Dershowitz, Alan M

English

Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository

A Tribute to Joseph Goldstein
Alan M. Dershowitzt
Yale Law School Professor Joseph Goldstein, who recently passed
away, was a personification of the teacher as moral provocateur. Though
extremely proud of the thousands of students who came under his tutelage
during his distinguished academic career, Professor Goldstein was never
satisfied with what his students accomplished. He always wanted more,
especially from those from whom more was possible. He was my mentor
during my three years at Yale in the early 1960s, and I know that he was
proud of the work I did under him. Yet he always pressed me: "Sharpen
it." "Make it smarter." "Take it further." Until the final year of his life, he
never told me that he was completely satisfied with anything I had written.
Imagine how I felt when he finally praised one of my books without
reservation. Somehow, I think he knew it would be the last of my works he
would have an opportunity to appraise. It was my final grade for the
lifelong course I took with him in law, social sciences, and life.
Though Joseph Goldstein is not a household name in the general world
of law, he was among the most influential lawyers in the last half of the
twentieth century. His writings on the interface of law and the social
sciences have had an enormous impact on other law teachers, on mental
health professionals, on courts, and on legislatures. He has influenced both
theory and practice. But his most enduring contribution has come through
the thousands of lawyers whom he taught over the years. No student could
fail to be influenced by Goldstein, whether they realized it or not at the time
they were in his class. His influence was as subtle as his mind and
sometimes as quiet as his voice, but it stayed with you. I know that over the
years I have asked myself countless times, "What would Joe think about
this issue?" or "How would Joe have approached this problem?"
Sometimes I'd call and ask him. More often, I would just work it through in
my own mind, employing the tools that Joe had given me.
There was nothing that Joe did not challenge. He believed in no
orthodoxy. He was a member of no intellectual club. He reflected no group
perspective. He was just Joe Goldstein, as unique and individual a thinker
t Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Harvard Law School.
The Yale Law Journal
as I have ever encountered. He was neither liberal nor conservative. Labels
of that kind simply had no meaning to a mind far too complex for such
pigeonholing. He thought for himself and he arrived at conclusions that
challenged every discipline he confronted. He changed the nature of law.
He changed the nature of psychoanalytic theory. He changed the way we
think about children. He changed the way we think about ourselves.
By working closely but critically with people from other disciplines, he
broke open the legal system and welcomed in the insights of other
disciplines. But unlike others, he always viewed the input of other
disciplines with a critical eye. I recall vividly a seminar that he conducted
along with Dr. Anna Freud, the daughter and prot~g6e of Sigmund Freud.
Dr. Freud was near the end of her active career and something of an icon
within the psychoanalytic world. Yet, in his quiet way, Joe challenged her
and made her defend conclusions that had long been accepted.
I had the privilege of working with Joseph Goldstein on two books. We
began our collaboration while I was still a student at Yale Law School, and
we produced, with Dr. Jay Katz, the first casebook on psychoanalytic
theory and law. Several years later we collaborated, along with Richard
Schwartz, on a criminal law casebook. The process of working with Joe
was always challenging and often scintillating. Every meeting was a
seminar, a dialogue, an encounter, and a lesson in life. Though we were
now colleagues, he was still my teacher. He remained my teacher until the
day of his death.
Joe will be remembered by all of his students and by his legion of
admirers. But even after his name has faded from memory, he will continue
to influence new generations of lawyers. His insights are reflected in every
class taught by his academic prot6g6s all over the world. His influence will
also be felt in every child custody case across the land. I recall vividly the
first phone call I received after Elidn Gonzdilez was rescued at sea. "How
should the law approach this difficult case?" I was asked. My mind
immediately turned to the family law class I had taken with Professor
Goldstein and to his extensive writing on the best interests of the child. I'm
not certain whether Joe and I would have agreed on our conclusions about
the case, but I know that I was employing the methodology that he had
pioneered. Indeed, one of the great virtues of the Goldstein approach is that
it was not result-oriented. Unlike his mentor Harold Laski, the great British
socialist, Goldstein had no political, economic, or other agenda. The thrust
of his work was methodological and conceptual. Though he understood that
no methodology could ever be entirely value-free, his values were not the
narrow partisan ones that so often masquerade as neutral principles. He
cared more about building the road, with its various detours and byways,
than arriving at a predetermined destination.
[Vol. 110: 907
2001] Dershowitz 909
I will miss Joe Goldstein every day, but he will remain with me and
with so many other people through his monumental works and his
intellectual and moral influence.



A Tribute to Joseph Goldstein

https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4539&amp;context=ylj

A Tribute to Joseph Goldstein

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository