Charles Nesson

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Charles Nesson
Born February 11, 1939
Spouse Fern Leicher Nesson
Children Rebecca, Leila
Website
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/nesson.html
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/nesson/blog/

Charles Rothwell Nesson (born February 11, 1939) is the William F. Weld Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society[1] and of the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society.[2] He is author of Evidence, with Murray and Green, and has participated in several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals.[3] In 1971, Nesson defended Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers case.[1] He was co-counsel for the plaintiffs in the case against W.R. Grace that was made into the film A Civil Action.[4]

Contents

[edit] Early life and education

Nesson attended Harvard College as an undergraduate, and then Harvard Law School where he joined the list of only a handful of people in history to have graduated summa cum laude.[2] Nesson was a law clerk to Justice John Marshall Harlan II on the United States Supreme Court, 1965 term. He then worked as a special assistant in the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. His first case, White v. Crook, made race and gender-based jury selection in Alabama unconstitutional. Nesson joined the Harvard Law School faculty in 1966, and was tenured in 1969.[1]

Nesson at an iCommons meeting in Dubrovnik 2007
Nesson at an iCommons meeting in Dubrovnik 2007

[edit] Current activities

He is "currently leading a project to reify university as a meta player in cyberspace, to legitimize and teach poker and the value of strategic poker thinking, and to advance restorative justice in Jamaica".[2] In 2006 he taught CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion with Rebecca Nesson and Gene Koo.[5] He teaches courses in the law and practice of Evidence (how to prove the "truth"), Trials in Second Life, and a reading group with Fern Nesson[6] on Freedom.[2]

[edit] Publications

Selected publications:[7]

  • Green, Nesson & Murray, Evidence (3rd ed. Aspen)
  • Constitutional Hearsay: Requiring Foundational Testing and Corroboration under the Confrontation Clause, 81 Va. L. Rev. 149 (1995), with Yochai Benkler
  • Incentives to Spoliate Evidence in Civil Litigation: The Need for Vigorous Judicial Action, 13 Cardozo L. Rev. 793 (1991)
  • Agent Orange Meets the Blue Bus: Factfinding at the Frontier of Knowledge, 66 B.U.L. Rev. 521 (1986)
  • The Evidence or the Event? On Judicial Proof and the Acceptability of Verdicts, 98 Harvard Law Review 1357 (1985)
  • Reasonable Doubt and Permissive Inferences: The Value of Complexity, 92 Harvard Law Review 1187 (1979)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Flood, Joseph P.. "The Path Less Traveled", The Harvard Crimson, The Harvard Crimson, Inc., 2002-04-19. Retrieved on 2007-09-29. 
  2. ^ a b c d About GPSTS. Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  3. ^ U.S. Supreme Court DAUBERT v. MERRELL DOW PHARMACEUTICALS, INC., 509 U.S. 579 (1993). The New York Times / FindLaw. Retrieved on 2007-09-28.
  4. ^ Excerpts from Brief for the Plaintiffs-Appellants, Anne Anderson v. Beatrice Foods Co.. W. R. Grace & Co. (civil-action.com) (1987). Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  5. ^ CyberOne: Law in the Court of Public Opinion. Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School, The President and Fellows of Harvard College (blogs.law.harvard.edu) (2006-09-22). Retrieved on 2007-09-29.
  6. ^ Freedom: Seminar. Harvard Law School, The President and Fellows of Harvard College (blogs.law.harvard.edu). Retrieved on 2008-01-06.
  7. ^ Professor Charles R. Nesson. Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School, The President and Fellows of Harvard College. Retrieved on 2007-09-29.

[edit] External links