Alan Dershowitz

Alan M. Dershowitz is Felix Frankfurter Professor at Harvard Law School, specializing in civil rights and criminal defense. Time magazine, in addition to including him in the cover story on the "50 Faces for the Future," called him a "legal star" and "the top lawyer of last resort in the country—a sort of judicial St. Jude."

He will take issues across the ideological spectrum. Active in the American Civil Liberties Union and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, he is also a columnist for Frontpage Magazine.

Teaching

Dershowitz was appointed to the Harvard Law School faculty at age 25 and became a full professor at age 28, the youngest in the school's history. Since that time, he has taught courses in criminal law, psychiatry and law, constitutional litigation, civil liberties and violence, comparative criminal law, legal ethics, human rights, the Bible and justice, great trials, neurobiology and the law, and a collaborative philosophy course called "Thinking About Thinking."

He is highly regarded as a teacher. "In a series of recent moot courts, he has defended Jesus (hung jury), Abraham (acquitted) and Hamen (convicted but sentence commuted to life imprisonment)." He both makes law accessible to the public, and also is well-known for using media to support his cases. He was the first law professor to write regularly for the New York Times in its Week in Review, op-ed and Book Review sections, and hosted a radio talk show about the law, for which he received the 1996 Freedom of Speech Award from the National Association of Radio Talk Show Hosts.

Criminal defense

Dershowitz has been called the "winningest appellate criminal defense lawyer in history." Over the course of his 35-year career as a lawyer, Dershowitz has won more than 100 cases—a remarkable record for a part-time litigator who handles primarily criminal appeals, which generally have a very low rate of reversal. Dershowitz takes half of his cases on a pro bono basis and continues to represent numerous indigent defendants and causes.

Geraldo Rivera called him "[B]eyond a doubt… the smartest lawyer I know," while William F. Buckley Jr. has described him as a "deeply thoughtful man," "a master of the law," and "a masterful advocate."

Writing

Dershowitz is the author of 27 non-fiction works and two novels.

Civil rights

In 1983, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith presented him with the William O. Douglas First Amendment Award for his "compassionate eloquent leadership and persistent advocacy in the struggle for civil and human rights." In presenting the award, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel said: "If there had been a few people like Alan Dershowitz during the 1930s and 1940s, the history of European Jewry might have been different."

Rabbi Irving Greenberg included Dershowitz, along with Wiesel, as prime examples of "modern-day rabbis" who teach Torah in a secular context. The New York Criminal Bar Association honored Dershowitz for his "outstanding contribution as a scholar and dedicated defender of human rights."

International conflict

He questions whether the Geneva Conventions remain relevant in today's conflicts.

Torture

He does not renounce the use of torture in all situations, but, if it is used, it should be under the control of court warrants.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

He defended Israeli actions in Gaza, saying "Israel's actions in Gaza are justified under international law, and Israel should be commended for its self-defense against terrorism. Article 51 of the United Nations Charter reserves to every nation the right to engage in self-defense against armed attacks. The only limitation international law places on a democracy is that its actions must satisfy the principle of proportionality."

Lawfare

He has said radical Islamic groups have waged lawfare in U.S. courts, exerting a chilling effect on speech. "The UK is notorious for its plaintiff-friendly libel laws which have been accused of being "contemptuous of free speech" and making a "mockery of British justice" and because they silence writers through expensive litigation.

But even as Britain attempts to prevent frivolous libel suits, the battle continues in the US. American courts are being utilised by radical Islamic groups to stifle writers through "lawfare" – the use of law as a weapon of warfare – a tactic that has had a "chilling effect" on free speech. In contrast to the British laws, American libel law favours defendants. However, plaintiffs in the US have learned to sue their critics for defamation, not with the intent to win the case, but with the hope of imposing an unaffordably high cost on criticism of their actions."

Education

• Brooklyn College A.B. 1959
• Yale Law School LL.B. 1962; first in his class and served as editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal
• for Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals David Bazelon and Supreme Court of the United States Justice Arthur Goldberg.

Visits

• In 1979 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work in human rights.
• In 1981 he was invited to China as a guest of the government to lecture and consult on their criminal code. He returned in 2001 to lecture to lawyers and law students.
• In 1987 he was named the John F. Kennedy-Fulbright Lecturer and toured New Zealand University lecturing about the Bill of Rights. In 1988 he served as Visiting Professor of Law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and lectured in Israel on civil liberties during times of crisis. In 1990 he was invited to Moscow to lecture on human rights, and the following year was selected as a Father of the Year and a recipient of the Golden Plate Award.