Past Events

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International Development at Law Firms – Friday, April 12, 12–1 pm, WCC 1019
Panelists will be joining us from some of our sponsor law firms: Sidley Austin, Allen & Overy, Freshfields, and Skadden Arps. They will discuss work related to international development, including project finance, energy and infrastructure, and public-private partnerships. Panelists will address what these opportunities look like for partners and for associates.

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Panel on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Negotiations – Monday, April 15
Join LIDS and some special guests for a colloquium on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade negotiation process being carried out right now by a number of countries in the Pacific Region. We will host two panels, each dealing with a different side of the negotiation and implementation process.

Panel 1: Dealmakers, Dealbreakers: a Discussion with TPP Trade Negotiators  (12–1 pm, WCC 2012)
Join TPP negotiators as they discuss the process of negotiating a massive twelve-country trade pact, and shed light on recent political development, such as Japan’s entry into negotiations.
Panelists include USTR lead investment negotiator and HLS alumnus Daniel Bahar (JD ’02), and Chile’s Raimundo Gonzalez and Cristian Rodriguez-Chiffelle (LLM ’13).

Panel 2: A Critical Outlook on the international investment regime (5:30–7 pm, Hauser 102)
Is the current foreign direct investment regime equitable? Which elements would benefit most from reform? Panelists will engage in a open discussion addressing the merits and flaws of the current regime as it stands, with a special focus on the Argentinean investment arbitration cases.
We will hear from the U.S. and Chile lead foreign investment treaty negotiators Daniel Bahar and Raimundo Gonzalez, and from Argentina’s Ignacio Torterola. Mr Torterola, currently at Foley Hoag LLP, was the Head of the Argentine Liaison Office before the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington, D.C., and has represented Argentina in more than 25 high-stake arbitrations.

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Corruption and International Development – A Presentation by Professor Noah Feldman
Wednesday, February 6, WCC 1023

Professor Noah Feldman will discuss his latest work, focusing on issues of corruption and understanding China’s role in international development.

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International Investment and Trade: Navigating Agreement and Disagreement
Tuesday, November 27, 2012, 12-1 pm, Austin West

This panel discussion will feature perspectives from private, public, and academic sectors on the formation, implementation, and arbitration of international investment and trade agreements. The discussion will focus on the development of legal instruments for agreement and tools for dispute resolution and changes in the field wrought by the emergence of new markets and global recession.

Panelists include:
Jeswald Salacuse, Professor of Law, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, President of World Bank ICSID international arbitration tribunal
Alexandra Meise Bay, Foley Hoag

Lunch will be served.

Jeswald W. Salacuse is Henry J. Braker Professor of Law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. He has served as the Chairman of the Institute of Transnational Arbitration, Chairman of the Board of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, President of the International Third World Legal Studies Association, and the founding President of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA). A consultant to multinational companies, government agencies, international organizations, universities, foundations and foreign governments, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Law Institute, and the executive committee and faculty of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. He is the lead independent director of several mutual funds managed by Legg Mason, chairman of the India Fund and Asia Tigers Fund, and president of an international arbitration tribunal under the auspices of the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. He has written numerous books and articles, the most recent of which is Seven Secrets for Negotiating with Government.

Alexandra Meise Bay is an associate in the firm’s Washington office and a member of the International Litigation and Arbitration Practice Group. She has substantial experience in international litigation matters, particularly in post-conflict regions. Xander has represented foreign governments, international corporate clients and sovereign officials in state courts, federal district courts, federal courts of appeals, international commercial arbitrations and investment treaty arbitrations, and has worked for prosecutors and judicial chambers in international criminal tribunals. Her practice focuses on international arbitration and litigation matters, particularly on investor-State issues, commercial arbitration and sovereign representation.
She also has experience with matters involving Corporate Social Responsibility, including advising multi-national corporations on risk management issues associated with their work in post-conflict, transitional regions, especially with regards to potential domestic and international litigation based on alleged violations of international legal instruments and the U.S. Alien Tort Statute.

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Wasserstein Lunch Talk: Katrin Kuhlmann ’96 – President, Transfarm Africa, Washington, DC
Wednesday, November 7, 5-6 pm, Hauser 105
The Wasserstein Fellow Lunch Talk is a unique opportunity for students to learn from, and network with, Wasserstein Fellows who have been involved in public service work in a variety of practice settings. Lunch will be provided.

Katrin Kuhlmann is President of TransFarm Africa, a fellow with the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs at the Aspen Institute and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center.  She is also the Director of the U.S.-Africa Business Center and Senior Advisor at the Corporate Council on Africa.  She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Harvard Law and International Development Society and serves on the boards of the Washington International Trade Association and the Malaika Foundation.  Ms. Kuhlmann was previously a Senior Fellow and Director at the Aspen Institute and a Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund. She has held other senior positions in the non-profit sector, including as President of the Trade, Aid and Security Coalition and Senior Vice President of the Women’s Edge Coalition. Her work focuses on a demand-driven, market-led approach to trade, development and investment policy and on addressing policy and legal barriers faced by entrepreneurs.   Prior to joining the non-profit sector, Ms. Kuhlmann served for six years as the Director for Eastern Europe and Eurasia in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) where she was responsible for developing and coordinating U.S. trade policy with Russia, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia. She has also practiced law in New York and Washington, DC.  Ms. Kuhlmann holds degrees from Harvard Law School and Creighton University, and she was the recipient of a Fulbright grant in 1992.

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Entrepreneurship, Law, and International Development Presentation

Wednesday, October 17, 3:45-4:45 pm, WCC B010

Harvard Kennedy School’s Ronald Heifetz, founder of the Center for Public Leadership, will lead a seminar and workshop on innovative leadership in international development and legal settings.
Ronald Heifetz is the King Hussein bin Talal Senior Lecturer in Public Leadership and founder of the Center for Public Leadership. Recognized for his seminal work on both the practice and teaching of leadership, his research focuses on building the adaptive capacity of societies and organizations. His recent book, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing your Organization and the World, was coauthored with Linsky and Alexander Grashow. Heifetz speaks and consults extensively throughout the world with heads of governments, companies, and NGOs.
Refreshments will be served.

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Pursuing Development and International Law at Law Firms – A Panel Featuring Attorneys from Skadden, Debevoise, and Allen & Overy

Tuesday, April 3rd, 12-1 pm, Wasserstein 2036. ** Lunch provided.**

Interested in pursuing a development and/or international law career at a top law firm? Please join the Law and International Development Society (LIDS) in an exploration of careers in law and international development, featuring attorneys from Skadden, Debevoise, and Allen & Overy.

Jelena Madunic is an associate in the New York office of Skadden Arps LLP. She practices in the firm’s Energy and Infrastructure Projects Group, representing both Lenders and Borrowers in complex cross-border financing transactions.

Rebecca Jenkin is a litigation associate whose practice focuses on white collar internal investigations and defense, and international law. In this capacity, she works on foreign bribery investigations, and also advises on anti-bribery and corruption law compliance. Rebecca joined Debevoise in 2008. She completed a B.A. at the Australian National University in 1999, and received an LL.B degree from the Australian National University with first class honors in 2002. From 2003 to 2005, she worked at the Australian law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques. From 2005 to 2006, Rebecca clerked for Justice Mark Weinberg on the Federal Court of Australia. From 2006 to 2007, she clerked for Judge Kenneth Keith and Judge Leonid Skotnikov on the International Court of Justice. She received an LL.M. degree from New York University in 2008, focusing upon criminal law, international law and legal theory.

Jeremy Goldberg is an associate at Allen & Overy in the Banking practice and a member of the Projects, Energy & Infrastructure Group. Among his previous transactions, Jeremy has represented the Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration on the financing of the Cerro de Hula Wind Power Project in Honduras, the Puerto Rico Highways & Transportation Authority on the USD1.4bn monetization of PR-22 and PR-5 (two tolled highways on the island), and The Overseas Private Investment Corporation in connection with the financing of a floating liquefied natural gas terminal in Pakistan.

 

Development Aid and the Emerging International Sanctions Framework to Combat Corruption: A Discussion with the World Bank’s Special Litigation Unit

March 30, 12:00-1:00pm @ Wasserstein B015. **Lunch provided.**

Please join OPIA and LIDS for an engaging discussion with Dr. David Hawkes, Head of the Special Litigation Unit in the Integrity Vice Presidency of the The World Bank, and El-Cid Butuyan (LLM 2004), Senior Litigator at the World Bank, to learn about the World Bank’s work on issues of transnational corruption & development and international anti-corruption enforcement. Lunch provided.

The unit in which Dr. Hawkes and Mr. Butuyan work investigates and prosecutes allegations of fraud, corruption, coercion, collusion, and obstructive practices related World Bank Group-financed projects.

 

Trade, Development and Legal Entrepreneurship – Using Legal Leadership to Create Economic Opportunity and Advance Entrepreneurial Economic Development Models Around the World

March 29, 12:00 – 1:00 pm @ Wasserstein B010 ** Lunch provided. **

Please join LIDS and the Food Law Society for a discussion with Katrin Kuhlmann (JD 1996), Senior Fellow and Director, TransFarm Africa “Removing the Barriers” at the Aspen Institute and Adjunct Professor Georgetown University Law Center, to learn about new models for using trade and development policy and legal education and leadership to open markets, promote equity, ensure the success of entrepreneurs and increase development-focused investment.  Ms. Kuhlmann will share TransFarm Africa’s demand-driven policy approach to addressing specific legal, regulatory and agricultural barriers facing investors and entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa.  Lunch provided.
TransFarm Africa is a an initiative of Aspen Global Health and Development aimed at removing the barriers to a commercial transformation of African agriculture in ways that will measurably improve the income of smallholder farmers, particularly women, and integrate them into a dynamic, internationally competitive food economy, leading to increased food production and greater overall food security in Africa.

3rd Annual Harvard African Development Conference

Rethinking Development in Africa
March 24th 2012| Wasserstein Building Harvard Law School
Hosted by: HKS, HLS, HSPH, HGSE, HSD, Harvard College

Please join the Harvard African Law Association for the only multidisciplinary conference dedicated to development in Africa.  Attendees are provided with the unique opportunity to engage in meaningfully animated discussions with leaders in the fields of business, law, government, healthcare, and design.  The theme for this year’s conference, “Rethinking Development in Africa,” emphasizes our desire to move beyond solution generation for the myriad challenges and opportunities that face the continent, and to explore instead strategies for executing already laid plans.    Register here:  http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/africagsd/default.html.  

 

Mining and Sustainable Development in Colombia

March 22, 12:30 – 2:30 pm @ Austin North

Speakers: Lawrence Susskind, Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at MIT, Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Chief Knowledge Officer and Founder of the Consensus Building Institute; Carlos Caballero Argáez, Director of the Alberto Lleras Camargo School of Government, Universidad de los Andes and former Minister of Mining and Energy of Colombia; Pablo Rueda Saiz, Colombian expert on State-Society Relations and Oil and Extractive Industries, University of California at Berkley.

Moderator: Maria Teresa Ronderos, Editorial Advisor at Colombia&#8217s Semana and DRCLAS Visiting Scholar

Contact: Felipe Quintero, fquinteroserrano@gmail.com

This panel is organized by the Harvard Colombian Student Society and co-sponsored by La Alianza and the Harvard Law and International Development Society.

 

Social Venture Workshop Series (Sponsored by DOS and OPIA)

Harvard Law School, in conjunction with Harvard Business School, will be holding a series of workshops, over the course of the next month, focused on starting, running and growing a socialventure. Students will have the opportunity to learn from and meet with experts in social entrepreneurship.

Workshop I – Preparing to Leap

Thursday, February 16, 7-8:30 pm @ Wasserstein Hall, Room 1019

RSVP here. Dinner provided.

Keynote Speaker: Julia Harrington Reddy HLS ’95, Open Society Initiative

Workshop II – Leading in an Everyone a Changemaker™ World

Thursday, February 23, 7-8:30 pm @ Wasserstein 2012

RSVP here. Dinner provided.

Keynote Speaker: Bill Drayton, HC’65, Ashoka – Innovators for the Public

Workshop III –Financing and Sustaining your Venture: From Seed to Scale

Tuesday, February 28, 7-8:30 pm @ Wasserstein Hall, Room 2012

RSVP here. Dinner provided.

Keynote Speakers: Shirley Sagawa ’87 & James Honan, Faculty at HKS and HGSE

Workshop IV – Case Studies of Social Ventures and Entrepreneurs

Tuesday, March 6, 7-8:30 pm @ Wasserstein 2012

RSVP here. Dinner provided.

Keynote Speakers: Stacy Stern, HLS ’93 and Tim Stanley, HLS, ’94, founders of FindLaw and Justia; Adam Stofsky, HLS ’94, New Media Advocacy Project (N-MAP); Timothy Ehrlich, HLS ’99, Dettmer and Gunderson; and Marion Freemont-Smith, Hauser Center for Noprofit Organizations and award-winning author and lecturer on non-profit law.

 

Responsibility to Protect”: The Promise of Stopping Mass Atrocities in our Time?

February 28, 12:00- 1:00 pm @ Griswold 110. **Lunch will be provided.**

Please join us for a conversation on the Responsibility to Protect with Jared Genser, who will discuss the doctrine, its development and its future in light of the recent events surrounding the Arab Spring.

Also, OPIA is organizing 20 minute one-on-one informational appointments with Jared Genser on Tuesday February 28th from 10:45-11:45am and 1:30-3:00pm, for students interested in how to hit the ground on careers in public interest and international human rights. Please email mnemiroff@law.harvard.edu if you are interested. Be sure to bring your resumes!”

Sponsored by HLS Advocates for Human Rights, Law and International Development Society, and Human Rights Program.

Jared Genser is Managing Director of Perseus Strategies (www.perseus-strategies.com), a law and consulting firm that focuses on human rights and humanitarian projects. He is also founder of Freedom Now (www.freedom-now.org), an independent non-profit organization that works to free prisoners of conscience worldwide. Previously, Genser was a partner in the government affairs practice of DLA Piper LLP and a management consultant with McKinsey & Company. Genser has taught semester-long seminars about the UN Security Council at the University of Michigan and University of Pennsylvania law schools and is teaching at Georgetown University Law Center during the Winter 2012 term. His pro bono clients have included former Czech Republic President Václav Havel and Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Aung San Suu Kyi, Liu Xiaobo, Desmond Tutu, and Elie Wiesel. He holds a B.S. from Cornell University, a M.P.P. from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School. Genser is co-editor of The Responsibility to Protect: The Promise of Stopping Mass Atrocities in Our Times (Oxford University Press 2011) with former Canadian Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler. He was recognized by the National Law Journal as one of “40 Under 40: Washington’s Rising Stars” and is a recipient of the ABA’s John Minor Wisdom Public Service and Professionalism Award, UK Law Society’s Young Pro Bono Solicitor of the Year Award, and Charles Bronfman Prize.

 

Fighting for human rights and press freedom in Bahrain: Possibilities and Limitations

A talk with Dr. Mansoor al-Jamri, Editor-in-chief of Al-Wasat, Bahrain
Recipient of the Committee to Protect Journalists 2011 International Press Freedom Award

Chaired by Professor Chibli Mallat

November 28, 6:30pm-8pm

John Chipman Gray Room, Pound Hall, Harvard Law School

Mansoor al-Jamri is the founder and editor-in-chief of Al-Wasat, Bahrain’s only independent newspaper. His editorials are known for their moderate thought leadership addressing many issues including paths for reform in Bahrain. During the government’s crackdown on Arab Spring protesters this past spring, al-Jamri and two other Al-Wasat editors were arrested and criminally charged with publishing false news. Over a thousand other Bahrainis were arrested, including doctors, nurses, union workers, and soccer players. Over 30 protesters were killed, including some in police custody. This fall, al-Jamri was fined nearly $3,000, but has now actively returned to Al-Wasat. In November, he is receiving the Committee to Protect Journalists 2011 International Press Freedom Award.

Co-sponsored by: Harvard Law & International Development Society, HLS Human Rights Program, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Islamic Legal Studies Program, HKS Middle East Initiative, The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, Middle Eastern Law Students Association, and The Prince al Waleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program

Public Interest Job Search Strategy – The International Job Search

Thursday, November 3, 12:00PM – 1:00PM. Austin North. Pizza provided.

Topics for discussion include:

  • How  to determine what kinds of jobs to pursue;
  • How to research employers;
  • How to land a summer job;
  • Application logistics, including timing;
  • Summer funding programs, including the Chayes International Public Service Fellowship and Human Rights Program Summer Internships

 

Panel on Law and Microfinance

Friday, October 28th, 12:00-1:00pm @ Pound 107 

Microfinance is one of the most important areas for poverty alleviation and capacity building in developing countries. Working in microfinance affords lawyers the opportunity to engage directly with financial institutions, government policymakers and regulators, and other actors — including low-income clients themselves — who are concerned about building inclusive financial systems.

Panelists:

Austin Choi, General Counsel at Kiva

Austin serves as General Counsel for Kiva Microfunds, a personal micro-lending website based in San Francisco, California.  Austin joined Kiva in 2008, coming from a background working with global high technology companies. He has previously held positions in the legal departments of ArcSight, Inc. (now ArcSight, LLC, an HP Company), a security information management corporation, InVision Technologies, Inc. (now GE InVision, Inc.), a manufacturer of explosive detections systems for airline checked luggage, and the Silicon Valley law firm of Fenwick & West LLP.  He also served as a judicial law clerk at the United States Court of International Trade. Austin holds an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College, where he studied economic development issues, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Deborah Drake, Program Manager at ACCION International

Deborah Drake has worked with ACCION International since 1990.  She is Program Manager, Investing in Inclusive Finance, of the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International.  The Center, launched in September 2008, is a collaborative effort to advance the commercial model of microfinance while upholding the interests and needs of poor clients worldwide.  The Investing in Inclusive Finance program explores the challenges and opportunities associated with the intersection of microfinance and commercial investment.

Ms. Drake directs the Council of Microfinance Equity Funds (CMEF), a membership organization of private entities that make equity investments in microfinance institutions (MFIs) of the developing world. The Council spearheads the advancement of the field of equity investment in MFIs through research projects, publications and biannual meetings.Ms. Drake is the co-editor of The Commercialization of Microfinance: Balancing Business and Development and the co-author of Alchemists for the Poor:  NGOs as Financial Institutions.  She is a faculty member of the Boulder Microfinance Training Program in Turin, Italy.  Before joining ACCION International, Ms. Drake was a banking specialist in the Financial Policy and Systems Division of the World Bank and a commercial banker in Washington, DC. She is on the boards of the SEEP Network and Root Capital.  She is a graduate of Georgetown University and holds an MBA from Babson College.

Jennifer Chien, Policy Advisory Consultant at CGAP/World Bank Group

Jennifer is a lawyer and an independent consultant currently working on financial inclusion regulatory reform, consumer protection, and business enabling environment. From 2008 to 2010, Jennifer served as manager of CGAP/World Bank’s Financial Inclusion Regulation Center, an online resource that provides information on the regulation and supervision of microfinance activities in over 30 countries. Before joining CGAP, Jennifer was a corporate attorney at Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York, working primarily in the areas of private equity and project finance. She has previously worked as a credit union analyst at the World Council of Credit Unions and as a management consultant at Oliver Wyman. Jennifer holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Stanford University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.

**Discussion led by Ginny Greiman, Attorney Advisor at OPIA.

 

Honduras: Coups, Constitutions, Commissions and the Future of Reform (Prof. Feldman and Prof. Landau) 

October 14th, 12:00-1:00pm (Pound 101)

Professor Feldman and Professor Landau discussed their recent research on constitutional reform in Honduras.

 

Panel on Joint Degrees 

September 30th, 12:00-1:00pm (Pound 213)

Panelists:

Jason Gelbort (JD – MALD at the Fletcher School)

Anne Healy (JD – MPA/ID at the Harvard Kennedy School)

Amy Sennett (JD – MBA at the Harvard Business School)

Claire Suni (JD – MPH at the Harvard School of Public Health)

Colette van der Ven (JD – MPP at the Harvard Kennedy School)

 

 

International Development & Management Consulting: Talk with McKinsey & Company, 4/21/2011

Management consulting firms are increasingly becoming involved in some of the most interesting and challenging international development work. On April 21, 2011, McKinsey & Company consultant (and HLS alum, JD ’05) Becca O’Brien joined LIDS to speak about her personal experience doing post-disaster reconstruction work in New Orleans and Haiti. Becca also spoke about how management consulting is an opportunity to do high-impact international development projects in rapidly changing fields around the world, and how she has leveraged her JD in a non-traditional career.

LIDS Allen & Overy Speaker Series: Lunch with Professor Chris Stone (Kennedy School), 4/19/2011

On April 19, 2011, Prof. Christopher Stone, the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Professor of the Practice of Criminal Justice at the Harvard Kennedy School, joined LIDS to discuss his work on criminal justice reform in global perspective. He serves as faculty chair of the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management and as the faculty director of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations. His work focuses on two distinct subjects: the improvement of criminal justice systems in the United States and worldwide, and the leadership and governance of nonprofit organizations.

Stone’s current research focuses on countries engaged in sector-wide reform of their criminal justice systems. In one project, he is working with national and state officials in four developing countries (Jamaica, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, and Sierra Leone) to strengthen their design and use of indicators to guide justice-sector reform. In another project, he is examining the application in practice of the 2005 revision of the code of criminal procedure in Turkey. In a third project, he is identifying ways in which the work of the International Criminal Court can contribute to improvements in the domestic systems of justice of the countries in which it is conducting trials, investigations, or preliminary examinations. A fourth project aims to strengthen empirical research of China’s criminal justice system, with particular attention to current efforts by the government to reform the application of the death penalty.

Stone’s work on nonprofit organizations includes a continuing project to benchmark effective practices across the sector worldwide. He is also engaged in several efforts to strengthen the management, leadership, and governance of nonprofit organizations in China.

LIDS Allen & Overy Speaker Series: Lunch with Jorge Kamine (Skadden Arps), 4/18/2011

On April 18, 2011, Jorge Kamine (HLS alum), a counsel in Skadden, Arps’ Washington office, joined LIDS for a lunch presentation about his work in project finance. Jorge works with clients in the United States and Latin America, helping them finance and create concessions, energy projects, infrastructure works and other major development undertakings. His work has brought him all across Latin America. Jorge spoke about his career in energy and project finance, how the field is changing, and how firm lawyers can play an important role in helping developing countries build essential infrastructure.

LIDS Allen & Overy Panel Event: International Development Career Opportunities in the Private Sector, 4/8/2011

On April 8, 2011, attorneys from Allen & Overy, an international law firm and market leader in practice areas related to international development, joined LIDS for lunchtime discussion on opportunities to work in international development-related practice areas, such as international arbitration, in a major international law firm.

How to Make the Most of your Int’l Summer Internship, 4/4/2011

On April 4, 2011, LIDS teamed up with Advocates for Human Rights, the Human Rights Journal, the International Law Journal, and OPIA to offer tips to students with international internships this summer. OPIA staff provided an overview of important goals to keep in mind during the summer internship with an eye towards professional development.  Then a group of 2Ls and 3Ls shared some personal tips and strategies about how to achieve those goals in the context of an international internship, where lack of organization, lax supervision, or language barriers can pose serious challenges.  There was also time for informal advising and mingling over lunch.

LIDS Allen & Overy Speaker Series: Lunch with Professor Peter Uvin (Fletcher School), 3/23/2011

On March 23, 2011, Dean Peter Uvin joined Harvard students for a discussion of his work on development aid and domestic conflict over the past two decades.  Peter Uvin is Academic Dean and Henry J. Leir Professor of International Humanitarian Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University; he is also the Director of its Institute for Human Security. He is the author of four books and tens of articles dealing with development aid and its relation to human rights and conflict, war in the African Great Lakes region, NGO scaling up, and hunger and food aid.

His most well known book is “Aiding Violence. The Development Enterprise in Rwanda,” which received the African Studies Association’s Herskowits award for the most outstanding book on Africa in 1998. His subsequent book, Development and human rights (2004), took this argument further in a normative direction. In 2006, he was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship to analyze young people’s lives in post-transition Burundi. This led to his latest book “Life after Violence. A People’s History of Burundi.”

LIDS Allen & Overy Speaker Series: Lunch with Prof. Chibli Mallat (HLS), 3/2/2011

On March, 2, 2011 Professor Chibli Mallat spoke with members of LIDS at the first of the LIDS/Allen & Overy Speaker Series.  Professor Mallat is the EU Jean Monnet Professor of European Law at St Joseph’s University in Lebanon, and Presidential Professor of Middle Eastern Law and Politics at the University of Utah. He is a human rights and democratic activist, and the Chairman of Right to Nonviolence, an international NGO based in the Middle East (www.righttononviolence.org). He is the author or editor of over 30 books, including on nonviolence, “March 2221: Lebanon’s Cedar Revolution, an essay on non-violence and justice” (Beirut 2007) and on Middle Eastern law “Introduction to Middle Eastern Law” (Oxford 2009). A former candidate to the Lebanese presidency, he is currently the Custodian of the Two Holy Places Visiting Professor of Islamic Legal Studies at Harvard Law School.

DisabilityLawintheDevelopingWorld:Recent Developments and Issues, 2/22/2011

On Feb. 22, 2011, three HLS experts on disability law in the developing world – Professor William Alford, Director of the East Asian Legal Studies Program, Chair of the Harvard Disability Project, and LIDS Advisory Board Member; Professor Michael Stein, Executive Director of the Harvard Disability Project; and Cui Fengming, Director of the Harvard China Program – joined LIDS for a panel to discuss this pressing and underserved area of law. Special thanks to the South Asian Law Students Association for co-sponsoring this event.

The Role of International Investment Law in Economic Development, 1/27/2011

On Jan. 27, 2011, Professor Jeswald W. Salacuse, Henry J. Braker Professor of Law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University) joined LIDS at HLS to discuss the effects of investment law on economic development.  Bilateral investment treaties have frequently been characterized as instruments of economic liberalization, as they are concluded with the purpose of facilitation and protection of international investment flows. Developing states have also been pushed toward liberalization by the need to attract capital in the form of foreign investment and became parties to many of the today more than 3,000 bilateral investment treaties.

Professor Salacuse has broad experience in international development and legal practice and specializes in international investment law as well as law and development. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an A.B. from Hamilton College, and a diploma from the University of Paris. He has been a lecturer in law at Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, a lawyer with a Wall Street law firm, a professor of law and director of research at the National School of Administration in the Congo, the Ford Foundation’s Middle East advisor on law and development based in Beirut, Lebanon, and later the Foundation’s representative in the Sudan.

LIDS Brownbag Lunch with Prof. Mark Wu (HLS), 12/3/2010

On Friday December 3, 2010, Asst. Prof. Mark Wu chatted with students during a brown-bag lunch at the law school. At this informal lunch, Prof. Wu discussed the experiences that have him to become a professor in the fields of international trade and international development law, as well as his current research interests.

Prior to joining the faculty in 2010, Prof. Wu was an Academic Fellow at Columbia Law School and a law clerk to Judge Pierre N. Leval of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He has served as the Director for Intellectual Property in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, where he led negotiations on the IP chapters of various free trade agreements. In addition, he worked as an engagement manager for McKinsey & Co., as an economist and operations officer for the World Bank in China, and as an economist for the United Nations Development Program in Namibia.

2010 LIDS Symposium: Rebuilding After the Storm: The Role of Law in Post-Natural Disaster Development, 11/19/2010

This year’s symposium focused on the “first steps” and debates that arise immediately following and in the subsequent years after natural disasters occur. We brought together the foremost scholars and practitioners to discuss the challenges that arise in finding short and long term solutions after disasters and the role that law plays in achieving those solutions.  Symposium participants used the recent disasters in Pakistan and Haiti as a prism through which to examine these development issues.

Keynote addresses by:

Professor Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize Winner – speaking on post-floods Pakistan
Click here to watch Professor Sen’s keynote address.

Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis, former Prime Minister of Haiti
Click here to watch Prime Minister Pierre-Louis’ keynote address.

Two panel discussions:

The Post-Disaster Economy: Law, Economic Rights and Resource Flow

Click here to watch the the first panel discussion.

Dr. Ali Cheema, Professor,Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan

Dr. Carine Roenen, Director,Fonkoze, Haiti’s largest micro finance institution

Dr. Dilip Ratha, Specialist on Remittances and Migration, World Bank; CEO, Migrating Out of Poverty

Rule of Law: Priorities for Achieving Justice and Stability in the Aftermath of Disasters

Click here to watch the second panel discussion.

Dr. Eduardo Valencia-Ospina, UN Special Rapporteur on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters

Dr. Vivienne O’Connor, Senior Rule of Law Advisor,U.S. Institute of Peace

Dr. Erica Harper, Senior Rule of Law Advisor, International Development Law Organization

 

Special thanks to our co-sponsors: Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP; Harvard Pakistan Student Group; HLS Advocates for Human Rights; International Legal Studies; HLS International Law Journal; HLS International Law Society; Harvard Human Rights Journal; Harvard South Asian Law Students Association; Harvard African Law Association; Harvard Business School’s Social Enterprise Club.

International Law, Climate Change, and Economic Development, 11/11/2010

On Nov. 11, 2010, Dr. Kala Mulqueeny (HLS SJD and LIDS Advisory Board Member) joined LIDS for an informal discussion and Q&A about her work leading initiatives relating to the environment, energy, and climate change in the Office of the General Counsel at the Asian Development Bank. Dr. Mulqueeny also answered questions about her professional experiences and career path working in a regional development bank and in infrastructure development and project finance. Read a full bio of Dr. Mulqueeny here. Special thanks to OPIA for co-sponsoring the event.

Hunger as Politics: The Right to Food and Global Food Security, 11/5/2010

On Fri, Nov 5, 2010, LIDS hosted a special event, Hunger as Politics: The Right to Food and Global Food Security, with LIDS Advisory Board member and HLS alumnus, Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Special thanks to the co-sponsors of the event: International Legal Studies Program, Human Rights Program, Advocates for Human Rights, Food Law Society, Black Law Students Association, International Law Journal, and the Harvard Human Rights Journal. To view a video of the event, go to http://www.law.harvard.edu/media/2010/11/05_lids.mov.

Social Investment, Microfinance, and Water in the Developing World, 3/29/2010

On March 29, 2010, LIDS hosted a talk and discussion with April Rinne (HLS JD and Fletcher MALD ’04) on social investment, microfinance, and water in the developing world, based n her work as Director of WaterCredit (www.watercredit.org), an organization that uses microfinance tools to address the global water/sanitation crisis.

During her visit to Harvard, Ms. Rinne also conducted individual advising sessions with LIDS members.  Ms. Rinne serves on the LIDS Advisory Board. Read her full bio here.

Perspectives on Development and Rule of Law in Afghanistan, 3/10/2010

On Mar. 10, 2010, LIDS hosted a panel on law and development in Afghanistan featuring Rebecca Gang and Saeeq Shajjan and moderated by Jasteena Dhillon. The panelists discussed their experiences working in Afghanistan on a variety of issues, ranging from refugee and human rights to NATO and law and development projects. The event was co-sponsored by the International Legal Studies program.