Left: Steven Donziger; Right: Alan Dershowitz at New College of Florida's Socratic Stage Dialogue Series. Photo by Wes Roberts.

Last night, New College of Florida hosted a provocative installment of its Socratic Stage Dialogue Series titled “Justice or Politics? The Weaponization of Law in Modern America,” bringing together two towering and controversial legal figures: Alan Dershowitz and Steven Donziger.

Dershowitz, the former Harvard Law professor and constitutional scholar known for defending civil liberties in high-profile cases, opened with a clear theme: that American universities have strayed from their mission. “Teachers are not teaching students how to think,” he said. “They’re teaching them what to think.” He called New College “a reaction to the old college”—a place determined to restore open inquiry and intellectual diversity.

Donziger, best known for his decades-long legal battle against Chevron on behalf of indigenous communities in the Amazon, shared a different but complementary story. He recounted how, after winning a multi-billion-dollar judgment in Ecuador’s courts, he became the target of a retaliatory legal campaign. Donziger described being sued for $60 billion, placed under house arrest, and ultimately prosecuted—not by the government—but by a law firm representing Chevron, appointed as a “special prosecutor” by a federal judge. “I believe I’m the only person in U.S. history to be criminally prosecuted by a corporation,” he said.

Though their worldviews often diverged, Dershowitz and Donziger found common ground on the dangers of politicized justice. Dershowitz, a self-described liberal who has defended Donald Trump, warned against turning legal systems into tools for ideological enforcement. Donziger, who identifies as a progressive, emphasized that lawfare is not confined to government actors. A major concern of Donziger was that private corporations could weaponize the law, and were often successful in silencing critics when they did.

He took heart though, in the over 51,000 people who had donated to his own defense fund; “Most are very small donations, which I love. But when . . . you're being attacked and you put it out there– you stand up–I find that people, whether you're Republican, Democrat or whatever, regardless of their politics they respond to injustice.”

The conversation spanned from Harvard’s internal crises to DEI in higher education, from race and meritocracy to the foundational meaning of free speech. Dershowitz lamented the climate of fear he believes now defines elite academic spaces, clearly describing himself as a target of politicized application of the judicial process. “I used to speak at Harvard once a month,” he said. “Since the issues relating to Israel came out, and since I defended Donald Trump, and since I was supposedly accused of Jeffrey Epstein related matters–I have not been invited for a single time back to Harvard. I can speak all over. I can be on television tonight [but] the students of Harvard have been denied my voice.”

Donziger, while defending progressive ideals like social equity and environmental justice, acknowledged that free speech and due process have become endangered on many campuses. He praised New College for hosting the event, saying, “This is the first institution that’s invited me to speak.”

That comment underscored a broader point: New College’s commitment to hosting dissenting voices is increasingly rare in the American academic landscape. President Richard Corcoran has positioned the school as a home for “bold ideas and fearless debate.” The Socratic Stage Series, launched to showcase challenging conversations on democracy, law, and culture, is fast becoming a signature of that mission.

For students, faculty, and attendees, the event offered not just a collision of opinions, but a reminder of what civil discourse looks like. Dershowitz closed the event to rousing acclaim. He opined that a debate so uncensored and open-ended was “something that couldn’t happen at most colleges today.”

“Thank God for New College.” said Dershowitz, “[It’s] an important player and an important part of our academic marketplace. This is going to sound like a strange statement—the United States could survive today without Harvard. The United States could not survive today without New College.”

Left: Steven Donziger; Right: Alan Dershowitz at New College of Florida's Socratic Stage Dialogue Series. Photo by Wes Roberts.