Past Events

  • Read more: 2025 Annual Conference: Law, Health Care, and the Aging Brain and Body
    Jun 9 2025

    2025 Annual Conference: Law, Health Care, and the Aging Brain and Body

    Conference Description The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School is pleased to announce our 2025 annual conference: “Law, Health Care, and the Aging Brain and Body.” This year’s conference is organized by the Petrie-Flom Center in collaboration with Nina A. Kohn, the David M. Levy Professor of Law…

  • Read more: Book Talk: Health Law as Private Law
    Apr 15 2025

    Book Talk: Health Law as Private Law

    Please join us to celebrate the launch of Health Law as Private Law: Pathology or Pathway, published by Cambridge University Press. Might private law be as powerful a tool as government regulation in solving problems in health care and public health? This new edited volume, which grew from a 2023 conference at the Petrie-Flom Center for…

  • Read more: Mental Health and Climate Change: When a Global Crisis and Planetary Emergency Collide
    May 8 2025

    Mental Health and Climate Change: When a Global Crisis and Planetary Emergency Collide

    Recording

    The range of adverse mental health effects resulting from climate change include triggering or exacerbating anxiety, depression, grief, and suicide. Natural phenomena from heatwaves and droughts to floods and fires that are fueled by climate change cause trauma, distress, and other mental health conditions. So can chronic, slow-onset effects of global warming, such as water and food insecurity, community breakdown, and conflict. Members of marginalized groups, especially Indigenous peoples, feel these effects in unique and especially acute…

  • Read more: The Evolutionary Purpose of Adolescent Vulnerability: Decoding and Depathologizing Adolescent Neurobiology and Behavior
    Apr 8 2025

    The Evolutionary Purpose of Adolescent Vulnerability: Decoding and Depathologizing Adolescent Neurobiology and Behavior

    Recording

    Adolescents—human and animal alike—take risks, challenge authority, and navigate social hierarchies as part of their development. In Wildhood, Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz explores how these behaviors are biologically ingrained and essential for survival. This event will examine how evolutionary biology supports the Supreme Court’s “Children Are Different” jurisprudence, reinforcing why adolescent decision-making should be understood through science rather than…

  • Read more: Ethics and the Law and Regulation of Medical AI
    Mar 7 2025

    Ethics and the Law and Regulation of Medical AI

    Artificial intelligence is poised for impact on every aspect of healthcare, healthcare systems, and clinical practice. As use cases emerge, careful analysis of ethical concerns and new legal and regulatory tools are needed. This conversation among experts will explore the ethical considerations for medical and consider current and possible legal and regulatory approaches. Panelists This…

  • Read more: PULSE Psychedelic Law and Religion Conference
    Feb 14 2025

    PULSE Psychedelic Law and Religion Conference

    Recording

    Sacred Rights: Psychedelics, Law, and Spirituality  2025 PULSE Conference Project on Psychedelic Use, Law, and Spiritual Experience (PULSE)  Scientific and commercial interest in psychedelics is exploding. In the flood of news about drug companies, clinical trials, and state and federal regulation, one might overlook the spiritual use of psychedelics. However, spiritual use long predates Western…

  • Read more: Five Years Later: A Book Talk on the Events of 2020
    Feb 13 2025

    Five Years Later: A Book Talk on the Events of 2020

    Recording

    This special event kicks off the Petrie-Flom Center’s 20th Anniversary year. Join us throughout 2025 to learn and gather inspiration for our next 20 years. Join us to reflect on a turbulent, world-changing year with an esteemed panel of experts. COVID-19, political unrest, and a societal reckoning all contributed to “the year everything changed,” according…

  • Read more: Book Talk: The Constitution of the War on Drugs
    Nov 21 2024

    Book Talk: The Constitution of the War on Drugs

    Recording

    Event Description Join us for Book Talk: The Constitution of the War on Drugs, as author David Pozen is joined by Mason Marks and Jeannie Suk Gersen to discuss the lost history of constitutional challenges to punitive drug laws and consider possible future paths open to drug reformers today. Please note: The Constitution of the War on…

  • Read more: Introducing PULSE: Psychedelic Use, Law, and Spiritual Experience
    Oct 24 2024

    Introducing PULSE: Psychedelic Use, Law, and Spiritual Experience

    Recording

    Event Description This academic year, the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School proudly launched a new project called PULSE: Psychedelic Use, Law, and Spiritual Experience. PULSE convenes legal and religious scholars and practitioners with diverse perspectives to discuss how law, policy, and ethics affect the religious and spiritual…

  • Read more: Fall 2024 Health Law Workshops
    Dec 1 2024

    Fall 2024 Health Law Workshops

    The Health Law Policy, Bioethics, and Biotechnology Workshop provides a forum for discussion of new scholarship in these fields from the world’s leading experts. The workshop is led by Professor I. Glenn Cohen, and presenters come from a wide range of disciplines and departments. Harvard graduate students may register to take the workshop for course…