Harvard Law Record, V. 129 N. 4, October 22, 2009

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OBAMA’S N O B E L October 22, 2009

After Being Shocked, Awed, World Wonders: Why?

BY CHRIS SZABLA

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. The committee justified itself by citing the award's mission, and precedent: it is to be given to an individual whose efforts bring the world in the direction of peace. In 1971, it recognized such efforts in the policy of Eastern Bloc engagement, or Ostpolitik, pursued by West German ChancelNobel, continued on pg. 2

HLS Students From Around the World React

The Record asked HLS students to submit their views on President Obama’s Nobel Prize and convened a forum on Tuesday, Oct. 20 for submitters to voice their opinions in public. Our panel included views from LL.M.s Mohammed S. Helal of Egypt, Alfonso Lamadrid de Pablo of Spain, and Matthias C. Kettemann of Austria, and was introduced by Record CoEditor-in-Chief Matthew Hutchins. During the discussion, speakers elaborated on their written opinions, which appear on page three of this issue, with a comment by Prof. Charles Ogletree. A recording of the event will soon be available at hlrecord.org.

S P EC I A L C O M M EN T

History Shows Precedent, Prescience of Obama’s Prize

BY MATTHEW W. HUTCHINS

Each year a committee of Norwegians is convened to decide what person will receive the prize endowed by Alfred Nobel to recognize “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing

INSIDE

armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Past Nobel Peace Prize honorees have ranged from visionary leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Lech Wałęsa to tireless but less visible diplomats and negotiators like Ralph Bunche and Martti Ahtisaari as well as inspirational models of self-sac-

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rifice like Mother Teresa and Albert Schweitzer. Although there have been strongly critical reactions to selections like Henry Kissinger and Yasser Arafat, the high esteem in which most honorees are held has prompted a world full of watchers to wait each year to learn the next name lifted into the pantheon of humanity's

Comment, cont’d on pg. 2

Harvard Out of Flu Vaccine

Vol. CXXIX, No. 4

HLS’ Largest Donors Dead

CASPERSEN AND WASSERSTEIN TO BE MEMORIALIZED BY N.W. CORNER COMPLEX

BY MATTHEW W. HUTCHINS

Finn Caspersen Took Own Life Under Mysterious Circumstances “YOU NEVER GET TO PERFECTION.”

What could an heir to a billion dollar fortune, privileged with an education at Harvard Law School, want most in life? For Finn M.W. Caspersen ’66, heir to the chairmanship of Beneficial Corporation, philanthropy was one of the most rewarding pursuits available in a life of wealth and success. After the sale of Beneficial to Household International in 1998 for approximately $9 billion, Caspersen managed a private investment fund, Knickerbocker Management, overseeing the assets of trusts and foundations. Outside of his business life, Caspersen was a selfless contributor to the success of HLS, including the largest donation for the Northwest Corner Project, his chairmanship of the Dean’s Advisory Board, and chairmanship of the “Setting the Standard” campaign, which raised a phenomenal total of $476,475,707 for HLS. According to Louis Kaplow ’81, the Finn M.W. Caspersen and Household International Professor of Law and Economics, contributing to HLS provided Caspersen with great personal satisfaction. “I tried to personally thank him, but he was not an easy person to thank. He seemed not interested, personally, in having praise bestowed upon himself, and much more interested in participating in the development of the law school as a continuing enterprise.” Caspersen was tireless in his efforts to generate contributions to the law school. In an interview with the Harvard Law Bulletin after the conclusion of the “Setting the Standard” Campaign, Caspersen said, “You always have to do more. You never get to perfection.” It may remain a perpetual mystery why a man who appeared to have everything – wealth, a family, social notoriety, and a generous philanthropic nature – would decide to end it all. The New York Times has indicated that Caspersen may have been the subject of a Federal investigation. Whatever information comes to light in the future, the impact of Caspersen’s contributions to the law school will secure the ability of HLS to continue setting the standard for legal education into the twenty-first century.

On Wednesday morning, Harvard Law School awoke to the news that the clinic scheduled that day to administer the seasonal flu vaccine would be cancelled due to lack of adequate Bruce Wasserstein Went From Nader vaccine supplies. A later e-mail further stated that all Harvard Acolyte to Wall Street Legend University flu clinics had been cancelled due to the shortage. According to University Health Services, over 15,000 vaccines “CITIZEN WASSERSTEIN” have been administered in the last month and a half, prompting UHS to close its seasonal clinics early even though a larger supDescribed by his colleagues as ply had been ordered than in previous years. a prodigy, Bruce Wasserstein ’70 UHS will be proceeding with scheduled clinics in underentered Harvard University as a graduate dining halls, but has encountered difficulty in receivjoint J.D./M.B.A. student at the ing its final shipment of an additional 1600 doses that were young age of 19, and once armed needed for the other clinics around campus. UHS advises stuwith an education in business and dents seeking vaccination to contact local pharmacies. law, he took Wall Street by storm, Although the supply of seasonal flu vaccine has been dequickly rising from a start at Crapleted, UHS anticipates providing H1N1 vaccines once a sup- vath, Swaine & Moore to a management role at First Boston Donors, continued on pg. 2 ply becomes available. UHS has said that it will conduct the vaccination for H1N1 according to “guidelines established by NEW! A BIGGER, BETTER HLRECORD.ORG public health authorities to prioritize distribution.”

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O B A M A’ S N O B E L Harvard Law Record

Nobel, continued from pg. 1 lor Willy Brandt. In 1990, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to right the course of Obama's policies by persuading the was given the prize for his policy of greater social and polit- president to turn away from domestic political preoccupations and focus on achieving results on matters of global conical openness, perestroika, in much the same spirit. Yet former President Jimmy Carter's efforts to bring about cern. While some point to the contrast between the award the Camp David accords went unrecognized until 2002, after and Obama's potential escalation of the increasingly deadly the peace he helped negotiate between Egypt and Israel was war in Afghanistan, the committee might have, in effect, been recognized as a durable one. Dissenters have pointed to for- forcing the juxtaposition with its announcement - forcing mer President Bill Clinton's tireless efforts to bring about a Obama to rethink his strategy there. Mideast peace, in contrast to Obama's mere rhetoric, and Previous recipients of the award have led countries into Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's coura- conflicts, however: critics of the award often cite the time geous stand against the monopoly on power held by that Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho shared the prize for what country's longtime president, Robert Mugabe. The "snub" turned out to be a short-lived peace in Vietnam, and Israeli against Tsvangirai Prime Minister was one of the most Menachem Begin commented-on for signing Obama will be the second HLS alum to accept the won items on Twitter in the Camp David the hours after the Prize. David A. Morse ’32 accepted it on behalf of accords with announcement that Egypt, before the International Labor Organization in 1969. Obama had won promoting the the prize. construction of Comment has Israeli settlements also focused on the effect the award might have on Obama's in Palestinian territories and involving his country in the political priorities. Critics believe it is likely to intensify crit- Lebanese civil war of the 1980s. icism that the President has achieved little in the way of acWhatever the award's implications or consequences, it retual foreign policy success, despite his lofty initiatives. His mains a tremendous achievement for the young president, persuading the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution whose life has been marked by early triumphs and firsts. The on the reduction of nuclear weapons has been a rare success first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review in a year when multilateral overtures have failed to result in and the first black President, he is now the second Harvard much coordinated action on the financial crisis or other Law School alumnus to win the award, and the first to be pressing global issues, such as climate change. able to claim it as his own right (David A. Morse '32 accepted Obama has also been slow to change direction on many the award on behalf of the International Labor Organization policies initiated by his predecessor, George W. Bush, a in 1969). He will now be the third sitting U.S. President to pledge many have pointed to as the primary motivation for win the award, after Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilthe award. His January pledge to close the controversial de- son, and, with Carter, the fourth President to receive it. tention facility at Guantanamo Bay, for example, remains unClearly surprised himself, the President brushed off any fulfilled. Obama has also reportedly sparred with his speculation he would not accept the award some have called Attorney General, Eric Holder, over prosecution of U.S. of- "premature" during a Rose Garden press conference. “I am ficials involved in torture. honored and humbled," he said. “I will accept this award as But the Nobel might also be an intervention – an attempt a call to action”.

Donors, continued from pg. 1

and the establishment of the mergers and acquisitions boutique, Wasserstein Perella Group. Over his several decades on Wall Street, Wasserstein made history through his coordination of blockbuster mergers like the acquisition of RJR Nabisco by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., the acquisition of Warner Bros. by Time, Inc., and the merger of AOL and Time Warner in 2000. After the sale of Wasserstein Perella & Co., Wasserstein became the head of Lazard Ltd., where he organized the investment bank’s 2005 IPO and where the Wall Street Journal reports he was recently engaged in the bid by Kraft for Cadbury Plc. Despite his phenomenal success on Wall Street, Wasserstein’s beginnings as a law student were characterized by a passion for civil liberties. Mark J. Green ’70, who ran against Wasserstein to be the head of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, remembers a quiet genius who “basically brained his way to success”. Green, who has had a long career in public advocacy, has written twenty-two books, and was the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York in the 2001 election against Michael Bloomberg, was a lifelong friend of Wasserstein. “Looking back, I guess it was impossible to know that this fellow law student, who I would eat with at Harkness 42 years ago, would end up the leading investment banker of his era and one of the leading donors to HLS ever,” said Green in an interview with the Record. “It wasn’t pedigree or GQ looks, or a Clintonian public personality. He added value, big time, to his clients and his friends.” When Green won the place as editor-in-chief at CR-CL, he made Wasserstein his managing editor, a partnership which would continue in their work for Ralph Nader ’58. Together they authored the book With Justice for Some: An Indictment of the Law by Young Advocates and worked together on “Closed Enterprise System”, a critical view of antitrust enforcement. “He was always the smartest guy in the room,” said Green. “But by and large he was calm and quiet, so when he spoke, people listened.” Nader remembers Wasserstein as a bright, ambitious man with a dream of being Chairman of the SEC, but whose business responsibilities precluded such a career. “If he had been Chairman ten years ago, we might not have had some of this trouble,” said Nader in an interview for the Harvard Law Record.

As a philanthropist, Wasserstein was a generous man, having recently made a major donation to HLS of $25 million for the construction of the Northwest Corner complex. But Green remembers him for both his generosity and his loyalty. “If he took you into his orbit of confidence at a personal level, a company level, or an educational level, he stuck with you in good times and bad.” In Green’s campaign to become mayor of New York, Wasserstein acted as his campaign finance manager, and though Green had a history as a populist consumer advocate, Wasserstein was able to convince his Wall Street colleagues to support his campaign. In a remembrance published to Bloomberg.com on October 20th, Green said that even after his defeat in the 2001 mayoral election he received encouragement from Wasserstein to “run for governor”. “The understanding was that I shouldn’t advise him on business, but he could counsel me on government.” In addition to his investment banking activity, Wasserstein carried an interest in writing throughout his life, which Green described in his Bloomberg.com remembrance, analogizing Wasserstein to Charles Foster Kane. From his early experience as editor-in-chief at the Michigan Daily, as managing editor at the Harvard CR-CL Law Review, and his work with Green and Nader, Wasserstein returned to publishing as an owner by purchasing American Lawyer and New York Magazine, partly with the goal of improving publication quality. “All his deals and billions notwithstanding, Wasserstein’s ‘rosebud’ was journalism,” said Green. With his untimely passage the HLS community can only imagine the accomplishments that may have been yet to come. Nader looks back with certainty that the community has lost one of its most valuable citizens. “Bruce Wasserstein is heralded as a brilliant investment banker and financier who avoided the egregious excesses of his speculative competitors. What is not known is his philanthropy, which was accelerating into imaginative dimensions. Philanthropically, it can be said that the best of his past would have been the least of his future, so tragically cut short.” Despite its early end, Wasserstein’s life will be remembered, in Wall Street and New York for his legendary business acumen, and at Harvard Law School for his generous contribution to the construction of the Northwest Corner.

October 22, 2009

S PECI A L

C OMMENT

Comment, cont’d from pg. 1

greatest peacemakers. The selection of President Barack Obama ’91 as this year's Peace Prize recipient was an incredible surprise and a notable event in the history of the Prize in being only the third time a sitting U.S. President has been so honored. Even the President himself was surprised by his receipt of the prize, reportedly not even aware that he had even been nominated. The shock of the news left commentators and the public disoriented, and as the novelty of the idea faded, the diversity of reactions to the President's Nobel became crystalized in opinions with little correspondence to individual political alignment. Arch-conservatives certainly did not hesitate to co-opt this latest honor as a new focal point around which to concentrate their perpetual campaign against the President, asking the question, “What has Obama done to deserve this Prize?” and deriding it as a political maneuver by a cadre of socialist Europeans who are more enamored with Obama than his own American supporters. On the other side of the aisle, many praised the Prize as a stamp of international approval on a drastically redesigned American foreign policy and vision of the nation within the world community. Talk, they said, is no small thing when it moves the world to forgive past failings and unite once again behind the U.S. banner. But many of the voices criticizing the Nobel committee's selection came from supporters of the President, with a common chorus soon becoming, “Too much, too soon.” As the present controversy fades into historical evaluation, President Obama will be compared to other laureates not for the actions of his first one hundred days but for the lasting impact of his term in office, but even from the moment of its announcement, the history of the prize reveals a range of figures into which the President already fits as a rising leader of efforts at international cooperation and the limitation of the weapons of war. To the rue of many Republicans, the conditions for Obama's success were made abundantly possible by the policies of his predecesor, George W. Bush, but this should in no way diminish the significance of actions that have changed the international tide of hostility against America which was rising throughout the Bush era. The Nobel committee has given us cause to consider that the President has thus far demonstrated a new vision of international cooperation, a new commitment to multilateralism, and a nuanced understanding of the give and take that is necessary to coax his counterparts to depart from the inherently stubborn and vindictive behavior of national leaders and humans in general. From the moment he took office, the President expressed a desire to end the widely criticized conduct of the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, he began the acceleration of the draw down of Comment, cont’d on pg. 11

O B A M A’ S N O B E L

October 22, 2009

Harvard Law Record

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R E A C T I O N S

The Record asked members of the Harvard Law School community to submit short reactions to President Obama’s reception of the Nobel Peace Prize in advance of our special forum on the issue. We have published them all, below.

A Triumphant Moment in History

BY PROF. CHARLES J. OGLETREE, JR.

I was surprised and pleased to learn that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize. His humility and deference in receiving an award that has been presented to such luminaries as Mother Teresa, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela, among others, illustrates both his uncanny ability to focus not on awards but actual progress, and a commitment to work tirelessly to establish a safer and more collaborative world. His aspirations to close Guantanamo, negotiate peace in the Middle East, talk with leaders of other countries even when we have massive differences in priorities and objectives, demonstrates his firm commitment to continue working around the clock so that, in time, we will all see what the Nobel Prize committee saw in honoring him now. The expected criticism, because he is so new in office, also ignores the almost immediate transformation of global excitement concerning his election alone and it reinforces a global commitment to end all forms of conflict and unite in a collaborative effort to pursue world peace. It is hard to imagine anyone else with such a broad and deep commitment, and the same Barack Obama who changed history here at Harvard Law School two decades ago by being elected the first African American to be the President of the Harvard Law Review, is committed to doing the same on the world stage. I applaud him and Michelle Obama ’88 for their commitment to public service. It is a triumphant moment in Harvard Law School's history. Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. ’78 is the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at HLS and founder of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice.

Obama’s Prize Money: Five Ideas

BY MATTHIAS C. KETTEMANN

Harvard should be proud. Its graduate, President Barack Obama is the first statesman to prophylactically receive the Nobel Peace Prize (the most recent president to be strongly associated with Yale, George W. Bush, is rather unlikely to receive any Nobel Prize in the immediate future). Unfortunately, this adds another issue to the President’s to-do-list: (1) reform health care; (2) make peace in the Middle East; and (3) decide what to do with the $1.4 million Nobel Prize money. Space does not allow me to sketch out my solution to the Middle East puzzle, and my European mind capitulates in face of the political flaying over Obama's health care plan, but I am happy to help with regard to the third issue. Mr. President, here's a list of five projects you could spend the money on:

1) $680,000 to bridging the digital divide between Internet-haves and havenots, by ensuring that developing states are better represented in the multi-stakeholder Internet Governance Forum in December in Egypt.

2) $680,000 to study the importance of “human security”, a new security concept that focuses on individuals and not on states, thereby providing new insights on how to combat sources of insecurity, including failing states and over-‘securitization’.

3) $30,000 for a study analyzing the effects of Harvard students’ air conditioner-induced colds and flus on the U.S. health system. 4) $9,000 to reintroduce warm breakfast in Harvard dining halls.

5) $1,000 to make sure Chauncy Street gets a bike path facing westwards.

Since this is settled, Mr. President, you can now channel your forces towards making peace in the Mideast and having Congress pass health care reform.

Matthias C. Kettemann is an LL.M. student from Austria.

CORRECTION:

Apologies to Profs. Elizabeth Warren and Allen Ferrell. Our front page caption last week failed to correctly identify them, and another caption mis -

spelled Prof. Ferrell’s name. See our Web .pdf for the correct captions.

Mohammed Helal, second from left, speaks during the Record’s forum on Pres. Obama’s Nobel Prize. From left to right: Record Co-Editor-in-Chief Matt Hutchins, Helal, Alfonso Lamadrid de Pablo, and Matthias Kettemann

Judge Deeds by Their Intentions

BY MOHAMMED S. HELAL

“Deeds are to be judged by their intentions”: this is an Arabic proverb that reflects an ancient adage that intentions are just as powerful as deeds, and that notwithstanding the fact that not all good intentions lead to fruition they are still worth recognition. The Nobel Peace Prize should not be considered an award to President Obama or for his limited achievements since taking office. Rather, it should be seen as an endorsement of a worldview. A vision of the world that realizes the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. not to judge a human being by the color of his skin, a vision where humanity does not live under the phantom of nuclear weapons, a view of a world where religions and cultures are reconciled and where diversity is celebrated, a global community that recognizes the dangers of environmental degradation and is ready to unite to confront it, and a policy that understands that the challenges of today are global and require global responses. As an Egyptian, Arab, African, Muslim and Mediterranean citizen of the world, I do not see this is as tribute to the American President, but to humanism, multiculturalism, multilateralism, international cooperation and to humility. Mohamed S. Helal is an LL.M. student from Egypt and a diplomat with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Powerful Light of Hope

BY ALFONSO LAMADRID DE PABLO

In the preface to her book Men in Dark Times (1968), Hannah Arendt wrote that “even in the darkest of times we have the right to expect some illumination, and that such illumination may well come less from theories and concepts than from the uncertain, flickering, and often weak light that some men and women, in their lives and their works, will kindle under almost all circumstances and shed over the time span that was given them on earth....” President Obama has shed a powerful light of hope upon the dark times in which we live. His accomplishments in the pursuit of peace can hardly be matched: he has inspired millions all over the planet; he has gained back the respect and leadership with which the United States can make a difference on the global stage; and he has set the world on a different path and shared spirit. Obama's Nobel Prize is an encouragement for all of us not to let this light dim. Alfonso Lamadrid de Pablo is an LL.M. student from Spain.

Look for a Podcast of our Nobel Forum! Coming Soon on hlrecord.org

Dissenting Opinion? EMAIL

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Harvard Law Record

Academics Address Continuing Legal Challenges Facing Abortion

BY KATE SPENCER

The Reproductive Rights and the Right to Information event at HLS on Friday, October 9 was held to educate and inform its audience on the current position of information in relation to reproductive rights in the U.S. Panelists discussed a number of current issues pertaining to the relationship between the law, its interpretation, medical providers and patients, touching on topics ranging from minors’ rights to bodily integrity to the state legislation that commands ultrasounds for women seeking a termination. Throughout, the focus was on abortion and its surrounding issues. Helena Silverstein spoke on the requirement of parental consent and her research into whether courts actually knew that the judicial bypass process actually required them to relent from asking for consent in certain situations. Unsurprisingly, many are completely ignorant of the procedure and minors are not provided with the services they are legally entitled to. Khiara Bridges, a Columbia Law School fellow, made an interesting comparison between the way the law regulated securities information, mandating “full and fair disclosure,” and the biased information women often receive when deciding on whether or not to undergo a termination. She maintained that women should not be exposed to merely one philosophical position on the fetus. South Dakota, she

said, where declaratory statements tell women that abortion terminates the life of a “whole, separate, unique, living, unborn human being,” is doing explicitly what mandatory ultrasounds and biased counselling do implicitly. Columbia Professor Carol Sanger expanded on the issue of mandatory ultrasounds, arguing that the measure was designed to transform “an abstraction into a baby” and gives a “visual construction of loss”. Professor Sanger suggested that the effect of the ultrasound, through the image itself and the entire experience, was to turn all pregnant women into “mothers-to-be” even if they were undecided on an abortion. A highlight at the event was the lunchtime talk by Reva Siegel, the Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor of Law at Yale and an extensive publisher on constitutional law meets reproductive rights. Entitled “Dignity and Decision-Making in the Abortion Debate,” the premise of her discussion was that women cannot be said to have “dignity” until they control their own reproductive processes. Siegel culminated with the observation that “dignity” can be construed as autonomy or “dignity” as equality and that U.S. case law suggests that meanings of dignity are plural and potentially shifting. The conference, which explored the current issues prevalent in adoption rights law, also provided insight into the academic and activist work ongoing in this area of women’s rights.

October 22, 2009

Amnesty Head Urges Human Rights Over Civil Rights in U.S.

Irene Khan LL.M. ’79, shown here addressing the World Economic Forum

BY JESSICA CORSI

As Congress continues to debate health care reform, and personal testimonials about unemployment, bankruptcy, debt, and homelessness remain at the forefront of American consciousness, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, Irene Khan LL.M. ’79, and that she had a message for the U.S.: ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Khan explained that the U.S. views human rights, like health care, as needs to be met by markets as opposed to legal entitlements possessed by all. This approach leads to inequality, she intoned, pointing to the U.S. experience, in which the rich can purchase the best health care in the world and the poor and many of the vast middle class face a diminished quality of life,

or death, because they are priced out. Turning a human rights lens on the health care issue, Khan continued, empowers people to claim their rights and holds governments accountable for organizing systems and markets in a way that fulfills these rights. Khan spoke at Harvard Law School during lunch on Monday, October 19, to a room comprised of students and of faculty and staff from Harvard’s broader human rights community. Over plates of salad and vegetarian lasagna, she explained her personal journey as a human rights lawyer and the growth and new direction of Amnesty International. She studied transnational law at HLS at a time when the Human Rights Program did not exist and when international human rights law as a field would be best described as nascent. Today, leading human rights organizations such as Amnesty, cont’d on pg. 11

Meeting of the Minds: Law Students Flock to Psych Lectures New Group Encourages Interest in Growing Interdisciplinary Work Combining Law, Mind Sciences

BY ANTHONY KAMMER

In a recent New York Times column, David Brooks described psychology as a field that was taking off among young people, who were interested in probing for more accurate answers to the mysteries of human behavior. That might help explain why audiences packed the lectures of two Harvard psychologists who presented their research at the law school this September. Both talks, sponsored by the Student Association for Law and Mind Sciences (SALMS), raised intriguing questions about the way our psychological intuitions are formalized in the law. On September 8th, Daniel Wegner, author of The Illusion of Conscious Will, presented several recent studies that examine the mechanism by which individuals come to identify their own and others’ behavior as intentional during his talk “Psychological Studies of the Guilty Mind.” Wegner’s experiments suggest that people involved in a common activity, such as using an ouija-board, are often unable to discern which actions they produced themselves and which were caused by someone else. He described several other studies in which people misidentify behaviors as their own. It has been shown in cases of facilitated communication, for example, in which a therapist helps an autistic patient type out answers to a question, that the messages communicated actually originate from the therapist and not the autistic patient, although the therapist reports no awareness that he or she actually produced the responses. This work suggests that while people feel as if they are the authors of their choices, this process is an evolved sensation and not the most

descriptively accurate account for our behaviors. On September 21st, Fiery Cushman, a newlyminted PhD recipient and post-doctoral fellow at Harvard’s Mind, Brain and Behavior Initiative, presented some of his recent research at an event titled “Outcome vs. Intent: Which Do We Punish, and Why?” Cushman’s work suggests that at a gut-level, people assess whether a behavior was morally right or wrong by looking at the actor’s intentions, but when assigning punishment, people are overwhelmingly interested in outcomes, even if an outcome was accidental. Cushman described several experiments where he was able to look at a participant’s intentions in isolation from the actual outcome of the participant’s actions. In one case, participants were given the choice of dice that would later be rolled to assign rewards to a second, receiving party. When given the opportunity, the recipient would consistently punish more often when the dice produced less favorable rewards, even if the initial participant intended to provide rewards generously. This work has interesting implications for tort law, explaining in part why findings of negligence lead to large compensatory rewards even in the absence of any intentional action. As this article went to press, SALMS was planning further events, including an October 22nd, discussion by Goutam Jois ’07 entitled “Stare Decisis is Cognitive Error”. Founded in the late spring of 2009, The Student Association for Law & Mind Sciences (SALMS) is the outgrowth of Professor Jon Hanson’s Ideology, Psychology and Law seminar course as well as his Project on Law and Mind Sciences. SALMS is the first student group at any law school merging law and

mind and sciences and is already working with students at other law schools to create similar organizations around the country. Its speaker series is intended to both introduce the legal community to relevant work in psychology and the related mind-sciences and to encourage mind scientists to explore the implications of their work for law and policy-making. In recent years, the number of law review articles citing to prominent mind sciences research has skyrocketed, and most top-tier law schools now offer courses emphasizing relevant insights from social psychology and related fields. In fact, the course descriptions of nine courses in the 2009-2010 HLS course catalog explicitly mention psychology. And in the wake of the recent financial crisis, economists and lawyers have turned increasingly to behavioral economics and social psychology to understand the underlying cognitive mechanisms that shape and influence our institutions. Psychology and neuroscience are increasingly informing and challenging some of the assumptions of the criminal justice system, and the mind science promise to help sharpen and clarify legal concepts. In addition to co-sponsoring events with other HLS student groups, SALMS has already begun to forge close relationships with organizations across the University, including graduate and undergraduate students affiliated with the Harvard Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative. The group is hoping to start a journal next fall to explore further interdisciplinary work in law and the mind sciences. It would be the first academic journal of its kind in the world.

October 22, 2009

Peacekeeper Provides Roadmap to Jobs at UN

BY REBECCA AGULE

American law students have long puzzled over access to one of the most coveted – yet elusive – public interest career paths: a post at the United Nations. The most recent guest of theBernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising’s Lunch Speaker Series, Kaoru Okuizumi, recently arrived at Harvard Law School to change that. Okuizumi is a Judicial Officer in the Criminal Law and Judicial Advisory Section (CLJAS) of the Department of Peace Keeping Operations (DPKO) at UN Headquarters. CLJAS contributes to the UN’s overall rule of law strategy, often by advising the DPKO on issues related to the judicial and corrections aspects of peacekeeping operations, many of which are conducted in the world’s most volatile areas. When analyzing and shaping policies to deal with justice from the perspective of peacekeeping operations, Ms. Okuizumi must consider the UN’s major mission, as well as the immediate goals and local legal structures and norms. A 1995 graduate of NYU Law School, Ms. Okuizumi provided those in attendance with general advice on working in international human rights, as well as information regarding some the less traditional means of gaining access to the UN. As a veteran of the United Nations system, she is well versed in the organization’s often mystifying practices and explained some of the various hiring streams. A short exchange between Ms. Okuizumi and several audience members underlined the complexity of the UN’s human resources system, which funnels applicants down several different avenues, depending on the agency or function in question. In addition to the traditional Galaxy staffing system, which recruits for the Secretariat, many of the specialized agencies handle hiring internally. Merely determining where to seek out positions or submit applications seems daunting, and the hurdles of the actual hiring process further exacerbate this unruly task. Impediments highlighted by audience members included positions that seemed too specified, strict experience requirements, and a lack of lower level positions. Okuizumi confirmed some of these difficulties, but recommended alternative points of entry, such as the UN Volunteers program, as means of entering the system for those who might not otherwise have UN connections. Okuizumi also made clear that the value of language skills should not be understated and suggested using time at a university to take such courses, especially French. She further remarked that one must be willing and able to function with little training or guidance. “It’s very much about learning on the job,” she said. Having worked for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a D.C.-based think tank, prior to law school, Okuizumi had already narrowed her focus to international human rights. It only took one split summer, divided between the International Human Rights Law Group (now known as Global Rights) and a law firm, to

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confirm her career path. Of her time with the firm, Okuizumi said, “I knew I didn’t want to do this!” Following completion of her J.D., Okuizumi went on to a Masters in Public Administration at the Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She found the policy degree quite useful as a means of balancing out her legal education, in terms of both theory and practical skill sets. “It’s not just about international law and human rights, but also policy and international affairs.” While at Princeton, she met Michael W. Doyle, a professor who had recently created a young professionals group to develop careers in peacekeeping operations. He asked Okuizumi to take part. This led to her first post-graduate position as a Human Rights Officer with the UN Transitional Authority in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES), where she worked on projects to promote the peaceful reintegration of the region into Croatia. Okuizumi acknowledged the roles played by fortune and chance in building her career. “I was very lucky, [and] feel very lucky still,” she said. The development of such relationships played an integral role in her career trajectory. “It’s a pretty small community, international human rights and criminal law,” she said. Okuizumi outlined the rather nomadic lifestyle of a UN employee. In explaining some of her frequent moves, Okuizumi said, “There aren’t that many opportunities within the UN, so when a position opens up...apply for it.” While some students seemed visibly dismayed by such frequent moves, others clearly relished the idea of swapping duty stations every 18 months to two years. After moving to Bosnia in 1998, Okuizumi worked with a group of judges and lawyers, both national and international, at the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Finding herself nostalgic for the UN, she transferred to the Human Rights Investigations Desk for the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH). Other duty stations included Sierra Leone, Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nepal. Having spent most of her career in the field, Okuizumi experienced the other side of the fence from 2000-2002, when she joined the Registry Legal Advisory Section of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Netherlands. While initially reluctant to leave the field, Okuizumi appreciated to opportunity afforded by her time at The Hague, where she negotiated sentence enforcement agreements with states parties; developed internal rules and regulations, and crafted policy relating to victims and witness protection. Married to a fellow UN employee, and now with a young child, Okuizumi expressed both the joys and frustrations inherent in her line of work. Her continued career seemed to suggest that the satisfactions outweigh the difficulties. One student in attendance – who asked to remain anonymous – was “amazed her marriage has lasted!”

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Sheol No, She Won’t Go Israeli Military Refusenik Speaks Out

BY CHRIS SZABLA

The term refusenik used to refer to 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 she group, shared her reasons for taking a stand. “I was happy and proud to be a future soldier,” Netta said, recounting her youth. At thirteen, however, she became politically active, joining a social democratic youth group, and volunteering during the elections of 2003. She said she moved between “all kinds of leftist organizations,” supported by the “bubble” of relatively safe Tel Aviv and parents who encouraged a critical mindset. Soon she was taking part in a more radical group, which led her, for the first time, to the West Bank. After that, she recalls, she “could not deny what was going on there.” She still had difficulty with the idea that she would not perform military service, considered by many in the country to be an unquestionable duty. “Even when I was against the occupation,” she notes, “I wanted to be patriotic and join the army like everyone else.” When she finally made the decision, questions from friends and colleagues were frequent. “I have to explain over and over again why I didn’t go. I feel I gave up my status, and my position on the inside,” she said. Her father accused her of pointing her finger at him, and she lost friends. Netta also faced legal consequences: in Israel, refusal of compulsory military service is a punishable offense. Netta spent less than a month in prison – other shministim spend up to three years. Trials for conscientious objectors are conducted by the military, since those whose draft numbers have been called up are considered already soldiers. The charge: “refusing an order”. When released, the shministim is told to join again, or face similar consequences – the process, Netta said, repeats itself until the refuser is

worn down. Those who do not finally go into the military are usually sent to see a psychiatrist, and released on grounds they are mentally unfit. The shministim are not the only Israelis who do not serve in the military when they are of draft age. Around 40% of Israelis are exempt from service for various reasons: they are Orthodox Jews, married women, the physically incapable. There is a panel that hears pleas of conscientious objection, but only one-fifth of those who apply are granted the status – and then only after interrogation an meant to test one’s aptitude for violence, inquiring after an applicant’s attitude toward family members suffering harm. Most fail the evaluation process when it emerges that a political belief motivates their desire to stay out of the Israel Defense Force, or IDF. Political beliefs weren’t the only factors motivating Netta’s decision to refuse to perform service. Women, she said, did not enjoy equal status in the IDF, pointing out that the vast majority of officers are men, and that the country’s first female pilot obtained her position through a fairly recent Supreme Court ruling. She performs alternative civil service now, on a voluntary basis. Not all who oppose Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian territories support the tactics of the shministim. One Israeli officer who came to view Netta’s discussion called out that he believed Israelis could do more good from within the military than without to change the occupation’s character. Netta disagreed, arguing that service changes people, even members of the radical youth groups she was part of, who come face-toface with a Palestinian population who she said was understandably predisposed to hostility toward Israeli soldiers. Netta concluded by observing that, beyond its effect on the lives of Palestinians, the occupation had turned Israel into a militaristic society: it was “not good that when I was 15 my school took me to a shooting range.” Overall, she believed that Israel “could be in a much better place than it is right now. Why in a normal world would an 18 year old have to sacrifice his life? Some are. Some are my friends, and I don’t want them to have to do that.”

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EStabLiShEd MCMXLVi Matthew W. Hutchins Chris Szabla Editors-in-Chief

Staff Editors News: Rebecca Agule Opinion: Jessica Corsi Sports: Mark Samburg Contributing Writers Mohammed S. Helal Anthony Kammer Matthias C. Kettemann Alfondo Lamadrid de Pablo Titus Lin Kathryn Legomsky Prof. Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. Jenny Paul Jean-Louis Romanet Perroux Kate Spencer Peter Wickham [email protected] or Harvard Law Record Harvard Law School Cambridge, MA 02138-9984

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Letters to the Editor Lockerbie Story “Sensational”

Your article (Kate Spencer, “Re-Examining Lockerbie,” October 8, p. 4) is quite sensational. It conatins the new fact that a Hiz[b]ollah t-shirt was found at Lockerbie. That has never to my knowledge come to light. Did you speak to Robert Baer during the writing of it, perchance[?] [Editors’ note - Baer is a former CIA agent who said there was evidence that 9/11 was an “inside job”.] Charles Norrie, brother of Tony, [who] died 19 Sept. 1989, [in] a genuine atrocity proved to be Libyan.

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Harvard Law Record

October 22, 2009

Lisbon Treaty Points Way to a New EU

More Democracy, More Efficiency, More Power in Store for Union in 2010

BY MATTHIAS C. KETTEMANN

me a personal letter written personally by [British Conservative Party leader David] Cameron from July which is suggesting [to hold out], but I cannot wait until the British election and I will not.” Provided they win, David Cameron’s Conservatives have vowed to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which would be a sure way of sinking it. But

Under the Lisbon treaty, the role of the European Parliament is strengthIn seven days, the European Union ened. The Parliament receives new will take a big step forward. After a powers over EU legislation, including painful process that overshadowed Euthe EU budget and international agreeropean policy debates for years, the Lisments. The so-called “co-decision probon Treaty, intended to overhaul the cedure” will make the Parliament an Union’s institutional infrastructure, will equal partner of the Council, representmost likely be ratified by Vaclav Klaus, ing Member States, for almost all of EU the Czech Republic’s Euroskeptic preslegislation. National parliaments will ident, at the EU also play a larger summit in Brusrole in EU decisels. Klaus is the sion-making last one to hold trough a new out. 26 of the 27 monitoring mechstates member anism to ensure have already ratisubsidiarity, or fied the treaty, the principle that some of them as the Union can far back as last only act when year. local action to with Faced solve a problem is enormous pressure insufficient. from other EU Through the “Citmember states, noizens’ Initiative”, tably from French one million citiPresident Nicolas zens from a cerSarkozy, the untain number of predictable Czech Member States leader indicated will be able to rehis willingness to quest the Comratify the Lisbon mission formulate Treaty, provided policy proposals. A BRIGHTER FUTURE? | After it being signed by the last holdout, Czech that the Czech ReThe Lisbon President Vaclav Klaus, the Lisbon Treaty appears set to make Europe stronger. public is allowed to Treaty also recPhoto: Flickr user Vlastula opt out of certain ognizes the right provisions, including the binding Fun- as it stands now, the Lisbon Treaty will of each Member State to withdraw unidamental Rights Charter (Slovakia’s enter into force on January 1, 2009, de- laterally from the Union. Prime Minister Robert Fico has also spite a proliferation of myths on its conImportantly, the Treaty of Lisbon taken up this idea). President Klaus ex- tents. It is time to dispel some of these gives binding force to the provisions of pressed his conviction that the treaty myths and to clarify its main points. the Charter of Fundamental Rights, was not “a good thing in Europe – for The Lisbon Treaty amends the cur- which includes innovative economic freedom in Europe and for the Czech rent EU and EC treaties, but does not and social rights provisions and covers Republic”. When asked by a Czech replace them. It aims primarily at pro- all EU actions, including member states newspaper whether political considera- viding a more democratic, transparent implementation legislation. tions had influenced his behavior, Klaus and effective decision-making frameThe treaty also provides for more efadmitted: “It is true that I have next to work. fective and efficient decision-making in Lisbon, continued on pg. 8

Should HLS Consider a Shorter, Less Expensive Law Degree?

Open reply letter to John F. and Lynn A. Saverese, both ’81 soliciting funds for supporting financial aid and scholarships at Harvard Law School.

Dear John and Lynn Savarese,

The letter I just received from the two of you in your roles as Co-Chairs of the Harvard Law School Fund is the second such plea. I don’t know how I am to interpret the shift from April to September in the salutation from “Dear Mr. Fisher” to “Dear Frank”. As far as I know we have never met nor communicated directly, but I am going to accept the “Dear Frank” as an invitation to be as candid with you as if we did know each other. How am to interpret your letter? Surely, as a personal endorsement of the need for money to help finance student aid. But I wonder if you have given the matter the same review and attention you would give to the testimony of one of your clients in an important law suit. For that matter, on whose behalf are you writing, on behalf of our law students or on behalf of the

faculty and the school? On cross-examination you might concede that the Law School could ease 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. Most of our students intern with law firms after the second year, and if found able are hired. But we then require them to return to Cambridge for a third year in residence, adding to large student debt and, most significantly, to forego a year’s earnings. It is suggested that in the third year students can gain from “clinical” work, but “clinical work” sounds like what a young lawyer could do in a firm and be paid for. It is also said that the third year permits training in a legal specialty. But at the outset of a career a student can not be sure about a specialty and in the third year often ends up working on the specialty of interest to a professor. Northwestern University Law School now offers both three-year and two-year J.D. degrees. Let’s watch how the market values the two. Clearly, the savings to students of a two-year pro-

gram would dwarf any financial aid which might be received as a result of fund-raising efforts such as yours. Would you agree that a two-year program is something Harvard should consider as a way to help students ? Let me be clear. It does not make me less loyal to the Law School to wish it to consider changes. Since my great grandfather Henry Dummer attended the school (in 1829-30 as one of its first handful of students) the School has changed in big ways. And changes were experienced by my father and his two law school-attending brothers as well. I simply wish the Law School might now lead the country to more cost-efficient legal education – as an alternative to funding the status quo, or as your letter suggests the status quo with bells and whistles. Sincerely,

Francis Dummer Fisher ’51 Senior Research Fellow, LBJ School of Public Affairs University of Texas at Austin

October 22, 2009

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Guinea: Has a Nascent Democracy Lost its Way?

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After the Brutal Repression of a Protest in the Capital, Questions Loom About the Country’s Future

BY JEAN-LOUIS ROMANET PERROUX

This diverse population of over ten million was ruled over with a strong hand by Sékou Touré from independence till his death in 1984, when power was seized through a military coup by Lansana Conté. The new dictatorship, which retained its predecessors’ policies regarding economic development as well as its characteristic brutality against any political opposition, lasted until the death of President Conté, on December 23rd of last year. Power was promptly seized by a military coup led by a largely unknown army captain. But in response to the long frustrated popular expectations for democ-

tions on political activity, and unpunished criminal acts by the military” were not met by efforts to set a date and prepare the elections, this conditional support started to wane. Over the summer, people in the streets of Conakry would confess their fears about unmet promises, and some would swear they would even risk their lives to prevent the coup from transforming, once more, into a dictatorship. Camara’s recent allusions to the possibility of running for office proved unbearable.

On September 28, thousands of Guinean citizens gathered in the national football stadium in their country’s capital, Conakry, to voice their protest against 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. For now, violence and unrest do not seem to have spread in the country. In a phone call hours after the The crossroads ahead event, the President of MDT1, a In the months after the coup, local NGO for the defense and prolively discussions divided motion of human rights and the both internationals and locals rule of law, confimred that vioin Guinea as to whether eleclence was mostly contained to the tions ought to be held immestadium and that it did not spill diately, or after a few months over in the rest of the capital, but of transition. Advocates of that brutal and widespread violawaiting argued that the countions of human rights had taken try has no history of democplace there. He stressed that all efracy, little political activity, forts would be taken in order to and fragile parties which press the government to investigate struggle to gain consensus these events and to bring the peracross the country’s many ethpetrators of human rights abuses to nic and linguistic divides. justice. Those that wanted immediate There is no doubt: Guinea is at a elections, however, said that crossroads, and both its citizens the power of the military in and the international community Guinea coupled with its disreshould carefully consider the respect of human rights reprecent appeal by Lawyers Without sented a danger even when it Borders Guinea to become conwas out of power, let alone Guinean soldiers in Conakry. Photo licensed under Creative Commons 2.0 by Flickr user missbax. scious of the situation. An account of when it was not. Moreover, hishow Guinea got to this point should help. racy and respect for human rights, Captain Moussa tory proves, not just in Guinea, that power tends to be Dadis Camara promised a peaceful handover of incredibly “sticky”, and the longer one holds it, the A brief history of power in Guinea power after free and democratic elections, in which harder it is to separate from it. The stadium where these sad events took place, the he solemnly foreswore taking part. The citizens of The late events seem to put an end to the debate: “stade du 28 Septembre”, is named for the date of Guinea reluctantly accepted this promise of a peace- nine months after the military coup, elections are now Guinea’s independence from France, which it gained ful transition among fears of civil war. But the bar- necessary if not urgent. 51 years ago. At the urging of Sékou Touré, Guinea gain was clear: Captain Camara would hold elections If Captain Camara decides to hold on to power, eiwas the only French colony to voluntarily renounce before the end of 2009 and would not run for office, ther through the semblance of an election, or all-toits colonial status when given the option to do so by playing a role similar of that of Obasanjo in Nigeria. gether without holding any, there will be bloodshed, French President Charles de Gaulle in 1958. This was and his regime will transform into a brutal dictatora source of great national pride and was followed by How did we get to this bloodshed? ship in order to maintain its grasp. policies enshrining the place of local languages and After seizing power, Captain Camara suspended the If elections are held, and Captain Camara does not cultures, as well as attempts at economic autarchy. constitution, banned political and union activity, and run, many challenges lay ahead for Guinea’s democUnfortunately, as Lansiné Kaba painfully pointed declared that the government and the institutions of ratization. The country will require the assistance of out in his book Le ‘non’ de la Guinee à De Gaulle the Republic had been dissolved. In return, he de- the international community to hold off the influence (“Guinea’s ‘no’ to de Gaulle”), the results was slower clared his intention to fight corruption, straighten pub- of neighboring states, and to hep jump-start the prosdevelopment, no unifying national language or edu- lic expenditure and fight criminality. Camara’s perity of a country that has one of the world’s lowest cation, and difficulties modernizing public adminis- populism gained support with the indictment of the rankings on the Human Development Index. At any tration. All these aspects pose serious political late President Conté’s son, currently detained in rate, a nascent democracy should not be left alone at challenges in a country with eight administrative re- Conakry’s central jail. Citizens accepted this delay to night in the middle of a crossroads. gions, seven main languages besides French (none of democracy in order to assure stability and the peacewhich spoken country-wide) and twenty-four ethnic ful organization of free and fair elections, which were Jean-Louis Romanet Perroux is a M.A.L.D. groups, all within a territory the size of the UK or Ore- not something to be taken for granted in the region. candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and gon. But when “arbitrary arrest and detentions, restricDiplomacy. He has lived and worked in Guinea.

The UK’s New Supreme Court: Much Ado About Nothing?

BY PETER WICKHAM

If it ain’t broke, they say, don’t fix it. So why the need for a UK Supreme Court? The claim that there was a need to supplant the House of Lords’ hundreds of years of tradition as Britain’s highest judicial body merely to create a court with the same powers and membership as the old one seems like a lot of fuss about nothing. To some, it even seemed like the whole proposal was the result of a political dispute between Tony Blair, the Prime Minister who proposed the change, and the head of the former Law Lords, the Lord Chancellor. Perhaps, though, we should not be so quick to condemn.

Aside from political arguments, the main impetus for change was that no one other than lawyers really understood what the final court of appeal was or who the elusive judges were; it existed in the shadow of the much more visible Royal Courts of Justice. Although it shared its name with the upper house of Parliament, the Law Lords consisted of 12 judges, and since 1945 had not heard cases in the chamber itself. The problem was that the Law Lords were still members of the legislature, with the Lord Chancellor in fact being the speaker of the upper house as well as a cabinet minister and the most SCOTUK, cont’d on pg. 8

Middlesex Guildhall, home of the new UK Supreme Court, in London

October 22, 2009

Harvard Law Record

Lisbon, continued from pg. 6

EU institutions. What is known as “qualified majority voting” will be extended to cover most policy areas governed by the Council. This will mean that, after 2014, the passage of a legislative act will require a “double majority” of Member States and EU citizens. Thus 55% of the Member States representing at least 65% of the Union’s population will have to unite behind an act to for it to be passed in the Council. Importantly, the Treaty of Lisbon ensures institutional stability by creating the function of President of the European Council. The President will be elected for two and a half years (Tony Blair is the current front-runner) and will be the one to pick up the proverbial red phone, should President Obama decide to call. The Treaty also extends the Union’s competences to certain sensitive policy areas including combating terrorism and tackling crime, and, to some extent, energy policy, public health, civil protection, climate change, services of general interest, research, space, territorial cohesion, commercial policy, humanitarian aid, sport, tourism and administrative cooperation. The Lisbon Treaty will also ensure that the role of the EU as an actor on the global stage is enhanced. A new High Representative for the Union in Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who is – at the same time – Vice-President of the Commission, will ensure the visibility of EU external action, even though his interaction with the EU President is yet to be defined. The High Representative will be supported by a new European External Action Service, an EU diplomatic corps. Contrary to some popular myths, especially rampant in Ireland before the its first referendum on the Treaty, and in the United Kingdom, the new Treaty does not impinge on the neutrality of member states, does not put public services at risk, does not weaken the social achievements of member states, does not change Irish or Polish laws on abortion, nor does it take away the British pound, change Czech laws on German-held property after WWII, change tax laws, or create a European super-state, or a European army poised to strike in conflict zones, take away member states’ right to formulate their foreign policy within the framework of prior treaty commitments, or aim to take away Security Council seats of Permanent Members. Unfortunately, the Lisbon Treaty will also not make the EU treaties easier to read. But, if they were, who would need lawyers? Matthias C. Kettemann is an LL.M. student from Austria.

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SCOTUK, cont’d from pg. 7 law. At present there is no jurisdiction to strike senior judge. The old system was aloof and, like down statute yet many ask whether the new so much in a system without a written constitu- court might over time move in this direction. tion, offered great (if, as it turned out, only the- This would be a constitutional enormity, deoretical) potential for abuse. stroying the concept of parliamentary soverThe new Supreme Court firmly establishes ju- eignty, yet in days of little legislative scrutiny it dicial independence. It is now housed close to, is not a wholly bad thing. Our system has almost but separate from the Houses of Parliament. complete fusion of executive and legislature, the Most importantly though, members will no voting system leaves us with huge majorities, longer be elevated to the peerage, and, thus, be- and the rule of law is often left in a precarious come members of the legislative House of position. If the new Lords. At the same time, court were to step into the substance of the court “The danger is that with live this accountability will not change. It will breach they should be carry on the all the work TV feeds and a more public welcomed, not castiof the House of Lords as profile, the UK Supreme Court gated. Those who call well as some functions of for judges to apply the the Privy Council. The might lose its judicial excel- law, rather than to say same Law Lords have lence, becoming more like its what it should be, are been transformed into the at odds with the very U.S. counterpart.” new Justices and differ nature of the common only in name, and it is law and seem conhoped the same high standard of legal analysis sumed in theories of mob justice rather than in and detachment from politics will remain. legal reasoning. Judicial activism does not mean This all sounds pretty good, save for the new the end of the rule of law; in fact, a strong judicourt’s £90 million start-up check. Still, the old ciary is necessary to give it effect. Given the Law Lords maintained their judicial excellence choice of a judge or a politician, I know which by remaining rather aloof from the political one I’d pick. scene. The danger is that with live TV feeds and Despite its garish emblem, its hideous building a more public profile, the new court might lose and its astonishing price tag, the new Supreme this and become more like the U.S. Supreme Court should be welcomed. It ensures true sepCourt. Deadlock in a partisan court is not good aration of powers. It buttresses judicial indefor the law. Politics harms legal reasoning, it sti- pendence while offering the possibility of a more fles judicial law making and at its worst leads to accountable executive. After the swearing in, as injustice. The creation of a Supreme Court is to the Justices take off their new black and gold ensure that there can be no interference from the robes, they should be proud of themselves. In politicians. Thankfully, the appointment process their own, relatively understated British way, gives the executive, and the legislature virtually they have created a truly independent final court, no say, so the problems of the U.S. seem un- which became largely of their own design once likely, and the same high calibre judicial minds the politicians became bored with the project. will still be present. If the court is to be a suc- The name grates, parts of the court are rather cess, though, the justices must remember that, tacky, and some of the old world charm has first and foremost, they are lawyers. They should gone, but behind this we are left with a true and not be swayed by public opinion; a court based independent instrument of justice, and that’s on this is no court at all. something with which we shouldn’t quibble. The need to follow the law rather than the ebb and flow of the public mood should not mean Peter Wickham is an LL.M. student from the that the court is dissuaded from developing the United Kingdom.

Will America Fiddle as the ICC Shapes International Law? BY NICHOLAS JOY

Not long ago, “the idea of an international criminal court was goofy,” according to Jeremy Rabkin. The creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has not changed his position. On Thursday, October 8, Professor Rabkin debated the future of U.S. policy toward the ICC with Prof. Lori Damrosch in an event hosted by the Federalist Society. A decade after the Rome Statute entered into force, creating the ICC, the United States is one of few western countries that has not acceded to the Court. Rabkin, who teaches at George Mason University School of Law, hopes it stays that way. “It is important for us to say that we don’t think [the ICC] has any legitimacy,” he said. “We will be better off having a policy of suspicion and disdain. We should hope the ICC goes bankrupt.” To Rabkin, the ICC has proven to be ineffective and unbalanced, involving itself with a series of relatively small African nations while taking little action against the worst human rights offenders. “The whole institution is an exercise in symbolism.”

Damrosch, who is visiting from CoRabkin cast dispursions on the hislumbia Law School, was more opti- torical roots of the ICC and the trimistic about the potential of the ICC. bunals established for Yugoslavia and Although she stopped short of recom- Rwanda. For Damrosch, the ICC’s orimending accession to the Rome gins date back to World War II and the Statute, she said that the “somewhat U.S. involvement in the Nuremburg blunderbuss way” that the United Trials and the International Military States has engaged the ICC has been Tribunal for the Far East. “Most Amerc o u n t e r p r oicans are proud ductive. Dam- “If you could assure me that the of those accomrosch says that plishments. The rules would be drafted in effort that is the American Servicemem- Washington and the trials would going on now ber’s Protec- be conducted by officials respon- [extends] the tion Act, sible to the U.S. President,” legacy of which proNuremburg.” hibits the [I would] be more inclined to Rabkin views United States support the ICC. the tribunals that from providcame after - Prof. Jeremy Rabkin ing military World War II in aid to couna very different tries that have ratified the Rome light. “We should not be proud of the Statute, sends a counterproductive mes- tribunals, but the war effort that desage. “[The ASPA] included several feated” the Axis powers, he said. He steps widely perceived as bullying pointed out that the United States had measures,” she said. According to negotiated the London charter, which Damrosch, American opposition to the set up the Nuremburg Trials, with the ICC has created a backlash and limited other occupying powers, who stiputhe United States’ ability to influence lated that only members of the Axis the ICC. “The U.S. has been shooting powers would be put on trial. Rabkin itself in the foot,” she said. said that, “If you could assure me that

the rules would be drafted in Washington and the trials would be conducted by officials responsible to the U.S. President,” he would be more inclined to support the ICC. Rabkin expressed concern that if the United States joined the ICC it could lead to American troops in the field being secondguessed by an international prosecutor with no military experience, enforcing an unestablished and vague body of law. “It is crazy while conducting wars to have an international diplomat looking over your shoulder,” he said. Damrosch took issue with the assertion that the ICC would operate in a legal vacuum. “The laws of war took hold in the late 19th Century [and the] Geneva Conventions recodified them.” Damrosch admitted, however, that, “This crime of aggression, which is not yet defined, is problematic,” she said. At one point, Rabkin expressed concern that the ICC “is going to be [...] a lynch mob for Israel.” He also argued that the ICC’s exclusive involvement with African countries is demeaning and a poor substitute for real action. “Why did we have a tribunal in Rwanda?” he asked. “Because we didn’t want to stop them.”

October 22, 2009

Harvard Law Record

Page 9

CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.: ARE J.D. STUDENTS ANTISOCIAL?

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.

Allow me generalize and stereotype for a minute, and to say, Harvard Law School is not the friendliest place in the world. I’m not saying it’s a hostile environment, where people rip the pages out of books. And I’m sure many people meet their lifelong best friends here, as well as happily marry their classmates (happy anniversary, Barack and Michelle). But if you’re coming from somewhere else, you can’t help but notice that, while civil, its neither a particularly warm nor a particularly social environment. Lately I have gotten into the habit of saying hi to everyone, including random people that I don’t really know. And my new building is chock-full of law students, who are pretty easy to spot. So I felt even more comfortable smiling and introducing myself to these classmates when I met them in the elevator or on the stairwell. Apparently this is not the right approach, because the conversations immediately stalled. “Hi, I’m Jess, I just moved in. I’m at the Law School, how ’bout you?” If I was lucky I received a tight smile in response. Sometimes, people responded with, “Hello.” Getting basic information from them—like, oh, their names—was like pulling teeth. After a few days, I stopped smiling at the people in my building. It brought me back to 1L actually, when, just as in Legally Blonde, people would create closed study groups and actually tell people “No you can’t join” to their face in front of other members of the “group.” Other classmates would declare (in private of course) that they had already chosen their friends and that they didn’t want any more. So then, if both your study group and your social circle are full, why bother smiling at someone in your elevator? This might be called Theory #1 of why Harvard J.D. students seem so antisocial: the “my dance card is full” theory. But for schmoozy future lawyers, you’d think they could at least view these as networking opportunities. We’ll have to pursue other theories. Theory #2: HLS students are inherently socially inept. I have never had so many awkward conversations in my life as at HLS. I have also had the pleasure of overhearing many a ridiculous one. Favorite encounters of mine from the past: “You know what seersucker is; you must have a house in Nantucket.” My response: “No, I’m just into fabrics”. Section mate overhearing a friend who had visited my apartment and who had liked it: “Oh? Do you have a big apartment?” Me: “Well no not really but—“ Cutting me off: “Yeah, so do I. I have a really big apartment, too.” Well—thanks. Awesome. Happy to hear that. Amazing conversation we’re having here. Next you can ask me how big my bank account is. My first day sitting in the Hark café, I was lucky enough to listen in on, “And then her parents gave a menorah. A menorah! Can you believe it? I mean, other people gave like, $1000.” Not much to say in response to that.

Next Record: November 5

But its been my LL.M. friends that have really summed it up the best. My favorite LL.M. story wnt like this: an LL.M. student walks into class on the first day, sits down, and turns to the person next to him. He smiles, sticks out his hand, and introduces himself with his name and where he’s from. The J.D.’s response: blank stare, followed by, “Hi.” LL.M. waits. Maybe she’s going to offer some similar information, like, oh I don’t know, her first name, something really deep like that. No; it doesn’t come. Not wanting to fall into the “What’s your name?” conversation reserved for small children (to be followed with “And how many years are you?” and a few fingers held in the air), he asks her what class

on. If you have free time, you’ve screwed up. It’s just too busy here. Its one of my least favorite aspects of life at HLS, and results in people preferring to wave to you as they pass by then stop and speak to you for 5 minutes. If they do stop and speak, their likely answer to “how are you?” is either “busy” or “tired.” Fun bunch we are when we’re pulled in so many directions at once. The faculty and staff certainly seem to encourage this. At Cambridge, the first thing I heard was to make sure not to overdo it, and to take the time to engage in fun activities. Here, there are high expectations from every camp, without much allowance for other coursework or outside commitments. But it can’t all be chalked up to outside pressure: HLS students are the type who constantly drive themselves, and that can add up to a tense and hurried social setting. And yet we’re not the only high-powered law school out there. Why is it that they seem to have more fun at Stanford or NYU? Theory #4: New England is not such a barrel of laughs. Let’s be honest: it’s really cold here. The bars and clubs only stay open ’til 1AM. Again, it’s really cold. New England is not known for its hospitality, and Harvard is not known for its party people. Also, it’s really cold. Still, law students in Stockholm seem to know how to have a good time. Boston on the other hand is known as a bit of a tough town. With its mobster heritage and diehard sports fans, it’s not a soft and squishy J.D. student on a typical Saturday night? Photo licensed under Creative Commons 2.0 by Flickr user umjanedoan. place. If we all went to law school in Rio, on the other hand, she’s in. “2L.” Blank stare; you can practically hear we might be more apt to blow off studying to meet the “plink plink” of their eyelids as they awkwardly our friends at the beach or skip out for the entire week look at each other. And that, my friends, was the close of Carnival. In other places, the pressure runs in the of their conversation. LL.M. friend: “The thing is, it’s opposite direction, and you’re chastised if you’re too not like she didn’t want to talk to me. She didn’t turn much of a workaholic. If only HLS were that place. away; she stayed engaged. It was just that she couldBut we’re not a homogenous crowd, or at least, n’t manage to say anything.” there is another group lurking amongst the J.D.s: But not everyone is so tongue tied, nor is every con- they’re the LL.M.s, and they seem to have much more versation boring or pompous. Our school is heavily fun. I’ve been studying them to find out why. In the diverse, and we do have a fascinating student body. first place, they can savor the shortness of their stay. So where then are all of these charmers, these socially Their year long course incentivizes them to really live skilled extroverts who don’t feel like they can have, it up, whereas looking out across three years can feel max, five friends? prettybleak for a J.D. The other secret of LL.M.s: Theory #3: they’re either too busy, they think that they mostly hang out with each other. Out at dinner they’re too busy, or are convinced that they have to with a handful the other night, this group told me pretend that they’re too busy. In my opinion, HLS they’d given up on J.D.s. “Its not worth the effort!” was a lot worse in this respect when there were still they said, since J.D.s never made the effort in return real grades; it put more pressure on us to work harder. and continually “blanked” them: UK speak for when But even without numerical GPAs, HLS is still a pres- you walk right by someone you know without even sure cooker of expectations and demands. And since bothering to acknowledge their presence, let alone say the economy has tanked and firm jobs are no longer hi. J.D.s note this too; I remember a friend comhanded out on a silver platter, all sorts of new and plaining to me about this phenomenon and how he’d quite serious pressures have reared their ugly heads. gone to a dinner party with a guy he’d met no less Even if you have a job, there’s still the pressure to be than five times, and who still insisted that they didn’t up at 6AM jogging, working on a journal, doing know each other. Maybe this person was too stressed something else impressive, finding your future hus- out to remember; or maybe he was on a power trip of band/wife (if you’re one of the ten people who arrived acting like he was too important to remember. Whatunmarried), and so on. To hedge your bets, you’d bet- ever the case, it stinks. ter apply to 40 jobs, ten clerkships, 15 fellowships, So what’s a frustrated J.D. to do? My advice: infiland attend all sorts of lunch time lectures, weekend trate the LL.M. class. And if that fails, head to the Ed trainings, research for your favorite professor, and so school: teachers are nicer than lawyers, hands down.

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October 22, 2009

Harvard Law Record

Page 10

The Garment District: It’s Not a District, it’s a Store (and it’s Halloween Heaven)

BY JENNY PAUL

Are you rushing to cobble together a costume for next week’s Halloween party? Whether you need to find an entire costume or just need to add the finishing touch to your outfit, look no further than The Garment District, a Cambridge Halloween hotspot with two floors full of costumes and accessories. The store carries an array of readyto-wear costumes, ranging from Grecian goddess outfits to pirate get-ups to flapper dresses. Customers on a budget can check out the Garment District’s second floor, where the store sells a variety of vintage clothes that can be paired together to make a retro Halloween costume. “We have a bunch of used clothing that we have in a big costume room, which is mix and match,” Garment District assistant manager Ryan Olenick said. “You can make something from the 50s to Space Age stuff.” Olenick said he encourages customers who ask for his advice to put together their own costumes. “I say make your own for the most part, because it’s more fun that way,” he said. “You won’t be walking down Comm. Ave. [in Boston] wearing the same thing as a girl 15 feet away from you.” Costume rentals are available through Boston Costume, located within the first floor. The selections are pricier, but more elaborate, and customers can even

choose to rent matching his-and-her costumes, such as the Cinderella and Prince Charming set or the medieval Romeo and Juliet ensemble. Boston Costume has 5,000 costumes available for rental, manager Terry Anderson said. “They go anywhere from Roman and Egyptian to mascot type ones, like grizzly bears and lions,” Anderson said, noting the rentals range in price from $45 to $175, with an average cost of $95. This year, the store took its first Halloween rental order in February and probably will take its last the day after Halloween for parties being held on Sunday, he said. This year, the most popular rental choices have been storm trooper, Batman and grizzly bear costumes, he said. Because it is late in the Halloween season, Anderson urged costume seekers to keep their options open. “The easiest thing is to come in with a couple of ideas, not just one set idea,” he said. “If you can leave your field open a little bit, you’re going to have a much better time and not stress in the crowds.” Be prepared to encounter crowds during the week leading up to Halloween — The Garment District does double to triple its usual business in October, said Olenick, the assistant manager. The store is open from 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to midnight on Saturday through Oct. 31. The Garment District is located at 200 Broadway, four blocks from the Kendall-MIT T stop on the Red Line.

Other Halloween costume Hot spots: Dorothy’s Boutique 190 Massachusetts Ave., Boston Mon - Sat: 10 a.m. - 6:30 p.m Sunday from 12 to 6 p.m. T Stop: Hynes Convention Center (Green Line) Goodwill Retail Stores 520 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge Mon - Sat: 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. Sunday from 12 to 6 p.m. T Stop: Central Square (Red Line) 965 Commonwealth Ave., Boston Mon - Sat: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday from 12 to 6 p.m. T Stop: Pleasant Street (Green Line)

With Soup and Cider, HLS’ New Social Change Study Program is Just Getting Warmed Up

BY KATHRYN LEGOMSKY

On a dismal and snowy Sunday afternoon, students and faculty trekked over to the Newton home of Professor Ben Sachs for warm fall treats and informal discussion about the social change community at Harvard Law School. This “Soup & Cider” retreat was hosted by the Program of Study on Law and Social Change, one of the five programs of study that offer “pathways through the HLS curriculum.” The event was the first of its kind since HLS launched Programs of Study, meant to serve as communities of academically and professionally like-minded students, two years ago. Its goal: to unite the social change community at HLS. The philosophy behind the social change program is that law is deeply implicated in our economic, political, and social worlds. The pursuit of social change, then, invariably involves an engagement with law. The program helps students understand how law can be harnessed for social change, and how they can pursue careers as social change agents, in areas ranging from health care to immigration, criminal justice and international human rights, by engaging in, for example, litigation, electoral politics, and organizing. The intent is to enable students to develop a rich understanding of the promises and limitations inherent in the various modes and areas of work that are of interest to the student. Via a bouncy school bus, fifty brave students – not entirely sure what to expect – arrived at Sachs’ home en masse. They warmed up with hot cider, toasty fall pies, and home-made squash and tomato soup. Soon, the breakout discussion sessions – the core activity of the retreat – began. Faculty advisors, including Dean Martha Minow and Professors David Grossman ’88, Deborah Anker LL.M. ’84, Gerald Frug ’63, and Ben Sachs led informal, small-group discussions about law and social change at HLS. Two common themes emerged from many of the discussion groups: first, how 1Ls can interact with and benefit from the (alleged) wisdom of upper-class students, and second, how to build a community of like-minded social change people at HLS – across substantive legal areas of interest, between students and faculty, and with the other Programs of Study. Several ideas for community building emerged from the

event, and plans are already underway to host a weekly dropin table in Harkness Commons where students and faculty interested in social change could meet for lunch on an impromptu basis to discuss topics related to social change. At least until the new Northwest Corner complex opens, the lunch tables will provide a critical physical space to gather and organize. Other ideas included study groups to bring out themes of social change in the 1L curriculum and allow social-change-minded students to connect the 1L curriculum to their reasons for coming to law school, an annual weekend retreat for current students and faculty as well as alumni, and unity around events scheduled in diverse substantive law areas. Illustrating the interconnectednes of diverse legal areas, Dean Minow told a fascinating story about a project she led to overhaul special education legislation. The project involved not only education law and education groups, but also – to her surprise – such diverse and unexpected areas of law as copyright, anti-trust, and others. Faculty later spoke with students especially interested in their own areas of law. Prof. Anker spoke about immigration, Dean Minow about education and civil rights, Prof. Sachs about labor and employment law, Prof. Grossman about legal services, and Prof. Frug about local government. Despite the miserable weather, students and faculty were overwhelmingly positive about the retreat. Sandra Ray, a 1L, exclaimed that “everyone I talked to who went really enjoyed the whole day!” The 1Ls in particular reminded upper-class students about how isolated the 1L experience can be, and they especially appreciated this opportunity to come together and get the inside scoop about the HLS experience, clinical opportunities, professors and classes to watch, and student activity opportunities. Many 2Ls were similarly inspired to take their involvement to the next level. Leah Watson and Sakisha Jackson, for example, wanted the Program of Study to form small committees to allow many students to take leadership roles in building the community. The event was held on October 18 and organized by faculty directors Ben Sachs, David Grossman, and Martha Minow, and student fellows Joy Wang and Katie Legomsky, with assistance and support from Nancy Thompson, Lisa Sachs, OPIA Director Alexa Shabecoff and Shonu Gandhi ’09.

Film: Hamamoto’s “Masters of the Pillow”

BY TITUS LIN

In an attempt to break stereotypes about Asian-American sexuality, Darrell Hamamoto, a professor at UC Davis, created a pornographic film. It was recently screened for the Asia-Pacific Law Students Association as part of a monthly series of discussions aimed at encouraging frank discussion of Asian American identity issues, entitled RACE (Raising Awareness for Cultural Equality). So far, it has explored stereotypes of Asians as “perpetual foreigners” and “model minorities”. Hamamoto wants to revolutionize mainstream perceptions of Asian Americans, particularly males. The documentary attempts intellectual rigor by including comments from Asian-American actors, playwrights, and academics, but for many who attended the screening, his attempt at a revolution fell short. For one, the porno his project produced was just bad. More importantly, though, the actors’ Asian-American identity does not come through. “Japan already produces Asian pornography,” one viewer complained. Another suggested, “it would have been more revolutionary if he had paired an Asian male with a non-Asian female.” Others said the film did little to change Asian-male stereotypes, and may have even reinforced them. The male lead was described by some viewers as “meek and unassertive”. Moreover, the plot of the porno involved the male lead seducing the female lead by teaching her how to play a video game. Criticisms were raised around the irony of attempting to use pornography to break stereotypes of Asian females, given pornography’s propagation of oversexualized female stereotypes. Yet, while falling short of Hamamoto’s intentions, the film succeeds in provocatively drawing attention to insidious, widely accepted stereotypes.

October 22, 2009

Amnesty, cont’d from pg. 4 Amnesty have embraced the indivisibility of all human rights to move beyond the narrow focus on civil and political rights that dominated during the Cold War era, and continues to grip the U.S. in a limited “civil rights” approach to human rights legal entitlements. Khan advocated instead for an experience based approach to human rights. Beyond legal texts, she explained, we must focus on the lived experience of the poor and the marginalized. This approach is strikingly relevant to the American experiences that have come to light in the recent financial crisis. While U.S. law does not provide for a right to work or a right to health, the country is gripped by record unemployment and a staggeringly damaging lack of health care. Reflecting on what the U.S. needs most now, and starting from this experience, our right to access healthcare and to just end equitable remuneration can be seen not as a socialist construct or a fantastical anti-market idea, but as a necessity for the functioning and flourishing of the country. Khan noted that making health care a right empowers people, creates an accountability framework, and provides a remedy, outlining a legal orientation to healthcare that would move the U.S. debate in a different direction. At the international level, Khan called for U.S. ratification of the ICESR to create a unified vision of human

Comment, cont’d from pg. 2

Harvard Law Record rights among the G-20. Moving ahead in the global fight against poverty, she said, requires this ratification, and China’s ratification of the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Both the U.S. and China should be leaders in linking economic growth to human rights standards, particularly the need for full democratic participation in economic development strategies. She pointed out Brazil, China, and India as examples of growth that has left the poorest segments of society behind. But data also show the stark inequalities of American life as well and the developed world consequence of letting the market rule without a human rights based floor for goods such as heath care and education. As Khan traced Amnesty’s path over the years, she argued that its mission has been quite consistent. While it used to focus primarily on political prisoners, it has expanded to focus on prisoners trapped by poverty and other human rights abuses. Ironically, Khan commented, addressing poverty and issues like health care often leaves groups accused of wading into the “political,” and yet Amnesty focused on political prisoners for years without receiving this criticism. This anecdote should be instructive as Americans watch the idea of health for all devolve into partisan squabbling..

the American presence in Iraq, and he began an extensive review of the country's goals in Afghanistan, a conflict which appears to have continuing importance in the effort to establish stability in a troubled region. In the course of his first year he has delivered speeches around the world – including his noted address in Cairo – that have laid out a vision of peaceful coexistence between Western nations and the Islamic world. President Obama has initiated summit-level talks by the UN Security Council on the subject of nuclear weapons reductions, leading to a binding resolution expressing a commitment to a nuclear-free world. And he has backed up this commitment by listening to the intense Russian criticism of the missile shield plans orchestrated by President Bush, redeploying the American presence in a way that is less threatening to Russian interests, and by expressing a desire to enter dialogue with North Korea and Iran regarding their nuclear programs. He has, finally, taken significant steps in the involvement of the United States in human rights through "experimental" membership in the United Nations Human Rights Council. Looking back to the history of the Nobel Peace Prize, it seems likely that President Obama's selection will come to be viewed as sharing characteristics with many of the previous American laureates. Martin Luther King Jr. was a young, passionate, and charismatic orator whose words drew the attention of the nation and the world, moving forward an already mounting effort to bring about genuine racial equality. Obama, too, has made moving speeches and great strides toward demonstrating the equality of races and the capacity of Americans to recognize injustice at home and in the world. Ralph Bunche, the Harvard educated professor and diplomat, whose tireless efforts brought about a significant agreement in the Mid-East conflict, demonstrated intellectual nuance and faith in the ability of conflicting peoples to resolve their differences. Obama, too, brings a sophisticated mind to bear on seemingly intractable problems, showing resolve in the face of criticism and determination that good people can produce good in the world. Henry Kissinger was the architect of policies in Vietnam and Latin America that extended the geopolitical influence of the United States in an often shadowy battle to curtail the influence of the Soviet Union, but he was honored in 1973 for his conclusion of the Paris agreement to bring about an end of American involvement in Vietnam. Obama too will carry forward a legacy of conflicts in far-flung regions of the world, embarked upon to extend U.S. influence against a vague yet dangerous threat, but his expressed commitment has been to use force judiciously in only such places as it can lead to protection of peace and democracy. Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter, the three prior President-Laureates, were all involved in their own military pursuits, but each made strides toward securing peace for humanity, Roosevelt through the end of the Russo-Japanese war, Wilson through the creation of the League of Nations, and Carter through his participation in numerous negotiations in North Korea, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. Given time and continued persistence, Obama's acheivements may come to encompass similar accomplishments.

Page 11

Entertainment Lawyer Reached for the Stars – Now, They Reach Out to Him

BY JENNY PAUL

the habit of talking directly with clients.” Rosenberg encouraged students to attend speakers’ events and try to establish relationship with Harvard Law alumni working in the field. “I feel like Harvard Law School prepares you in that it exposes you to an amazing alumni network…who, for the most part, really enjoy helping students out,” he said. Rosenberg met Strauss Zelnick ’83 – then CEO of BMG Entertainment – at a law school event, kept in touch, and spent his 1L summer

At first glance, Aaron Rosenberg ’02, a bespectacled, self-described “Jewish guy from Kansas City,” doesn’t look like the type of guy who spends his days brokering deals for hip-hop big shots like Three 6 Mafia – the group of “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” fame. But Rosenberg’s knack for finding unsigned, fresh talent, coupled with luck and a few pivotal entertainment industry mentors, catapulted him into a burgeoning hip hop and R&B practice, in which he has represented Three 6 Mafia, John Legend, Lauryn Hill and other artists. Current Harvard Law students looking to follow in his footsteps need to take advantage of alumni networking opportunities, hone their negotiating skills and eschew the traditional recruiting track, he told a group of about 100 students interested in breaking into the niche field of entertainment law. “It’s just a matter of On Monday, for once, Aaron Rosenberg ’02 didn’t persistence,” Rosenberg just help the show go on – he was the star attraction said Monday at the event, which was sponsored by the at the company after Zelnick offered Committee on Sports and Entertain- him a $10-an-hour internship. ment Law and the Recording Artist “It was barely enough to cover my Project. “When you’re here, it’s very expenses that summer,” Rosenberg easy to get lost in this soup. Everybody said. “I lived in a really crappy apartis focusing on the traditional recruiting ment with four of my friends, but it was track, and it’s a lucrative track, and peo- great. I was in the business.” ple have loans. There are all of these Rosenberg said students interested in other pressures. It requires some sacri- the entertainment business should unfice.” derstand they also won’t be making the Rosenberg said a bit of luck jump- money that other students who follow started his career during his third year the traditional recruiting path will make of law school when he met John Leg- after graduation. end, then an unsigned artist still known “The people who get those jobs [at as John Stephens. Legend became boutique entertainment firms] are the Rosenberg’s first client when he started people who are willing to work for work as an associate at the New York peanuts,” he said, noting the starting office of Greenberg Traurig after grad- yearly salary for associates is usually uation. around $40,000. “It’s not glamorous “You can say I had a little bit – no, a work, but that’s a part of paying dues, lot – of beginner’s luck,” said Rosen- because every profession in the enterberg, now a partner at the boutique firm tainment business has an element of Myman, Abell, Fineman, Fox, dues paying to it. But it gives you a Greenspan and Light. “It’s one thing to tremendous platform, so it’s what you be able to spot talent. It’s another thing make of it.” just through all kinds of circumstances And paying dues has its perks. When for that talent to have the opportunity to he was fairly new to the business, shine.” Rosenberg said he got a call saying that But Rosenberg said students should recording artist Lauryn Hill – one of his also take advantage of various re- favorite artists in college -- wanted him sources at the law school to help them to represent her. She called him at 4 get experience and hone the skills they a.m. to discuss the deal. will need to be successful entertainment “It was her – that voice I had heard so lawyers. The negotiation workshop many times rapping. It was so exhilataught him how to effectively commu- rating,” Rosenberg said. “[I thought] nicate and broker with people from all ‘I’m so excited to be representing her. walks of life, he said, while the clinical This is why I’m here.’” programs can help students “to get in

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ENDGAME

Harvard Law Record

October 22, 2009

From Classroom to Clubhouse: Dersh in the Dugout

Professor Alan Dershowitz and Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino pose with the World Series trophies and with the students in the Dershowitz/Lucchino first year reading group on Sports and The Law.

“Professor” Lucchino invited the class to conduct one of its sessions at Fenway Park and to attend the Red Sox game following class. The Red Sox lost to the Blue Jays 8-7 after an 8th inning rally, but went on to clinch the wild card spot in the postseason when the Rangers lost later that evening.

The Red Sox postseason ended just a few weeks later when they were eliminated by the Los Angeles Angels in a first-round sweep.

THE IMMORTAL ESSENCE OF OCTOBER BASEBALL

Record Sports Editor MARK SAMBURG refused to give a postseason forecast 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.

The Steal. Mr. October. The Big Red Machine. The unforgettable plays, the heroes, and the legends have always been born in October. Magic dominates from the first pitch until a single victorious team drips with champagne and cheap beer. Baseball cannot be reduced to the page. Many have tried, and none have yet succeeded. I have no illusions about my own ability to capture baseball in mere written words. Baseball must be lived, breathed, and loved. At its worst, in meaningless games played in forgotten towns in the last week of June, baseball is a game of irresistible personalities. At its best, with the finest closer in history standing four outs from another World Series and an unknown speedster hovering off first, it is an immortal collection of images and stories. October baseball is effortlessly immortal. I tried to write a preview of the weeks to come—an inadequate effort to predict the unpredictable. Even if I could, (and I can’t), even if I wanted to (and I don’t), I wouldn’t. The magic of October baseball is inextricably tied to not knowing. The truth? Nobody knows what October will bring. We can guess, and we do, but balls will take bad hops, pitchers will find one final masterpiece in arms believed to be out of gas, and doctors will stitch tendons together, leaving the hopes of millions in a blood-soaked sock. Any claim of October clairvoyance is an affront to the majesty of the playoffs, blasphemy against the interminable tension of the game’s greatest month. The moments are here, the heroes waiting in the wings. In New York, a third-baseman waits in pinstripes, eager to prove his October chops, desperate to leave behind autumn failures. Last year’s champions wait in Philly to do what few have done. An old ballpark, beloved by its players and fans, hated by those who journey to play beneath its billowing roof, waits defiantly, not yet ready to say farewell to Minnesota baseball. A brilliant manager—maybe the best ever, stands on the brink of another St. Louis October. The hero of two Boston autumns, exiled and nearly forgotten, waits with New York’s own abandoned legend, both awaiting redemption in southern California. In a moutaintop humidor, leather and twine soak in moisture to hamper their flight—to level the most unlevel field. Three thousand miles away, a seemingly unstoppable lineup carries the memory of a lost tenth man as they face another inevitable tangle with their classic October nemesis. Far closer, just across the river, an eternal underdog, newly ac-

quainted with the bliss of victory, places its hopes on the shoulders of a diminutive second baseman with drive unseen outside the greatest of champions and a dominating closer who has yet to allow a run in any of his Octobers. Nobody can know who will emerge victorious, or which seven will face the long walk back to a clubhouse unprotected by plastic sheeting, empty of champagne and newly opened boxes of caps and t-shirts. All we can know is that October is upon us, and that it has brought the best of baseball with it. There is nothing like October baseball; even on television, the dirt is drier, the grass greener, and the intensity palpable. Baseball sizzles in the playoffs. Listen to your television or your radio. If you’re lucky enough to make it to a postseason game, close your eyes for a moment between pitches. You will hear baseball, and you will hear the intensity of these games and the men

who play each game as if there are no more games to be played. For some, this will be true. For those lucky few who will set their cleats on the dirt of a field over the next four weeks, the pressure is never higher than October. For the millions of us who live and die with each pitch from their ace, each swing from their #9 man, the next month is the pinnacle of sports fanhood—a marathon at a sprint’s pace. Enjoy the games. Suffer through the horrible play-by-play commentators that national networks shove down our throats, replacing our own beloved broadcast teams. Marvel at Craig Sager’s postseason “wardrobe” (and your ensuing epileptic seizures). Hang on each pitch. Love the heroes. Remember the moments. Take this month to experience baseball at its finest. And yes, of course, GO SOX!

Making Waves in Treacherous Temperatures

LL.M. student Siyuan Chen, from Singapore, braved chilly weather to photograph the Harvard Law School crew team as they raced at the Head of the Charles Regatta on Saturday. The HLS team performed strongly, under the guidance of coxswain and MVP Kate Walro ‘12, securing a victory in the Law School division with a time of 17 min. 47 sec. on the three-mile course.

Photo: Siyuan Chen