Cyberlaw Expert Jonathan Zittrain Named Assitant Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
Cyberlaw Expert Jonathan Zittrain Named Assitant Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
Cambridge, MA – Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder and Executive Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, and one of the world's leading Internet scholars, has been appointed Assistant Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. A Lecturer on Law at Harvard since 1997, Zittrain has led the Berkman Center's cutting-edge Internet research projects while teaching courses on a broad range of cyberlaw issues, including Internet governance, electronic privacy, cryptography, and the control of digital property and content. His new post, which begins on July 1, 2000, will enable him to continue to expand his teaching and research activities at Harvard.
"Jonathan Zittrain is a critical addition to our faculty, with nearly unparalleled expertise in one of the most significant and complex new areas of law and policy," said Dean Robert Clark.
Zittrain's diverse background combines experience in the areas of law, technology, and public policy. "He's been thinking deeply about cyber issues and how they impact society since before he learned to drive," said Berkman Center Director, Professor Charles Nesson. Zittrain became the chief forum administrator for the CompuServe Information Service at age 15, in 1985, and was a regular editorial columnist for Computer Shopper magazine from 1986 to 1990. While in college, Zittrain created "Allegheny Lawyers Online," an electronic information service for members of the Allegheny County Bar Association, which serves his hometown of Pittsburgh.
Zittrain has also worked for the U.S. Department of State and served on the staff of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Under Zittrain's guidance the Berkman Center has pursued a nationally recognized course of "active" cyberlaw research, offering a range of Web-based lecture and discussion programs, free and open to the public, as a means of researching online education. The Berkman Center has also contributed to the formation of the non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which is charged with managing certain Internet functions, including domain name policy, in the public interest. Nesson said he was pleased to have Zittrain join him and Professors Arthur Miller, Charles Ogletree, and William Fisher, as a faculty co-director of the Berkman Center.
Zittrain's scholarly publications include "The Rise and Fall of Sysopdom," 10 Harvard Journal of Law & Technology 495 (1997); "Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Taxing Internet Commerce," 52 National Tax Journal 413 (1999) (with Austan Goolsbee); "The Un-Microsoft Un-Remedy: Law Can Prevent the Problem That It Can't Patch Later," 31 Conn. Law Review 1361 (1999); "ICANN: Between the Public and the Private," 14 Berkeley Tech. L. J. 1071 (1999); and "What the Publisher Can Teach the Patient: Property and Privacy in an Era of Trusted Privication," forthcoming in volume 52 of the Stanford Law Review. He has twice testified before Congress about matters covered by such research.
Zittrain earned a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1995 and a M.P.A. in Science, Technology, and Public Policy from the Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1995. He holds a B.S. in Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University. After receiving his Harvard degrees, Zittrain served as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
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