2017 Systemic Justice Summit
New Priorities, New Strategies, New Collaborations
January 14 – 15, 2017, Harvard Law School

For people engaged in the cause of justice, this is a time of deep uncertainty and concern. We all feel a sense of urgency to come together, strategize, and hammer out concrete ideas for moving forward. We at the Systemic Justice Project can offer our energy, resources, and connections to a network of lawyers, scholars, teachers, organizers, activists, students, and others eager to join collaborations that can advance justice or resist injustice.

Toward that end, the “Systemic Justice Summit: New Priorities, New Strategies, New Collaborations” (January 14 – 15, 2017, Harvard Law School) will bring together justice-minded lawyers and nonlawyers engaged with the legal system to discuss priorities, strategies, cases, and opportunities for collaboration on a wide range of issues — from immigration and climate change to racial, gender, and economic justice.

As lawyers, organizers, law students, and advocates, our first and most immediate concerns are the urgent challenges facing especially vulnerable groups. At the same time, we should not lose sight of the ways in which the 2016 election highlights the continued urgent need for a new way of thinking about the law and the legal profession — one that places social justice at its core and works to find sustainable, deep solutions and institutions.

The summit will take up those challenges with an eye to developing pragmatic short- and long-term strategies and sustainable collaborations for fundamental change.

Students from a number of Harvard Law School courses affiliated with the Systemic Justice Project, including Practicing Systemic Justice, will participate in planning the summit. Based in part on the priorities identified at the summit, and working in conjunction with practitioners and experts, students from the Justice Lab and other courses will work with you to craft policy papers, action plans, and practical tools to address these issues. The plans will be presented and discussed at the third annual Systemic Justice Conference (April 7-9 2017). We also hope to explore ways other ways we can deploy our faculty, staff and student resources to support your ongoing work.

Please find more information at systemicjusticesummit.com and register at systemicjusticesummit.com/registration.

The Systemic Justice Project (“SJP”) is a policy innovation collaboration, organized and catalyzed by Harvard Law School students devoted to identifying injustice, designing solutions, promoting awareness, and advocating reforms to policymakers, opinion leaders, and the public. While targeting specific policy challenges, SJP is devoted to understanding common and systemic sources of injustice by analyzing the historical, cultural, political, economic, and psychological context of particular problems. Toward that end, SJP is committed to collaborating with scholars, lawyers, lawmakers, and citizens and to working with existing institutions in promoting attainable, pragmatic, and lasting policy solutions.