NEW YORK, NY, February 16, 2004— “The Legal Profession in Vichy, with Some Lessons for Lawyers in France and the United States,” is the topic of a lecture to be presented by Richard H. Weisberg, the Walter Floersheimer Professor of Constitutional Law, and codirector, Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy, at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, on Wednesday, February 18 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Wellington Conference Center at New York Law School, 57 Worth Street.

In his book, Vichy Law and the Holocaust in France, Weisberg reveals the role of the legal profession in Vichy France in setting the foundation for the persecution of France’s Jewish population. In the four years that the Vichy regime governed France during World War II, its legal establishment implemented almost 200 laws, regulations, and decrees relating to the persecution of Jews on French soil, both in its own zone and in that occupied by the Germans. Some of these regulations, for example, established the definition of being Jewish, prohibited Jews from holding certain jobs and positions, and confiscated or liquidated property and other assets held by Jews. They also eventually allowed the deportation of over 75,000 Jews from France to concentration or extermination camps. The vast majority of these deportations occurred under cover of French law.

Weisberg’s investigation of historical records shows that, to a great extent, responsibility for initiating and enforcing anti-Jewish legal measures in Vichy France lay with the judiciary and legal profession of France, including “its magistrates, administrative agencies and courts, government lawyers and ministries, private legal practitioners and their professional associations, legal academicians and their books and journals.”

In his C.V. Starr lecture, Weisberg will discuss the findings of his research and will analyze anti-Semitic legal activity under the Vichy regime. He will discuss his involvement in a class-action suit on behalf of Holocaust survivors and the role that his research has played in providing the historical context both for current litigation and for current French restitution efforts. Finally, he will associate the example of Vichy law with professional dilemmas faced by American lawyers in the 21st century.

The event is free and open to the public. The lecture is approved for 2 CLE credits in Professional Practice. Registration is required. For more information, contact Michael Rhee at 212.431.2865 or mrhee@nyls.edu.

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Contact: Jim Hellegaard, Director of Communications, Office of Public Affairs212.431.2191, jhellegaard@nyls.edu 

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