School Notes: Yale Law School
May/June 2015

Professor honored by magazine

Paul Gewirtz, Potter Stewart Professor of Constitutional Law and director of the China Center at Yale Law School, has been named to Foreign Policy magazine’s Pacific Power Index, a list of “50 people shaping the future of the US-China relationship.” Gewirtz was named to the list for “shaping Chinese lawmaking from America’s Ivy League.” The China Center, which Professor Gewirtz founded in 1999 as the China Law Center, carries out research and teaching on legal development in China and on US-China relations, and works with Chinese counterparts to help advance legal reform in China and to advance greater understanding and cooperation between the United States and China more generally. 

The global fight against Hepatitis C

A new report by Yale’s Global Health Justice Partnership (GHJP), the Treatment Action Group, and the Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge warns that global efforts to extend treatment to millions with Hepatitis C (HCV) are in peril unless key obstacles to access are confronted. “Ending an Epidemic: Overcoming Barriers to an HCV-Free Future,” offers a comprehensive strategy for improving access to a new class of medicines for the disease in low- and middle-income countries and addressing additional barriers to treatment, including a lack of trained health workers. The disease affects 185 million people worldwide, predominantly in low- and middle-income countries. New treatments provide a cure for HCV, according to the report, and the eradication of the disease is possible if challenges to access can be met. Hosted jointly by Yale Law School and Yale School of Public Health, the GHJP tackles contemporary problems at the interface of global health, human rights, and social justice.

Alums discuss law and religion

Clarence Thomas ’74JD, associate justice of the US Supreme Court, and John C. Danforth ’63BD, ’63LLB, former US ambassador to the United Nations, took part in the Debating Law and Religion series at Yale Law School on February 12. The event, titled “Religion in the Public Service: A Conversation,” was moderated by Guido Calabresi ’53, ’58LLB, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and professorial lecturer in law. Debating Law and Religion is a regular series that creates a formal forum for invited speakers to discuss topical issues concerning law, its interaction with religion, and the role of religion in contemporary legal and socio-political systems.