Opinion
In seven days, the European Union will take a big step forward. After a painful process that overshadowed European policy debates for years, the Lisbon Treaty, intended to overhaul the Union's institutional infrastructure, will most likely be ratified by Vaclav Klaus, the Czech Republic's Euroskeptic president, at the EU summit in Brussels. In so doing, the Lisbon Treaty will enter into force on January 1, 2010, despite a proliferation of myths on its contents. It is time to dispel some of these myths and to clarify its main points.
News
Law school audiences packed the lectures of two Harvard psychologists who presented their research at the law school this September. Both talks, sponsored by the new Student Association for Law and Mind Sciences (SALMS), raised intriguing questions about the way our psychological intuitions are formalized in the law.
Opinion
Instead of pleading for donations to beef up financial aid, the Law School could ease its financial strain on students without reducing the quality of the J.D. degree. One way would be to drop the third year, or postpone it to mid-career.
News
The word refusenik was first used as a term for Eastern Bloc Jews who were denied permission to emigrate. Over time, it has morphed into a term for any protester – including Netta Mishly. Netta is one of the shministim, literally "twelfth graders" – a term given to Israeli youth who have refused to perform required military service out of moral conviction. During a recent event sponsored by Harvard Law School's Justice for Palestine group, she shared her reasons for taking a stand.
Opinion
On September 28, thousands of Guinean citizens gathered in the national football stadium in their country's capital, Conakry, to voice their protest against the country's de facto leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara. They were met by a military that did not hesitate to open fire on them, nor to loot and rape during the ensuing chaos. The appalling toll of this short but brutal repression is estimated at 157 killed and 1250 wounded.
Opinion
Record Sports Editor MARK SAMBURG refused to give a postseason forecast in our last issue out of a deep conviction that the Red?Sox would be eliminated in the first round by the Angels. This article was held for publication after the Sox elimination from the playoffs.
Opinion
Recently returned from a year abroad in the other Cambridge — the limey one — Record editrix JESSICA CORSI brings anthropological insight to bear on the perplexing question of just why J.D. students seem so unfun — and why, despite studying in the same environment, LL.Ms. have them beat.
News
The announcement elicited audible gasps from the audience in Oslo, and visible gapes on faces worldwide. The White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, whose job is to react to such developments, was rendered practically speechless (the word "wow" was all he managed to emit, to one reporter). For many, the initial shock was followed by an immediate and obvious question: why? Scarcely a year into his presidency, Barack Obama '91 had won one of the most coveted awards on earth: the Nobel Peace Prize, and the fact that the prize committee seemed to place more weight on the direction of his policies than his actual achievements thus far left many scratching their heads.
News
The race to occupy the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat is in full swing. With the state now represented by one Harvard Law School alumnus, interim Senator Paul G. Kirk '64, another, Alan Khazei '87, has joined several prominent locals who are now competing in a hard-fought race leading up to the election of a permanent replacement.
News
Charged with closing out the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), experienced prosecutor Serge Brammertz must finish current trials and locate remaining fugitives. Brammertz enumerated some of the Tribunal's difficulties, saying that "no one expected [the tribunal] to last for 15, 20 years".
Opinion
Attention all 1Ls: Professor Einer Elhauge shares his suggestions for success in law school, in convenient top ten countdown form!
Opinion
At the Pittsburgh meeting of the Group of 20, or G20, President Obama announced that the more legitimate informal gathering of 20 states would replace the smaller, and more elite, the G8 as the world's premier forum for discussion on issues such as climate change, global financial stability and finding responses to systemic imbalances. G is probably the most important letter in international relations, as it is used to describe a rich variety of unofficial political constellations with political clout disproportionate to their legitimacy.