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.)

A virtual classroom brings law students in China and at Harvard together

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It’s Wednesday night in Cambridge and Thursday morning in Beijing, and their seminar rooms are some 6,700 miles apart, but for 30 students from Harvard Law School and the Renmin University of China School of Law, common interests and videoconferencing equipment easily bridge these distances.

During this spring semester, students in a reading group taught by HLS Professor William P. Alford and an advanced negotiation skills class taught by Renmin Assistant Professor Alonzo Emery ’10 have come together electronically to consider the roles of China and the U.S. in a world order in flux.

Please visit the Harvard Law School website to read more.

 

Important Information for Students Traveling Abroad This Summer

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A reminder that Harvard University requires ALL students who are traveling under University auspices (that is, receiving either credit or funding) to complete these three requirements prior to departure:

  • register the trip in the Harvard Travel Registry. This enables the University to locate you quickly and provide assistance in the event of an emergency (i.e. natural disaster, civil unrest, etc). Registering is required for all students traveling on trips funded or arranged by the University and strongly recommended for everyone.  Students should create a profile in the Travel Registry and then record their specific trip information and make sure the information stays up-to-date. 
  • review, sign, and return the appropriate Assumption of Risk and General Release to your sponsoring HLS program.
  • obtain a Harvard Travel Assist membership card and review the program’s services.  Harvard Travel Assist provides 24-hour worldwide emergency medical and evacuation assistance for Harvard’s employees and students traveling on University related activities. It is a supplement to (not a substitute for) health insurance and can provide medical information and evacuation services, emergency assistance (including translation services and legal referrals), and general travel advice, among other things.

 In addition, HLS students should review Harvard’s Global Support Services’ travel risk ratings.  Students who are considering travel to an area that is categorized as high-risk must:

This is necessary for travel in conjunction with courses or clinics as well as independent travel.  Please be aware that HLS may advise against — and may even withhold support for — travel that is deemed to pose excessive risk.

For more information on each of these steps, and traveling abroad in general, please visit our international travel webpage.

One more reminder:

(More information on these sessions here.)