Alan Dershowitz

Alan Morton Dershowitz (born September 1, 1938) is a well known political figure and criminal law professor at Harvard Law School, known for his extensive published works, support for Zionism and Israel and work as an attorney in several high-profile law cases.

Related Topics:
September 1 - 1938 - Political figure - Criminal law - Harvard Law School - Zionism - Israel - Attorney

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Dershowitz was born in Brooklyn, graduated from Yeshiva University high school and Brooklyn College. At Yale Law School, he was first in his class and editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. After clerking for Chief Judge David Bazelon of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, he was appointed to the Harvard Law School faculty at age 25 and became a full professor at age 28, then the youngest in the history of Harvard University (this record has since been surpassed by Noam Elkies).

Related Topics:
Brooklyn - Yeshiva University - Brooklyn College - Yale Law School - Yale Law Journal - Clerking - David Bazelon - D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals - Arthur Goldberg - Noam Elkies

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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 animosity between the intellectuals. Chomsky in recalling the incident in a 1997 book about his life disparaged Dershowitz noted that the evidence Chomsky had cited suggested he was a "Stalinist-style thug". "Ever since then," Chomsky wrote, "Dershowitz has been on a crazed jihad, dedicating much of his life to trying to destroy my reputation." http://cognet.mit.edu/library/books/chomsky/chomsky/5/2.html

Related Topics:
Israel League for Human Rights - Israel Shahak - Noam Chomsky

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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.

Related Topics:
Harry Reems - Conspiracy - Obscenity - Deep Throat

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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."

Related Topics:
Anti-Defamation League - William O. Douglas First Amendment Award - Human rights - Holocaust - Nobel - Elie Wiesel

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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.

Related Topics:
Claus von Bülow - 1984 - Insulin - Reversal of Fortune - 1990 - Glenn Close - Jeremy Irons - Ron Silver

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Dershowitz worked on the legal defense team of boxer Mike Tyson, who was convicted of rape in 1992.

Related Topics:
Mike Tyson - 1992

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He was also a member of the legal defense team ("Dream Team") for O.J. Simpson, who was acquitted in 1995 of double homicide.

Related Topics:
O.J. Simpson - 1995

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Dershowitz has incited controversy by arguing that the issuing of warrants for the torture of suspected terrorists would diminish the overall number of torture incidents. 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 accusations that faculty members at Columbia University encourage terrorism.

Related Topics:
Warrant - Torture - Columbia University

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In September 2003, shortly after the publication of Dershowitz's best selling The Case for Israel, Norman Finkelstein accused its author of plagiarism, noting that four of the

Related Topics:
The Case for Israel - Norman Finkelstein

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quotations in that book cited to original sources, instead of to 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. Finkelstein's extensive critique of Dershowitz's work, Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History was published on 28 August 2005.

Related Topics:
Joan Peters - From Time Immemorial - Dershowitz-Finkelstein affair

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

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