The Institute’s Policy Clinic involves students in each of four policy teams to advance client goals: climate, health/food, human rights, and trade. See links to the right for the work of each team and student projects.
Harrison Institute News
Featured News
February 18, 2020
Human rights, community impact of mega-events
The Harrison Institute hosted the Centre for Sport and Human Rights (Geneva), which led a workshop on how to design a scorecard for host cities in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will occur in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Scores would show a city's capacity to secure worker rights, protect participants in FIFA events, and minimize adverse community impacts. Led by Mary Harvey, CEO of the Centre and former World Cup goalie, participants in the workshop included the State Department, Human Rights Watch, AFL-CIO, Human Rights Campaign, Athlete Ally, Good Jobs First, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, International Labor Rights Forum, and Independent Supporters Council (of soccer fans).
December 27, 2019
Trade and climate policy
Matt Porterfield, the Harrison Institute's deputy director, published his article--Border Adjustments for Carbon Taxes, PPMs and the WTO--in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law. As the consensus for a carbon tax grows, one concern is that a tax will shift production and jobs to countries that rely on fossil fuels. The solution is to adjust a carbon tax at the border: levy the tax on imports and rebate the tax on exports. Matt's article explains how the WTO provides a path for adjusting consumption taxes at the border, including taxes on inputs used in a production process.
December 27, 2019
Human rights for workers
Robert Stumberg, the Harrison Institute's director, published his book chapter--Supply Chain Transparency in Public Procurement: Lessons from the Apparel Sector--with co-author and GULC alum, Nicole Vandermeulen. The chapter lays out the history of human rights standards in apparel, the first industry to confront worker abuses in a global supply chain. It draws lessons from the first public contract to require supply-chain transparency in Madison, Wisconsin. The chapter is in Public Procurement and Human Rights, edited by Claire Methven O'Brien and Olga Martin Ortega, Edward Elgar, 2019.
Featured Events
2:00 pm
Johns Hopkins School of International Studies - 1919 Mass Ave. NW
Sustainable Trade in a Transatlantic Perspective
Matt Porterfield, deputy director of the Harrison Institute, will speak on prospects for trans-Atlantic cooperation on carbon taxes. The panel will include a conversation with Bernd Lange, Chair of the European Parliament's International Trade Committee, Standing rapporteur EU-US trade relations.
February 28 - March 1, 2020
University of Arkansas School of Law
Food Law Student Leadership Summit
Sara Hoverter, staff attorney at the Harrison Institute, will lead a seminar on university food purchasing at the Food Law Student Leadership Summit. The summit convenes law students from around the country who share a passion for creating an equitable, transparent, healthy, and sustainable food system.
March 31 - April 2, 2020
Virginia Military Institute
Climate Equity at Environment Virginia Symposium
Jennifer Li, staff attorney at the Harrison Institute, will speak about grassroots climate equity at the annual Environment Virginia Symposium, which is hosted by VMI this year. Over the past two years, Jennifer has supported a working group of residents and community members in Washington DC's Ward 7
to help implement the District's climate plans. Collaborators included the Georgetown Climate Center, the DC Department of Energy and Environment, and Skeo environmental consultants.
