January 19th, 2012

David Wolman discusses young activists in Egypt

On Jan. 19, David Wolman contributing editor to Wired magazine, presented his new book The Instigators about Egypt’s youth activists at the Liberation Technology Seminar Series. Video available
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March 14th, 2011

Ethics and War: When combatants hide among civilians

One critical element of the laws of war is a concept known as "belligerent privilege," which stipulates that combatants may legally kill other combatants but may not target civilians. What, then, does a soldier do about the fact that in modern warfare it can be extraordinarily difficult to tell the difference? paper available
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March 8th, 2011

Larry May addresses reparations, restitution, and transitional justice

On March 8, Professor Larry May delivered a lecture entitled “Reparations, Restitution, and Transitional Justice” as part of the Program on Human Right’s Sanela Diana Jenkins International Human Rights Speaker Series. May, a Professor of Philosophy and of Law at Vanderbilt University, presented his analysis of transitional justice and jus post bellum that has appeared in some of his 25 published books, as well as the many scholarly articles and essays he has written. Read more »

November 18th, 2010

Mark Lemley: digital technologies' effects on the content industry

As new digital technologies arise, leading the music, movie, print journalism and other content industries to complain that they “cannot compete with free,” Mark Lemley, Director of the Center for Law, Science and Technology at SLS, poses the following overarching question: is the sky really falling on the content industries? As Lemley makes clear through a series of examples, representatives from these industries have echoed this same claim countless times throughout recent history, and yet have never been fully accurate. Even so, both the courts and the legislature have taken action in response to content industries’ claims in some cases. Read more »

January 28th, 2010

Google.org's Megan Smith: 'liberation through interconnection'

Megan Smith,Vice President, New Business Development and General Manager, Google.org., argued that greater interconnectedness achieved by information technology is a major liberating force in the world. Whether it is aiding the coordination of protests or increasing transparency of governments, the exchange of information has huge benefits. This is not a new phenomenon. Audio & Video transcripts available
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October 1st, 2009

Lucky Gunasekara and Tom Wiltzius on democratizing health care using mobile phone networks

Summary of the October 1st class. Lucky Gunasekara, a student at Stanford's School of Medicine, and Tom Wiltzius, a student in Stanford's Computer Science program, took us through the rationale behind working with mobile phones and the content of their project working with health workers in Malawi. Read more »

May 18th, 2004

Renowned political economist and author Francis Fukuyama speaks on state-building

In a May 14 lecture hosted by the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Francis Fukuyama, PhD -- professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins University and renowned author of The End of History and the Last Man -- discussed the problem of weak nation-states; the effectiveness of various approaches to strengthening such states; and the importance of culture, context and history in the task of state-building. Read more »