Weekly Standard on Laurence Tribe

[Matthew J. Franck]

Unlike Steve Burbank, I cannot quite bring myself to believe that in this 
matter Tribe is the aggrieved party and Abraham the ethically challenged 
one.  I think, for one thing, that he has misread the article.  Bottum 
states that Abraham noticed Tribe's borrowing at the time of the latter's 
1985 publication, and Steve Burbank apparently infers from that that after 
waiting 19 years, Abraham has decided to act on that knowledge without 
first contacting Tribe.  Now, it might be argued that Henry Abraham should 
have contacted Tribe about this long ago--though I know of no ethical 
principle that requires one to confront a plagiarist oneself and privately 
rather than raising a public stink about it.  But read the article more 
closely: it is not Abraham who brought the matter to Bottum's attention, 
but an unnamed law professor (Abraham is a political scientist) who 
suggested Bottum look into it.  Bottum, clearly, then contacted Abraham 
himself.  So Abraham, after all these years of saying nothing, talked to 
Bottum, and that's somehow improper?  That's a nice inversion of the 
balance of grievances here.  I think Abraham need fear no stain on his 
sterling reputation from the appearance of this article.  As for Tribe's 
reputation, that's another matter.

Matt
***************************
Matthew J. Franck
Professor and Chairman
Department of Political Science
Radford University
P.O. Box 6945
Radford, VA 24142-6945
phone 540-831-5854
fax 540-831-6075
e-mail mfranck at radford.edu
www.radford.edu/~mfranck
***************************
At 05:18 PM 9/27/2004, Steve Burbank wrote:
>Henry Abraham may be "venerable" (a word I put in quotes because it is
>an adjective used to describe him by Mr. Bottum) for other reasons but
>not, I think, for his behavior in this matter.
>The right thing to do when one's own work has apparently been used
>without attribution, as indeed when one believes that someone else's
>work has been so used, is to bring the matter, promptly and directly,
>to the attention of the person apparently responsible. Doing so gives
>that person the opportunity to investigate, determine whether the
>apparent problem is real, and if so, determine how it happened. Prompt
>notice also allows the person to prevent repetition in other work,
>whether a subsequent edition or a wholly different publication.
>As I understand it, Professor Abraham never has communicated directly
>with Professor Tribe about similarities between their books, and he
>brought those similarities to the media's attention because of pique
>arising from both Tribe's comments about other possibly similar
>occurrences and his perception that Tribe is a "big mahatma [who]
>thinks he can get away with this sort of thing."
>Now (nineteen years later), of course, it may well be too late for
>Professor Tribe to conduct an adequate investigation and to determine
>why and how the similarities arose. Those who are inclined to gloat
>should recognize the unfairness of the situation, as they should
>Professor Tribe's extraordinary contributions to the law and to public
>affairs.
>
>Steve Burbank
>
>
>
>Quoting "Matthew J. Franck" <mfranck at radford.edu>:
>
> > Joseph Bottum of the Weekly Standard has a long article in the latest
> > issue
> > (see www.weeklystandard.com, where it is publicly accessible)
> > identifying
> > some serious examples of what might be called "plagiaphrasing" (or
> > worse)
> > by Laurence Tribe in his 1985 book God Save This Honorable
> > Court.  Interesting.  The "victim," if that is the right word, is the
> >
> > venerable Henry Abraham.
> >
> > Matt
> >
> > ***************************
> > Matthew J. Franck
> > Professor and Chairman
> > Department of Political Science
> > Radford University
> > P.O. Box 6945
> > Radford, VA 24142-6945
> > phone 540-831-5854
> > fax 540-831-6075
> > e-mail <mailto:mfranck at radford.edu>mfranck at radford.edu
> > www.radford.edu/~mfranck
> > ***************************
> >
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