Announcement to HLS Students

In the past week we have heard from many students, lawyers, alums, and others looking for ways to respond to the longstanding and immediate crises in our country and our world.

The Systemic Justice Project was created to give students the opportunity to work on pressing policy problems in collaboration with lawyers, academics, legislators, organizers, and activists engaging those issues. The goal has been to understand the complex causes and interconnections of our problems and to develop innovative, systemic solutions.

This work has rarely been more urgent. We therefore invite all students who wish to devote curricular time to the injustices that have always been with us and the renewed injustices on the horizon to contact us and enroll in the spring Justice Lab from which prerequisites have been removed (Wednesdays 5:15 – 7:15pm).

We have some ideas for the road ahead, and we know you do too. We want to hear your suggestions and may be able to provide some structure, support, curricular credit, and an audience for any efforts you may already be planning.

We hope to host problem-identification and priority-setting events with our network of lawyers, legislators, and organizers in January to help inform our work in the spring, keeping in mind the need to fight fires and develop fireproof systems simultaneously. We will use the spring semester’s Justice Lab (and to a lesser extent, the Systemic Justice course) to put law students at the center of a network of concerned lawyers (and nonlawyers) to develop and propose legal and policy solutions to systemic injustices.

To join us in the Justice Lab — that is, to be made eligible for enrollment — or for more information, email jlipton@law.harvard.edu and hanson@law.harvard.edu and include the words Justice Lab in the subject line. For those of you who want to start work before the spring semester contact us as soon as possible. Plans are underway and we would welcome your involvement.