Category Archives: Fellowships and Grants

Snapshot: Stephen Lam ’13

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Stephen’s winter term writing project focused on understanding the legal and regulatory impact that efforts to transform the Chinese Renminbi into an international currency will have on the development of Chinese capital markets and on the future development of China as a financial actor. By traveling to Beijing and Hong Kong in January, he was able to interview experts — including law firm partners, financial economists, journalists and ratings officials — and refine his research thesis. There was a clear benefit in “being able to sit down with practitioners in the field and talk about what is going on,” Stephen noted; “there’s only so much you can get from secondary sources, especially in a subject area like this, where there is so much change.” His project grew out of a long-standing interest in East Asian and Chinese legal studies, reflected in the courses, independent research, and Chayes International Public Service Fellowship he has undertaken during the last three years. Stephen grew up speaking Cantonese, but the four semesters of advanced Mandarin that he took through cross-registration allowed him to delve more deeply into the cultural and social aspects of his research, as well as the legal ones. “The resources available to internationally focused students are one of the things that attracted me to HLS,” he explained.

(Please visit “Winter Term 2013: Snapshots from Students” to read about other recent projects.)

 

Meet the 2013 Chayes Fellows

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Twenty-three Harvard Law School students have been awarded the 2013 Chayes International Public Service Fellowship this summer. They are working abroad in Afghanistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, France, India, Italy, Hungary, Japan, Myanmar, the Netherlands, Portugal, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Yemen, as well as in New York City and Washington, DC. Please click here to read brief biographies and descriptions of their summer placements submitted by the students

Snapshot: Katalin Dobias LL.M. ’13

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During her LL.M. year at HLS, Kati greatly valued her work with the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Rights Clinic. Her winter term independent clinical with the Refugee Rights Clinic at Tel Aviv University brought her to Israel at a critical time:  Kati explained that Israel has only recently become a country of destination for refugees, and the country is in the process of developing its laws, policies and indeed its positions on refugee rights. More urgently, her first client, a HIV-positive South Sudanese man with three young children, was facing immediate deportation. The Clinic’s efforts were successful, resulting in a temporary residence permit for the family on humanitarian grounds. “The strategy for an eight-month case is very different from what happens when someone is facing a two-week order,” Kati said. “It was great that I could make a contribution in two weeks.” Her work in Israel involved both direct client service (drafting affidavits, researching country conditions and precedents, and preparing clients for hearings) and policy research (helping with a position paper that advocates for the development of a Convention Against Torture procedure in Israel). Kati recognized the challenges of translating classroom and clinical work into the field: “I had to learn to walk a very fine line respecting religious, cultural and political sensitivities to be able to help our clients,” she remembered. Still, her winter term in Tel Aviv has “greatly reaffirmed [her] commitment” to working with refugees after graduation:  “That’s why I came to Harvard, and that’s why I’m a lawyer.”

(Please visit “Winter Term 2013: Snapshots from Students” to read about other recent projects.)

Snapshot: Emily Balter ’13

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As an undergraduate, Emily studied art history at Princeton; at HLS, she has developed an interest in the ways that law and morality intersect. Her winter term 2013 project — to research and write a paper assessing the role and place of morality in the restitution of art looted during the Holocaust — took her to London. Her research focused on the Spoliation Advisory Panel, a government entity that was formed to consider, in an extra-judicial setting, restitution claims concerning artworks hung in Britain’s national museums. “Once the Panel has made its recommendation, the tension between moral and legal obligations is in stark relief,” Emily noted. During her time in London, she interviewed British attorneys representing Holocaust survivors and their heirs, as well as counsel representing British museums and representatives from major auction houses. “The moral questions that come before the Panel are so nuanced and often difficult to answer — much more so that I had expected before beginning this project,” Emily explained. Her paper also looks at the moral judgments that were made in establishing the Spoliation Panel and others like it in Europe, and at whether the moral questions identified and considered by the Panel should become part of U.S. law and factored into judicial decision-making.

(Please visit “Winter Term 2013: Snapshots from Students” to read about other recent projects.)