Revue Authors Will Go Undisciplined

The Harvard Law School Administrative Board announced last week that it will not take disciplinary action against the authors of a Harvard Law Review spoof that parodied an essay by slain feminist law scholar Mary Joe Frug.

The Ad Bboard said it will not investigate the incident or related charges of sexual harassment at the Review.

In its decision, the Ad Board said it joined "those members of the community who believe the parody was offensive and we deplore the pain it has caused."

Yet the board added that there is no Law School rule which "imposes limits on the content of publications by students that would be applicable here."

The spoof was based on an essay by Frug, a Bunting fellow and New England School of Law professor who was stabbed to death on a Cambridge street in April 1991.

Frug's original article, "A Post-modernist Feminist Legal Manifesto," addressed violence against women, and appeared in the March issue of the Review.

The authors who penned the parody for the spoof issue, third-year law student Craig B. Coben and Ken Fenyo, called their article the He-Manifesto of Post-Mortem Legal Feminism." Their article was signed, "Mary Doe, Rigor-Mortis Professor of Law."

The Parody created an uproar last month among Law School students and faculty. Students held a vigil in front of Pound Hall on April 10 in response to the spoof, which was released on April 4 at a banquet honoring recently elected Review editors.

And Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law Laurence H. Tribe '62 attacked the issue in an address to the Harvard Jewish Law Students Association, comparing the parody to the work of Holocaust revisionists and the Ku Klux Klan. of the life and death and work of Mary Joe Frug... a rape in all but biological reality," hesaid.

Review President Emily R. Schulman '85apologized for the piece in a letter to students,calling the parody "vicious and indefensible."

"The editors of the Law Review areashamed of the Revue's publication and aredeeply saddened and troubled by its contents,"Schulman said.

The administrative board announced its decisionin a letter to Professor of law David Kennedy. Inan April 19 letter to the board, Kennedy had askedthe administration to bring charges against thestudents who were directly and indirectlyresponsible for the Frug parody.

Kennedy's letter said that the parodycontributed to an atmosphere "where sexualharassment merges into assault."

This article was written using informationfrom the Associated Press.

Review President Emily R. Schulman '85apologized for the piece in a letter to students,calling the parody "vicious and indefensible."

"The editors of the Law Review areashamed of the Revue's publication and aredeeply saddened and troubled by its contents,"Schulman said.

The administrative board announced its decisionin a letter to Professor of law David Kennedy. Inan April 19 letter to the board, Kennedy had askedthe administration to bring charges against thestudents who were directly and indirectlyresponsible for the Frug parody.

Kennedy's letter said that the parodycontributed to an atmosphere "where sexualharassment merges into assault."

This article was written using informationfrom the Associated Press.