crime which does not in any way represent the character of Islam or Nigerian values of peace and harmonious coexistence. I also strongly urge all peace-loving Nigerians and Muslims to join me in condemning this barbarous act.
News
Dean Martha Minow took the helm of Harvard Law School at a time when a dwindling endowment and university-wide budget cuts have forced the school to employ cost-cutting measures. Still, during her first months as dean, Minow has faced these challenges head on and has worked to address student concerns and create new programs tailored to meet student needs that have arisen as a result of the economic downturn.
News
Despite polls that showed a tightening race in the final week of November, Massachusetts Democrats on December 8 overwhelmingly selected state Attorney General Martha Coakley as their candidate for the U.S. Senate seat that opened with the passing of former Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Coakley will go on to face Republican challenger Scott Brown in the special election to be held on January 19. For many, however, it seems unlikely that a Republican senator could be elected, making Coakley all but the presumptive senator.
News
Should prostitution remain a crime? On Monday, November 16, 2009, four panelists, Professor Samantha Majic, Dr. Melissa Farley, Ms. Vednita Carter, and Dr. Elizabeth Wood, gathered to reframe the issue in their own terms. The eager audience included Harvard law and government students, members of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island task forces against human trafficking, and professors from several schools.
News
Christina Hoff Sommers is a feminist who believes the women's movement has taken "a wrong turn," and she is willing to court controversy to say so. On October 28, Hoff Sommers discussed "conservative feminism" in the Ames Courtroom.
Opinion
The campaign for increased access to drugs developed by universities scored a significant victory when Harvard and five other research universities signed a statement of principles pledging to "promote the availability of health-related technologies in developing countries for essential medical care." The policy represents an important step forward for Harvard, which is both a research powerhouse for diseases such as AIDS and malaria, as well as a leader in the global technology access movement. However, the policy does not go far enough in several important ways.
News
The most important lesson of the Obama presidential campaign, according to former Governor Michael Dukakis ‘60, is that successful campaigns are founded upon organizations that employ the grassroots power of direct person-to-person contact.
News
Addressing a room full of HLS students, Nesson explained his motivations and methods in the defense of accused musical pirate Joel Tenenbaum for the innocuous downloading of thirty mp3's. When the case first came to his attention, Nesson knew that there was little chance of victory on the merits, with the only truly viable strategy at trial being the minimization of damages.
Opinion
This winter, the global telecommunications sector is active as never before. On November 24, Europe voted on its new Telecoms Package, a set of Directives that will serve as Europe's future network policy. The U.S. is revising its own broadband policy at the same time. This fortunate conjuncture of regulatory overhauls both provides a clear vista of where we are heading to in terms of telecommunications, and highlights important differences between the U.S. and Europe, offering lessons, examples and alternatives to both sides of the Atlantic.
News
How difficult should it be for employees to form a union? The proposed amendments to federal law embodied in the Employee Free Choice Act would remove some of the hurdles that have historically stood between organizers and collective bargaining. But experts are divided on the question of whether the increased power to unionize would actually reflect the autonomous choices of employees or if the Act's proposed changes would simply increase the coercive power of unions.
Opinion
The recent encouraging news of the arrest in Germany of two of Rwanda's suspected criminals, Ignace Murwanashyaka and Straton Musoni, overshadowed the latest development in the appeal chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). On November 16, the tribunal reversed a 20 year prison sentence and ordered the immediate release of Protais Zigiranyirazo ("Mr. Z"). Based on a finding of ‘serious errors' in the first chamber's handling of the defendant's alibi, the decision immediately sparked a wave of protest and consternation in Rwanda and the Rwandan diaspora.