Alan Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitzis an American lawyer, jurist, and author. He is a prominent scholar on United States constitutional law and criminal law, and a leading defender of civil liberties. He spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history. He held the Felix Frankfurter professorship there from 1993 until his retirement in December 2013...
ProfessionLawyer
Date of Birth1 September 1938
CityNew York City, NY
hate book rights
I've thought of publishing a book of my hate mail, but I don't own the rights to the letters.
exercise academic-freedom government
Great research universities must insist on independence from government and on the exercise of academic freedom.
racist bob host
You're absolutely right: Bob Grant is a racist, Bob Grant is a bigot, he's a despicable talk show host and I agree with that.
radio host paranoid
There is a paranoid streak in American life. Radio talk show hosts tend to foment that paranoid streak in American life.
mistake thinking evil
The worst mistake you can make is underrating your enemy. Assuming that they're evil - I think it's a terrible thing to do.
struggle morality process
The struggle for morality never stays won. It's always in process.
borders internet national-borders
The Internet knows no national borders.
doubt criminals trials
Scientists search for truth. Philosophers search for morality. A criminal trial searches for only one result: proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
trying democracy truth-is
Most liberal democracies don't try to figure out what the truth is.
attitude law important
Laws are important precisely because in a democracy they reflect the attitudes and aspirations of those they govern.
dream law shapes
It's every lawyer's dream to help shape the law, not just react to it.
two-sides sides trials
All sides in a trial want to hide at least some of the truth.
rights law long
To ask about the 'source' of rights or morals assumes an erreous conclusion. To ask about the source of morals is to assume that such a source exists. As if it existed outside of human constructed systems. The 'source' is the human ability to learn from experience and to entrench rights in our laws and in our consciousness. Our rights come from our long history of wrongs.
learning-experience
I learn from experience.