Harvard Law School

Langdell Hall, one of the Harvard Law School buildings

The Harvard Law School (short Harvard Law or HLS ) is one of the graduate schools at the US Harvard University in Cambridge (Massachusetts) , a suburb of Boston . Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States and one of the most prestigious in the world. In the US News & World Report ranking , it has always been in second or third place among American law schools in recent years, behind Yale and sometimes also Stanford , but in first place worldwide in the QS World University Ranking. The admission process is very selective; only 12.8 percent of applicants were accepted for the 2017/18 academic year. With around 560 students per year, Harvard accepts significantly more students than any other similarly renowned law schools - about as many as Yale, Stanford and Chicago combined. Harvard Law School has the largest law library in the world.

history

In 1781, the wealthy British loyalist and slave owner Isaac Royall Jr. flee to Canada in the course of the American Revolution and therefore bequeathed their lands in Massachusetts to Harvard University with the stipulation that a professorship for law, physics or anatomy should be created with the assets generated from them. In 1815, these funds were used to establish the first professorship in law at Harvard University, and two years later, in 1817, a law faculty was founded. The Royall family crest was the official logo of Harvard Law School until 2016, when it was abolished after an investigation into its origin, as requested by students, was carried out.

In 1827 the faculty still had only one professorship and was struggling to survive until wealthy alumnus Nathan Dane donated another professorship, which was made prominent by Supreme Court Judge Joseph Story , after which the Law School for a time “Dane Law School "was called. Story's striving for academic excellence helped the law school to a certain upswing, but the number of students remained relatively low, so that the previous admission requirements were initially relaxed in the second half of the century and even abolished entirely in 1869.

In the 1870s, under its Dean Christopher Columbus Langdell, Harvard Law School established the first-year curriculum (contract law, tort law, property law, criminal law, and civil procedural law), which became the standard at American law schools, and introduced case-book learning, also standard today. The law school's reputation grew steadily during this period. From the 20th century, Harvard Law School was considered one of the most competitive in the country. After increasing criticism in the second half of the century of the great rivalry among students, the concept developed at Yale was finally adopted to largely shift the competition to a very selective admission process, while ensuring a collegial atmosphere during the course.

In 2006, for the first time in a long time, Harvard Law School made major changes to the first year curriculum to include administrative law, international law and methodological events. In 2008, the Honors / Pass / Low Pass (H / P / LP) rating system was adopted by other law schools such as Yale and Stanford.

Courses offered and organizations

In addition to the regular JD program, Harvard Law School also offers an LL.M. Program aimed primarily at foreign students; all postgraduate degrees can also be obtained from Harvard Law School.

Harvard Law School has more than 50 student organizations ranging from the US student legal magazines to a theater club to political, social, and athletic groups. First published in 1887, the student-edited Harvard Law Review is one of the most prestigious legal journals in the United States. Its editors also publish the Bluebook , which contains the legal citation rules that are common in the USA. In addition, numerous other journals are published on specific areas of law:

• Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review
• Harvard Journal on Racial & Ethnic Justice
• Harvard Environmental Law Review
• Harvard Human Rights Journal
• Harvard International Law Journal
• Harvard Journal of Law & Gender
• Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
• Harvard Journal of Law and Technology
• Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law
• Harvard Journal on Legislation
• Harvard Latino Law Review
• Harvard Law & Policy Review
• Harvard National Security Journal
• Harvard Negotiation Law Review
• Unbound: Harvard Journal of the Legal Left
• Harvard Business Law Review

Alumni

Barack Obama, Harvard Law School alumnus

Harvard Law School has produced numerous well-known alumni, including two Presidents of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes and Barack Obama , and seven current US Senators, namely Ted Cruz , Mike Crapo , Tim Kaine , Jack Reed , Chuck Schumer , Tom Cotton and Mark Warner . The former President of Taiwan Ma Ying-jeou , the former World Bank President Robert Zoellick and the former UN Human Rights Commissioner Navanethem Pillay are among them.

Harvard Law School has sixteen United States Supreme Court judges , including five of the current nine judges, John Roberts , Neil Gorsuch , Stephen Breyer , Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg alone. There are also numerous other high-ranking American and foreign lawyers as well as managing directors of large companies.

The numerous renowned law scholars who have graduated from Harvard Law School include Yochai Benkler , Amy Chua , Sujit Choudhry , Robert C. Clark , Ronald Dworkin , Louis Henkin , Harold Koh , Richard Posner , Jed Rubenfeld , Cass Sunstein and Tim Wu .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The best law schools for getting rich , Forbes Magazine (accessed November 20, 2018)
2. ↑ Crimson tide , Boston Globe (accessed November 20, 2018)
3. ↑ ^{a b} Best Law Schools , US News & World Report (accessed November 20, 2018)
4. ↑ Top Universities - Law , QS World University Rankings (accessed April 23, 2019)
5. ↑ HLS Profile and Facts , Harvard Law School (accessed November 20, 2018)
6. ↑ About Harvard Law School , Harvard Law School (accessed November 20, 2018)
7. ↑ ^{a b} Shield Committee Report , Harvard Law School (accessed November 20, 2018)
8. ↑ Harvard law school drops official shield over slavery links , Guardian (accessed November 20, 2018)
9. ↑ Law school has fine portrait collection , The Harvard Crimson (accessed November 20, 2018)
10. ↑ Book Note: Explaining the organization and actions of legal professions , Harvard Law Review (accessed November 20, 2018)
11. ^ The Proliferation of Case Method Teaching in American Law Schools , Bruce A. Kimball, 2006
12. ↑ Interview with Former Dean Robert Berring of UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law , Top-law-schools.com (accessed November 20, 2018)
13. ^ Learning Collective Eminence: Harvard Law School and the Social Production of Elite Lawyers, Granfield / Koenig, Sociological Quarterly Volume 33 Issue 4
14. ↑ Harvard Law Decides to Steep Students in 21st-Century Issues , New York Times (accessed November 20, 2018)
15. ↑ HLS Grade Reform: Splitting the Baby Was The Only Call , Above the Law (accessed November 20, 2018)
16. ↑ LL.M. Program , Harvard Law School (accessed November 20, 2018)
17. ↑ Graduate Program , Harvard Law School (accessed November 20, 2018)
18. ↑ The Harvard Law Review - Glimpses of Its History as Seen by an Aficionado , Harvard Law Review (accessed November 20, 2018)