The Preventive State - by Alan Dershowitz (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

You shall thank Alan Dershowitz for writing this [valuable] book.

--Stephen Breyer, Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court

If reliable but uncertain intelligence predicted a mass casualty terrorist attack and indicated likely suspects,

what preventive actions would be constitutionally authorized? Detention? Interrogation? Torture? What if the attack involved a weaponized virus? Should the government compel widespread inoculation that might kill hundreds of people while saving millions? What if an article describing how to circumvent the inoculation mandate was about to be published? Should censorship of the article be authorized?

These are the sorts of questions Alan Dershowitz has been asking for more than 60 years, in his teaching, writing, and litigation. Now, at age 86, he has written his magnum opus. In it, he suggests an overarching jurisprudential framework that would set limits to the ballooning power of what he calls "the preventive state."

This important book offers unprecedented insights into one of the most underexamined developments of our age: the growing magnitude and frequency of cataclysmic threats, coupled with the increasingly effective--but increasingly intrusive--tools intended to predict and prevent them.

Dershowitz responds to the urgent need for a jurisprudence that provides balance and accountability as both dangers and preventive capabilities increase, threatening our security and our liberties. This masterful analysis should be read by everyone who cares about security, liberty, and democracy.

Review Quotes

A compelling capstone to Alan Dershowitz's unparalleled analysis and experience throughout his distinguished career as a professor and litigator.

--Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita, New York Law School

An urgently important book about how to balance the desire to have governments prevent crises with the need to safeguard fundamental civil liberties.

--Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, University of California-Berkeley School of Law

Dershowitz provides a brilliant roadmap for addressing the conundrum that maximizes both safety and liberty while recognizing that tradeoffs are inevitable.

--Jack L. Goldsmith, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University

He elucidates the intricate issue of preventive law, while updating it to the unforeseen challenges of the twenty-first century.

--Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Harvard University

No one but Alan would seek to bring a common mode of thought to issues as diverse as bail, climate change, and terrorism.

--Lawrence Summers, President Emeritus, Harvard University

With clarity, wisdom, wit and breadth of understanding, Alan Dershowitz argues that the legal system should be revamped to prevent-not just punish-wrongdoing.

--Jesse Fried, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Harvard University

About the Author

ALAN DERSHOWITZ has been litigating, teaching, and writing about law and policy for more than 60 years. He has written 55 books and more than 1,000 articles. Many of today's world leaders are among the 10,000 students he has taught. He has represented and advised presidents, prime ministers, and business leaders.

Called "the world's best-known lawyer" and its most prominent defender of civil liberties, he has litigated and won hundreds of cases in multiple countries. He has received numerous honorary degrees, medals, and other honors for his work. One such distinction was bestowed on him by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel who 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."

Most of his cases and causes have been pro bono, including his defense of dissidents, such as Natan Sharansky, Václav Havel, and Julian Assange.

Dershowitz graduated first in his class at Yale Law School and was the editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. He taught at Harvard for 50 years, where he offered courses on issues ranging from criminal, constitutional, family, and Jewish laws to psychiatry, neurobiology, mathematics, literature, philosophy, and even baseball. His primary academic interest has been on prediction and prevention of harmful conduct, which he developed into a course and taught during most of his career. Philosophically, he considers himself a constitutional libertarian, meritocratic egalitarian, and constructive contrarian.

At age 86, he continues to write and consult, while spending more time with Carolyn, his wife of 39 years, his three children, and two grandchildren.