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Dershowitz has been noted as a [[criminal law|criminal]] [[appeal|appellate]] lawyer, most notably in getting a conviction overturned for [[Claus von Bülow]], who had been accused of trying to murder his wife. The publicity surrounding this New York society scandal fueled enough interest that Dershowitz's book on the case, ''[[Reversal of Fortune]]'', was turned into a major film starring [[Jeremy Irons]] and [[Glenn Close]]. In addition, Dershowitz has often commented on [[Judaism]], [[Israel]], [[civil rights]] and [[civil liberties|liberties]], and the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]].
Dershowitz has been noted as a [[criminal law|criminal]] [[appeal|appellate]] lawyer, most notably in getting a conviction overturned for [[Claus von Bülow]], who had been accused of trying to murder his wife. The publicity surrounding this New York society scandal fueled enough interest that Dershowitz's book on the case, ''[[Reversal of Fortune]]'', was turned into a major film starring [[Jeremy Irons]] and [[Glenn Close]]. In addition, Dershowitz has often commented on [[Judaism]], [[Israel]], [[civil rights]] and [[civil liberties|liberties]], and the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]].

In 1972, Dershowitz attempted to discredit the chairman of the Israel League for Human Rights, Israel Shahak, who had sharply criticized Israeli treatment towards Palestinians. Shahak was in the process of challenging contested election results for the chairmanship of the Israel League through courts. Dershowitz claimed the judge in the matter, Judge Lovenburg, had ruled that Shahak was properly unseated and challenged anyone to provide evidence to the contrary. In response, Noam Chomsky cited the court documents and claimed the court opined the elections had not been held properly, no conclusions or actions were to be drawn from it, and that Shahak and his colleagues were to continue to function as "those who now direct" the league. The incident created a lasting personal miasma between the intellectuals. Chomsky in recalling the incident in a 1997 book about his life disparaged Dershowitz by calling him a "Stalinist-style thug".

In 1977, Dershowitz handled the appeal of porn star Harry Reems who had been convicted of conspiracy to distribute obscenity, based on his acting in the movie Deep Throat. The conviction was overturned.

In 1983 the Jewish advocacy group Anti-Defamation League awarded Dershowitz the William O. Douglas First Amendment Award for his "compassionate eloquent leadership and persistent advocacy in the struggle for civil and human rights." Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, who presented the award, was quoted as saying, "If there had been a few people like Alan Dershowitz during the 1930s and 1940s, the history of European Jewry might have been different."

He successfully defended Claus von Bülow in 1984 on a charge of attempting to murder his wife with an injection of insulin, a case dramatized in the film Reversal of Fortune (1990) starring Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, and Ron Silver as Dershowitz.

Dershowitz worked on the legal defense team of boxer Mike Tyson, who was convicted of rape in 1992. He was also a member of the legal defense team ("Dream Team") for O.J. Simpson, who was acquitted in 1995 of double homicide despite overwhelming evidence pointing towards guilt.

Dershowitz has incited controversy by advocating the issuing of warrants for the torture of suspected terrorists. He has said that in "ticking bomb" cases — situations in which "a captured terrorist who knows of an imminent large-scale threat refuses to disclose it" — the use of torture would be justified in order to save many innocent lives. Other controversial positions include Dershowitz's comments expressing his disregard for the human rights claims of Palestinian refugees, and Dershowitz's accusations that faculty members at Columbia University encourage terrorism.

In the early 2000s Dershowitz was asked to leave The Last Word radio show on Ireland's Today FM when during a live phone in-link he began verbally abusing journalist Robert Fisk and interrupting attempts by Fisk to speak. The presenter of the show, Eamon Dunphy, previously a fan of Dershowitz, pronounced himself "perplexed" by what he said were Dershowitz's attempts to silence someone he disagreed with. Radio listeners, many of them critics of Fisk, rang the show to complain about Dershowitz's behaviour, accusing him of "bullying" and "bigotry."

In September 2003, shortly after the publication of Dershowitz's The Case for Israel, Norman Finkelstein accused its author of plagiarism, noting that dozens of quotations in that book resembled, without attribution, passages quoted by Joan Peters in her From Time Immemorial — itself a work that Finkelstein and others had criticized, harshly, for poor scholarship. See Dershowitz-Finkelstein affair for more information.

Dershowitz has recently written about Saddam Hussein's upcoming trial.




==Early life, education, and family==
==Early life, education, and family==

Revision as of 17:09, 20 April 2006

File:Dershowitz Alan.jpg
Alan Dershowitz

Alan Morton Dershowitz (born September 1, 1938) is a lawyer and jurist from the United States. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School, where at the age of 28 he became the youngest full professor in the law school's history, and is now the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law. In addition to his teaching, Dershowitz is a prolific author who makes frequent media and public speaking appearances and has worked on a number of high-profile legal cases.

Dershowitz has been noted as a criminal appellate lawyer, most notably in getting a conviction overturned for Claus von Bülow, who had been accused of trying to murder his wife. The publicity surrounding this New York society scandal fueled enough interest that Dershowitz's book on the case, Reversal of Fortune, was turned into a major film starring Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close. In addition, Dershowitz has often commented on Judaism, Israel, civil rights and liberties, and the First Amendment.

In 1972, Dershowitz attempted to discredit the chairman of the Israel League for Human Rights, Israel Shahak, who had sharply criticized Israeli treatment towards Palestinians. Shahak was in the process of challenging contested election results for the chairmanship of the Israel League through courts. Dershowitz claimed the judge in the matter, Judge Lovenburg, had ruled that Shahak was properly unseated and challenged anyone to provide evidence to the contrary. In response, Noam Chomsky cited the court documents and claimed the court opined the elections had not been held properly, no conclusions or actions were to be drawn from it, and that Shahak and his colleagues were to continue to function as "those who now direct" the league. The incident created a lasting personal miasma between the intellectuals. Chomsky in recalling the incident in a 1997 book about his life disparaged Dershowitz by calling him a "Stalinist-style thug".

In 1977, Dershowitz handled the appeal of porn star Harry Reems who had been convicted of conspiracy to distribute obscenity, based on his acting in the movie Deep Throat. The conviction was overturned.

In 1983 the Jewish advocacy group Anti-Defamation League awarded Dershowitz the William O. Douglas First Amendment Award for his "compassionate eloquent leadership and persistent advocacy in the struggle for civil and human rights." Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, who presented the award, was quoted as saying, "If there had been a few people like Alan Dershowitz during the 1930s and 1940s, the history of European Jewry might have been different."

He successfully defended Claus von Bülow in 1984 on a charge of attempting to murder his wife with an injection of insulin, a case dramatized in the film Reversal of Fortune (1990) starring Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, and Ron Silver as Dershowitz.

Dershowitz worked on the legal defense team of boxer Mike Tyson, who was convicted of rape in 1992. He was also a member of the legal defense team ("Dream Team") for O.J. Simpson, who was acquitted in 1995 of double homicide despite overwhelming evidence pointing towards guilt.

Dershowitz has incited controversy by advocating the issuing of warrants for the torture of suspected terrorists. He has said that in "ticking bomb" cases — situations in which "a captured terrorist who knows of an imminent large-scale threat refuses to disclose it" — the use of torture would be justified in order to save many innocent lives. Other controversial positions include Dershowitz's comments expressing his disregard for the human rights claims of Palestinian refugees, and Dershowitz's accusations that faculty members at Columbia University encourage terrorism.

In the early 2000s Dershowitz was asked to leave The Last Word radio show on Ireland's Today FM when during a live phone in-link he began verbally abusing journalist Robert Fisk and interrupting attempts by Fisk to speak. The presenter of the show, Eamon Dunphy, previously a fan of Dershowitz, pronounced himself "perplexed" by what he said were Dershowitz's attempts to silence someone he disagreed with. Radio listeners, many of them critics of Fisk, rang the show to complain about Dershowitz's behaviour, accusing him of "bullying" and "bigotry."

In September 2003, shortly after the publication of Dershowitz's The Case for Israel, Norman Finkelstein accused its author of plagiarism, noting that dozens of quotations in that book resembled, without attribution, passages quoted by Joan Peters in her From Time Immemorial — itself a work that Finkelstein and others had criticized, harshly, for poor scholarship. See Dershowitz-Finkelstein affair for more information.

Dershowitz has recently written about Saddam Hussein's upcoming trial.


Early life, education, and family

Dershowitz was born in the Williamsburg neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn and grew up in Borough Park. [1]

His parents, Harry and Claire, were both devout Orthodox Jews. Harry Dershowitz (May 8, 1909–April 26, 1984) was a founder and president of the Young Israel Synagogue in the 1960s, served on the board of directors of the Etz Chaim School in Borough Park, and in retirement was co-owner of the Manhattan-based Merit Sales Company. [2] Dershowitz's brother Nathan is counsel for the American Jewish Congress. [2]

Dershowitz attended Yeshiva University High School, where he played on the basketball team. He was a rebellious student, often criticized by his teachers. The school's career placement center, however, told him that he had talent and was capable of becoming an advertising executive, funeral director, or salesman. He decided, he said, to do something that "requires a big mouth and no brain...so I became a lawyer." [4]

Upon graduating, he attended Brooklyn College and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1959. He later attended Yale Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal.[1] He graduated first in his class with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) in 1962.

Career

After being admitted to the bar, Dershowitz served as a law clerk for David L. Bazelon, Chief Judge of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and Arthur Goldberg, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. [7]

He joined the faculty of Harvard Law School as an assistant professor of law in 1964. He was made a full professor of law in 1967 at the age of 28, becoming Harvard's youngest full law professor in the law school's history. He was appointed the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law in 1993, succeeding Abram Chayes. [7]

Much of Dershowitz's legal career has focused on criminal law, and his clients have included high-profile figures such as Patricia Hearst, Leona Helmsley, Jim Bakker, Mike Tyson, O.J. Simpson, and Harry Reems.

Dershowitz also played a leading role in the prosecution of John Demjanjuk, who in 1988 was convicted in Israel for crimes committed by "Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka"; the decision was overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court in 1993.

While representing Claus von Bülow he had the case overturned on appeal; in a retrial, von Bülow was acquitted. Afterwards, Dershowitz told the story of the case in his book, Reversal of Fortune. In the movie version, Dershowitz was played by Ron Silver and also himself had a cameo as a judge.

For several years, Dershowitz has written the monthly column "Justice" in the pages of Penthouse (magazine). [1]

Recognition

Dershowitz was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 1979, and was in 1983 a recipient of the William O. Douglas First Amendment Award from the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai Brith for his work in civil rights. [7] He has been awarded honorary doctorates in law from Yeshiva University, the Hebrew Union College, Monmouth College,Haifa University and Bar-Ilan University. [6]

He has been described by Newsweek as America's "most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer and one of its most distinguished defenders of individual rights" [1], and by Corriere della Sera as "America's most famous progressive lawyer".

He has been referenced on several occasions in popular entertainment, especially during the O.J. Simpson trial. On television, he has been parodied on Saturday Night Live and mentioned in the episode "Homer Bad Man" of The Simpsons.

Views and positions

Dershowitz has taken public stances on a number of controversial contemporary issues. Because of his fame, his positions have often been covered by major media sources and have been the subject of attention from both scholarly and political points of view.

Torture warrants

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Dershowitz advocated the issuance of warrants allowing terrorism suspects to be tortured if there is an "absolute need to obtain immediate information in order to save lives coupled with probable cause that the suspect had such information and is unwilling to reveal it". [8]

Although he claims to be personally against the use of torture, he believes that authorities should be permitted to use non-lethal torture in a "ticking bomb" scenario, regardless of whether international law permits it, and that it would be less destructive to the rule of law to regulate the process than to leave it up to the discretion of individual law-enforcement agents. Under his proposal, the government would not be allowed to prosecute the torture subject based upon information revealed under that interrogation method. "If torture is going to be administered as a last resort in the ticking-bomb case, to save enormous numbers of lives, it ought to be done openly, with accountability, with approval by the president of the United States or by a Supreme Court justice". [9]

Some civil libertarians have criticized Dershowitz's solution to the problem presented by uncooperative captured terrorists. Harvey Silverglate states that jury nullification and executive clemency could protect law enforcement in the hypothetical ticking-bomb case, thus "our legal system is perfectly capable of dealing with the exceptional hard case without enshrining the notion that it is okay to torture a fellow human being". [10]

William F. Schulz, the executive director of the U.S. section of Amnesty International, states that Dershowitz's hypothetical ticking-bomb scenario is unrealistic, because it would require that "the authorities know that a bomb has been planted somewhere; know it is about to go off; know that the suspect in their custody has the information they need to stop it; know that the suspect will yield that information accurately in a matter of minutes if subjected to torture; and know that there is no other way to obtain it." He also states that employing authorized torture would lower the country's ability to stand up for human rights abroad. [11]

Bill Goodman of the Center for Constitutional Rights, debating with Dershowitz on CNN, stated that Dershowitz's proposal would create a "very slippery slope," and that torture would "happen under more than those exceptional circumstances. It's going to start becoming the regular, rather than the unusual". [12]

The debate with Finkelstein

Main article: Dershowitz-Finkelstein affair

Shortly after the publication of Dershowitz's book The Case for Israel, Norman Finkelstein accused Dershowitz, of "fraud, falsification, plagiarism and nonsense." Saying that Dershowitz lacked knowledge about specific contents of his own book during a radio debate, Finkelstein also claimed that Dershowitz could not have written the book, and may not have even read it.[2] Finkelstein later expanded on his charges in a book, Beyond Chutzpah. The book also contains chapters contrasting Dershowitz's arguments in The Case for Israel with the views of some human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Dershowitz asked Harvard to investigate the charge of plagiarism and was exonerated.[3] Dershowitz and some prominent supporters say that Finkelstein is simply accusing him of good scholarly practice: citing references he learned of in Peters' book after first consulting them.[4] Dershowitz threatened libel action over the charges in Finkelstein's book, and produced his handwritten book manuscript to rebut the claim that The Case for Israel was ghostwritten. As a result, Finkelstein was forced to switch publishers and remove all uses of the word "plagiarism" in favor of less actionable language like "lifted from." [5]

See also: Norman Finkelstein.

Mearsheimer and Walt Paper

Main article: The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

Fellow Harvard professor John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt of University of Chicago, both political scientists, published in March 2006 a paper which criticizes what they describe as the "Israel Lobby" for influencing U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East away from U.S. interests and towards Israel's interests. They denote Alan Dershowitz in the paper as playing the role of an "apologist" for the Israeli lobby. In response, Dershowitz wrote an extensive report that challenged both the factual basis of the report, the motivations of the authors and their scholarship. Dershowitz claimed that the "paper contains three types of major errors: quotations are wrenched out of context, important facts are misstated or omitted, and embarrasingly weak logic is employed."[2]

Boston area controversies

During the time period that former Massachusetts Senate President Billy Bulger still held office (and afterwards), Alan Dershowitz was well known for his pointed criticisms of Bulger. [6] [7] To some observers, Bulger earned Dershowitz's enmity in part from Bulger having made arguably antisemitic remarks against Dershowitz at a Governor’s Council hearing. [8] While Bulger held office, he was by many accounts the most powerful politician in Massachusetts and Dershowitz was one of his highest profile critics.

In 1990, Dershowitz sued the Boston Globe regarding an alleged quote Mike Barnicle had attributed to him and won a $75,000 out of court settlement. [9] Regarding this dispute, The Globe's ombudsman sided with Dershowitz and questioned Barnicle's credibility.

Selected bibliography

  • 2005: The Case for Peace: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Can be Resolved (ISBN 0471743178); Chapter 16 is available online in PDF format
  • 2004: Rights From Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights (ISBN 0465017134)
  • 2004: America on Trial: Inside the Legal Battles That Transformed Our Nation (ISBN 0446520586)
  • 2003: America Declares Independence (ISBN 0471264822)
  • 2003: The Case for Israel (hardcover: ISBN 047146502X; paperback: ISBN 0471679526)
  • 2002: Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age (ISBN 0316181412)
  • 2002: Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge (ISBN 0300097662)
  • 2001: Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000 (ISBN 0195148274)
  • 2001: Letters to a Young Lawyer (ISBN 0465016316)
  • 2000: The Genesis of Justice: Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice that Led to the Ten Commandments and Modern Law (ISBN 0446676772)
  • 1999: Just Revenge (fiction; ISBN 0446608718)
  • 1998: Sexual McCarthyism: Clinton, Starr, and the Emerging Constitutional Crisis (ISBN 0465016286)
  • 1997: The Vanishing American Jew: In Search of Jewish Identity for the Next Century (ISBN 0316181331)
  • 1996: Reasonable Doubts: The Criminal Justice System and the O.J. Simpson Case (ISBN 0684830213)
  • 1994: The Abuse Excuse: And Other Cop-Outs, Sob Stories, and Evasions of Responsibility (ISBN 0316181358)
  • 1994: The Advocate's Devil (fiction; ISBN 0446517593)
  • 1992: Contrary to Popular Opinion (ISBN 0886877016)
  • 1991: Chutzpah (ISBN 0316181374)
  • 1988: Taking Liberties: A Decade of Hard Cases, Bad Laws, and Bum Raps (ISBN 0809246163)
  • 1985: Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case (ISBN 0394539036)
  • 1982: The Best Defense (ISBN 0394507363)

References

Articles about Dershowitz

The debate with Noam Chomsky

The debate with Norman Finkelstein

Notes

  1. ap. 35 bp. 41 cp. 40 dp. 45-46 ep. 49 fp. 57 Dershowitz, Alan M (1992-05-01). Chutzpah. Touchstone Books. ISBN 0671760890. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)
  2. a b c d e "Obituary: Harry Dershowitz". The New York Times, April 26, 1984.
  3. a "Harry Dershowitz". Social Security Death Index. Retrieved 2005-12-08.
  4. a Stull, Elizabeth (2003-09-25). "Son of Brooklyn Brings Home Legacy of High-Profile Trials". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Retrieved 2005-12-08.
  5. a Gale, Thomson (2002). "Dershowitz, Alan M." World of Criminal Justice. Retrieved 2005-12-08.
  6. a Crystal Reference (2001). "Dershowitz, Alan M(orton)". Crystal Reference Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2005-12-08.
  7. a b c "Alan Dershowitz". Harvard Law School Faculty. Retrieved 2005-12-08.
  8. a Alan M. Dershowitz (2002). "Want to torture? Get a warrant". San Francisco Chronicle, January 22, 2002.
  9. a "Dershowitz: Torture could be justified". CNN Access, March 4, 2003.
  10. a Harvey A. Silverglate (2001). "Torture warrants?". The Boston Phoenix, December 6–13, 2001.
  11. a William Schulz (2002). "The Torturer's apprentice: Civil liberties in a turbulent age. A review of Alan Dershowitz's new book: Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age". The Nation, May 13, 2002.
  12. a Anderson Cooper 360°, November 8, 2005.
  1. ^ Attorney General's Commission on Pornography (1986) Photographs, from Porn Report, accessed April 12, 2006
  2. ^ Dershowitz, Alan A reply to the Mearsheimer Walt "Working Paper", April 6, 2006. Accessed April 6, 2006.

External links

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