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Apsara Iyer is an American art crime investigator and the 137th president of the Harvard Law Review . [1] [2] She is the first Indian American woman to be elected to that position. [2]
Iyer was born in Chicago and raised in West Lafayette, Indiana. [1] [3] She attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and then Yale University, where she received a bachelor's in Spanish and in economics and math. [2] In 2012, she was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship.[ citation needed ] She was awarded the Clarendon Fund scholarship to pursue graduate studies at University of Oxford, where she received an MPhil in economics. [4]
In 2018, Iyer joined the Antiquities Trafficking Unit within the New York County District Attorney's office, working with Matthew Bogdanos on major cases related to art and crime, the illicit antiquities trade, and looted art. [1] [5] She has been instrumental in the return of numerous looted, stolen, and trafficked cultural objects to their countries of origin. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] She has been involved in the repatriation of cultural property to 15 different countries, amounting to the return of over 1,100 stolen cultural objects. [4]
In 2021, Iyer spent a summer working with Donna Yates at Maastricht University, researching the application of statutes of limitations in cultural property cases as a Chayes International Public Service Fellow. [4] [13]
Prior to this, she was a volunteer researcher in the Trafficking Culture research consortium and at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Cultural Heritage Center. [14]
Amidst the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, two editors of the Harvard Law Review solicited an article by Harvard PhD candidate and human rights lawyer Rabea Eghbariah, which "argue[d] that the atrocities in Gaza amount to genocide" and that "the distinctive nature of the domination Palestinians have faced should demand a new category of crime: 'Nakba'." [15] [16] After the article was edited, fact-checked, and initially approved, Iyer intervened to stop its publication, citing safety concerns. [15] [17] After this, an emergency meeting of 100 editors of the Harvard Law Review was called and an anonymous vote was held, in which 63% of editors voted against publication. [15] [16] This move generated public controversy among editors and others. [15] [18] [19]
The Harvard Law Review is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the Harvard Law Review's 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 journals in the category "Law". It also ranks first in other ranking systems of law reviews. It is published monthly from November through June, with the November issue dedicated to covering the previous year's term of the Supreme Court of the United States.
The Columbia Law Review is a law review edited and published by students at Columbia Law School. The journal publishes scholarly articles, essays, and student notes.
David Mark Smolin is a professor of law at Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama where he is the Harwell G. Davis Chair in Constitutional Law, director for The Center for Children, Law, and Ethics, former director of the Center for Biotechnology, Law, and Ethics, and faculty advisor for the Law, Science and Technology Society.
Colonel Matthew Bogdanos is an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, author, boxer, and a retired colonel in the United States Marine Corps. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Bogdanos deployed to Afghanistan where he was awarded a Bronze Star for actions against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. In 2003, while on active duty in the Marine Corps, he led an investigation into the looting of Iraq's National Museum, and was subsequently awarded the National Humanities Medal for his efforts. Returning to the District Attorney’s Office in 2010, he created and still heads the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, “the only one of its kind in the world.” He had previously gained national attention for the prosecution of Sean Combs, who was acquitted of weapons and bribery charges in a 2001 trial stemming from a 1999 nightclub shootout.
The antiquities trade is the exchange of antiquities and archaeological artifacts from around the world. This trade may be illicit or completely legal. The legal antiquities trade abides by national regulations, allowing for extraction of artifacts for scientific study whilst maintaining archaeological and anthropological context. The illicit antiquities trade involves non-scientific extraction that ignores the archaeological and anthropological context from the artifacts.
Richard Henry Kuh was a partner at the law firm of Warshaw Burstein Cohen Schlesinger & Kuh, LLP. He served as New York County District Attorney from February to December, 1974.
The New York County District Attorney, also known as the Manhattan District Attorney, is the elected district attorney for New York County (Manhattan), New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws. The current district attorney is Alvin Bragg. He was elected in 2021 to succeed Cyrus Vance Jr.
Cyrus Roberts Vance Jr. is an American attorney and politician who served as the District Attorney of New York County, New York. He was previously a principal partner at the law firm of Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello, & Bohrer, P.C. He is the son of Cyrus Vance Sr., former Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter. Vance did not seek reelection as District Attorney in the 2021 election, and was succeeded by Alvin Bragg. He is currently a partner at Baker McKenzie.
The Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA) is a nongovernmental civil society organisation (CSO) that conducts scholarly research and training within the discipline of combatting cultural property crime. Established in 2009 with the aim of exploring the gaps in the international legal framework which addresses art and antiquities crimes. ARCA was founded by Dr. Noah Charney, an art and art crime historian, as well as a published author.
Subhash Kapoor is an Indian American art smuggler who was convicted for running a $100 million international smuggling racket. He was previously the owner of the Art of the Past gallery in Manhattan. His sister business, Nimbus Import/Exports, specialised in selling antiquities from across the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia to major museums around the world.
Mary Kay Vyskocil is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and a former United States bankruptcy judge for the same court. President Donald Trump nominated her to the district bench in 2018 and again in 2019, and she was confirmed in 2019.
Jennifer Gillum Rodgers is an American attorney and legal analyst at CNN.
Mark Floyd Pomerantz is an American attorney. He is a member of the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, generally referred to as Paul, Weiss. In February 2021, he left that firm to assist with the Manhattan District Attorney's investigation into the finances of former president Donald Trump until his resignation from the case in February 2022.
Tali Farimah Farhadian Weinstein, is an American attorney, professor, and politician. She is a former federal and state prosecutor and was a candidate in the 2021 New York County District Attorney race.
Alvin Leonard Bragg Jr. is an American politician and lawyer who serves as the New York County District Attorney, covering Manhattan. In 2021, he became the first African American elected to that office. Bragg had previously served as Chief Deputy Attorney General of New York and as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. In 2024, he became the first and only district attorney to secure a conviction of a former United States president.
Two related investigations by New York State and City officials were opened by 2020 to determine whether the Trump Organization has committed financial fraud. One of these is a criminal case being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney (DA) and the other is a civil case being conducted by the New York State Attorney General (AG). The DA's case has led to two of the organization's subsidiary companies being found guilty of 17 charges including tax fraud and the indictment of Donald Trump, while the AG has succeeded in imposing an independent monitor to prevent future fraud by the organization.
Carey R. Dunne is an American attorney. He is known for leading the criminal investigation of Donald Trump for the office of the Manhattan District Attorney until his resignation from the case, alongside his colleague Mark F. Pomerantz, in February 2022. In that role, Dunne successfully argued Trump v. Vance before the United States Supreme Court in May 2020; the court held that President Trump was required to comply with a state grand jury subpoena for his tax returns. Prior to his service at the DA's Office, Dunne was a longtime partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he specialized in white collar criminal defense. Dunne is a past president of the New York City Bar Association.
Lucy Lang is an American attorney, author, and the 11th Inspector General of New York.
Gianfranco Becchina is an Italian antiquities dealer who has been convicted in Italy of illegally dealing in antiquities.
Rabea Eghbariah is a Palestinian human rights lawyer and academic. He is currently completing his J.S.D. at Harvard Law School, where he focuses on the socio-legal aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In an article called "The Ongoing Nakba: Towards a Legal Framework for Palestine," he proposed a new way of understanding the lives of Palestinians under Israeli rule. The article was censored by elite American universities.