“Sunlight is the greatest disinfectant,” Professor Daniel Medwed tells The Daily Free Press. “If we’re concerned about police abuse … having oversight and statewide accountability is a step forward because people obviously act differently when they know they’re being watched.”

Northeastern Law faculty share a commitment to scholarship that promotes mutual collaboration for the common good and offers concrete approaches to pressing legal challenges. Our recent contributions to leading journals exemplify our dedication to improving public health; to devising sustainable paths to economic growth in the information age; and to defending democracy and the rule of law. We are delighted to share a selected list of recent articles.

Karen Kithan Yau ’96, of counsel at Kakalec Law, has been selected to receive a Pro Bono Award from the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) at the organization’s annual ceremony in December. Yau is co-chair of the Pro Bono and Community Service (PBCS) Committee of the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY).

Lurking behind systems from enslavement to segregation, from redlining to police violence, is a “brutal logic” from which the “lives and families of African Americans are subject to the acquisition by people to enrich themselves,” said author Ta-Nehisi Coates during a daylong conference hosted by Northeastern’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project and the Africana Studies Program that also included commentary from noted activist Angela Y. Davis and others, as well as testimony from the descendants of lynching victims.

“In order to understand what these events are all about today, you have to look back,” Professor Margaret Burnham, director of Northeastern Law's Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Clinic, tells Experience Magazine. “We have not yet come to terms with this history. It casts a long shadow over today.”

Professor Leo Beletsky tells ABC News that Oregon will be closely watched as a model for other states: "Voters are hungry for change in drug policy."

“To substantially shift the experiences of people who use drugs in their communities, decriminalization must be coupled with meaningful police reform and efforts to build-up systems of support and care,” Professor Leo Beletsky, director of Northeastern Law’s Health in Justice Action Lab, tells The Appeal.

“If it’s anything less than a blowout, decisive victory on Tuesday, watch the Supreme Court,” says Professor Dan Urman.

In an article for the CommonWealth journal, Professor Deborah Ramirez and her co-authors present three solutions that the state of Massachusetts needs to enact to address the current eviction crisis.

Professor Brook Baker has co-authored a perspective piece for Health Policy Watch on the Gates Foundation and its approach to access to medicines: “The world cannot rely uncritically on the voice and ideas of billionaires, who made their own fortunes through intellectual property rights, to pull us out of this pandemic.”