Join PRI on Wednesday, August 20 at
12 Noon Pacific Time
Live webinar with Alan Dershowitz
Called “the world’s best-known lawyer” and its most prominent defender of civil liberties, who has litigated and won hundreds of cases in multiple countries. The Harvard Law School professor, prolific author and frequent media commentator will discuss his new book The Preventive State: The Challenges of Preventing Serious Harms While Preserving Essential Liberties (Encounter Books), in conversation with the Hon. Dan Kolkey, Pacific Research Institute board member.
In The Preventive State, Dershowitz explores the types of questions that he has been asking for more than 60 years, in his teaching, writing, and litigation.
- If reliable but uncertain intelligence predicted a mass casualty terrorist attack and indicated likely suspects, what preventive actions would be constitutionally authorized?
- Should the government compel widespread inoculation that might kill hundreds of people while saving millions?
- If an article describing how to circumvent the inoculation mandate was about to be published, should censorship of the article be authorized?
Dershowitz suggests in The Preventive State 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.
Must register to watch the webinar live. Dershowitz and Kolkey will answer submitted written audience questions (must register to watch live on Zoom to submit your questions).
