Past Events

  • Read more: Toward Psychedelics Access: Go Faster or Slower?
    Nov 5 2025

    Toward Psychedelics Access: Go Faster or Slower?

    Join us for a lunchtime debate hosted by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. This discussion will explore the surge of interest in increasing access to psychedelics. What are the law and policy choices that would maximize benefits and minimize risk of harm? Lunch will be served; event…

  • Read more: A New Multilateralism for Global Health Equity
    Nov 7 2025

    A New Multilateralism for Global Health Equity

    This hybrid lunchtime event is organized by the Harvard Center for International Development. The global health system is broken — and it was never truly built for equity. As power shifts and old institutions lose influence, we’re at a rare crossroads: do we patch up a flawed system, or imagine something better? This panel brings…

  • Read more: Courts and the Young Adult Brain
    Nov 4 2025

    Courts and the Young Adult Brain

    Criminal Resentencing Post-Monschke, Mattis, and Other State Case Law  In Roper v. Simmons (2005), the U.S. Supreme Court barred the death penalty for crimes committed under 18, grounding its reasoning in developmental science. Yet Jones v. Mississippi (2021) upheld discretionary life without parole, leaving states to decide how science should inform sentencing. In the wake of Jones, courts across the…

  • Read more: How Old is Too Old to Govern?
    Oct 8 2025

    How Old is Too Old to Govern?

    Recording

    Join the Petrie-Flom Center and a panel of experts for an in-person lunchtime discussion of the legal, scientific, medical, and ethical issues related to aging political and judicial leaders. Is the advanced age of many leaders cause for concern? Should we have maximum age limits for lawmakers and judges? What can neuroscience research tell us about…

  • Read more: Climate Justice with the Petrie-Flom Center
    Sep 15 2025

    Climate Justice with the Petrie-Flom Center

    The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. As part of our retrospective and the Salata Institute’s Climate Week, journey through our past and present climate justice work. Introduction Events The Petrie-Flom Center hosts lunchtime discussions, book talks, conferences, and webinars throughout the year,…

  • Read more: PFC@20
    Sep 11 2025

    PFC@20

    Recording

    You are cordially invited Join us to celebrate two decades of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics. September 11, 2025 5–8 p.m. Recording OPENING REMARKS I. Glenn Cohen, Faculty Director, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law, and Deputy Dean,…

  • Read more: Psychedelics Bootcamp 2025
    Jul 14 2025

    Psychedelics Bootcamp 2025

    The Petrie-Flom Center hosted an intensive training on issues in psychedelics-related law, medicine, research, and policy on July 14-15, 2025. With nine sessions, 25 instructors, and 60 participants, the conference emphasized lateral learning, in-depth conversation, and a complex picture of the psychedelic landscape today. Made possible by a generous gift from the Gracias Family Foundation, Psychedelics…

  • 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

    Recording

    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 at Syracuse…

  • 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: 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…