Biography

Robert Weisberg ’79 works primarily in the field of criminal justice, writing and teaching in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, white collar crime, and sentencing policy. He also founded and now serves as faculty co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center (SCJC), which promotes and coordinates research and public policy programs on criminal law and the criminal justice system, including institutional examination of the police and correctional systems. Professor Weisberg was a consulting attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the California Appellate Project, where he worked on death penalty litigation in the state and federal courts. In addition, he served as a law clerk to Justice Potter Stewart of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge J. Skelly Wright of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In 1979, Professor Weisberg received his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he served as President of the Stanford Law Review. Professor Weisberg is a two-time winner of the law school’s John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1981, Professor Weisberg received a PhD in English at Harvard and was a tenured English professor at Skidmore College. Drawing on that background, he is one of the nation’s leading scholars on the intersection of law and literature and co-author of the highly praised book Literary Criticisms of Law.

Key Works

• Robert Weisberg. With John Kaplan and Guyora Binder, Criminal Law: Cases and Materials, 5th ed., New York: Aspen, 2004.
• Robert Weisberg, Norms and Criminal Law, and the Norms of Criminal Law Scholarship, 93 The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 467-592 (Winter & Spring 2003).
• Robert Weisberg, Values, Violence, and the Second Amendment: American Character, Constitutionalism, and Crime, 39 Houston Law Review 1-51 (April 2002).
• Robert Weisberg and Guyora Binder, Literary Criticisms of Law, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000. 544 pages.
• Robert Weisberg, Commercial Morality, the Merchant Character, and the History of the Voidable Preference, 39 Stanford Law Review 1 (1986).
• Robert Weisberg, Deregulating Death, 1983 Supreme Court Review 305 (1983).

In the News

• Insider trading: Lawyers say there can be gray areas
  Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, November 13, 2009
• Reviewing Report On Phillip Garrido Case
  KCBS 740 AM & 106.9 FM News, November 04, 2009
• Silicon Valley Mystified By Reports Top Executive Hector Ruiz Leaked Company Secrets
  San Jose Mercury News, October 29, 2009
• Ex-AMD Chief Ruiz Said To Be Tied to Galleon Case
  Bloomberg News, October 28, 2009
• In Polanski Case, ’70s Culture Collides With Today
  The New York Times, October 11, 2009

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure: Adjudication
• Criminal Procedure: Investigation

Programs

• Stanford Criminal Justice Center (SCJC), Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Robert Weisberg, Tragedy, Skepticism, Empirics, and the MPCS, 61 Florida Law Review 797 (September 2009).
• Robert Weisberg, Introduction (Symposium: Drug Laws: Policy and Reform), 20 Stanford Law & Policy Review 221 (2009).
• Robert Weisberg, Obama, Roberts and the Flubbed Oath (Letter to the Editor), New York Times, January 25, 2009, pg. WK9.
• Robert Weisberg, Margins of Error, in When Law Fails: Making Sense of Miscarriages of Justice, New York: New York University Press, January 2009.
• John Kaplan, Robert Weisberg, Guyora Binder, Criminal Law: Cases and Materials, New York: Wolters Kluwer, 6th ed., 2008.
• David W. Mills and Robert Weisberg, "Corrupting the Harm Requirement in White Collar Crime, 60 Stanford Law Review 1371 (2008).
• Robert Weisberg, A Guest Post by Robert Weisberg on the Relationship Between "Activism" and "Federalism" (Convictions: Slate's Blog on Legal Issues), Slate.com, May 19, 2008.
• Robert Weisberg, Losing the Lopezes, The Stanford Daily, April 3, 2008, pg. 4.
• Robert Weisberg. A Quiet Bombshell in the Legal World, Los Angeles Times, September 24, 2006, Editorial Pages Desk; Part M; Pg. 3.
• Joan Petersilia and Robert Weisberg. Slammer Time - Why Rush To Build More Prisons When Other Options Cost Less?, Sacramento Bee, July 23, 2006, Forum section, page E2.

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Affiliated Faculty, Program in Modern Thought and Literature

Honors and Awards

• Recipient, John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching, Stanford, 1985, 2005