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Richard A. FalkAmerican professor of international law at Princeton University
Date of Birth: 13.11.1930
Country:  USA |
Content:
- Richard Falk: A Life Dedicated to International Law
- Early Life and Education
- Professional Career
- Geopolitical Perspectives
- Controversy with Organized Jewish Community
- Other Criticisms
- Personal Life
Richard Falk: A Life Dedicated to International Law
Richard Falk, an American professor of international law at Princeton University, has dedicated his life to advocating for human rights and reforming global governance.
Early Life and Education
Born into an assimilated Jewish family in New York, Falk identifies as an "American Jew." He believes his outsider status may have influenced his later role as a critic of American foreign policy. To him, being Jewish means "a concern for overcoming injustice and thirst for justice in the world, and this means treating other peoples with respect irrespective of their nationality or religion and to feel empathy in the face of human suffering wherever and whenever it occurs."
Falk earned his B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1952, followed by an L.L.B. from Yale Law School. He received his S.J.D. from Harvard University in 1962. Influenced by Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, and C. Wright Mills, Falk developed a deep concern for abolishing war and aggression as social institutions.
Professional Career
Beginning his teaching career at Ohio State University and Harvard in the late 1950s, Falk joined Princeton University in 1961, which served as his academic home for over three decades. In 1965, he was appointed Albert Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice, a position he still holds as Professor Emeritus. He became a Guggenheim Fellow in 1985 and retired from teaching in 2001. Since 2002, he has been a Research Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara's Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies. Since 2013, he has directed the "Global Climate Change, Human Security and Democracy" Project.
Falk is a vocal critic of the Westphalian system of national states, arguing for its transcendence by a more international authority to control nations' use of force. He believes that the world is moving towards a global ethos in which states abandon their obsessive territorialism in favor of a regime of agreed-upon goals, holding national leaders accountable.
Geopolitical Perspectives
In his analysis of specific geopolitical situations, Falk has published works examining the ideological dimensions of American human rights discourse, the legality of the Vietnam War, and other military operations. Regarding the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he wrote that "there is no escape from the conclusion...that this war in Iraq is a war of aggression and, as such, that it constitutes a crime against peace, a species of crime for which surviving German leaders were accused, found guilty, and punished at the Nuremberg Trials held shortly after World War II."
Controversy with Organized Jewish Community
In 2012, Falk drew criticism for remarks he made regarding the "Palestinian struggle" in a blog post. He stated that he had "come to the considered judgment that the U.S. government and the organized Jewish community bear major responsibility for the massive and continuing dispossession of the Palestinian people of their land and rights." UN Watch accused Falk of "propagating racist smears" and engaging in anti-Semitism "by attempting to blame Jewish communities worldwide for alleged crimes against Palestinians." Falk responded that he had "often spoken out against policies, including those of the U.S. and Israel... but to equate such positions with racism... is merely one element of a wideranging and frequently repeated condemnation of my views and activities."
Other Criticisms
In 2011, Alan Dershowitz criticized Falk in The New Republic for endorsing "The Wandering Who?," a book by Gilad Atzmon, which Dershowitz characterized as an "outrightly anti-Semitic" work by "a notorious Jew-hater." According to Dershowitz, Falk and others "not only defended Atzmon's 'right' to publish such a book; they endorsed its contents."
