professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
at the
New York Law School
New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include E ...
. He is an internationally recognized expert on "mental disability law" and how the legal system deals with individuals with
mental disorder
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...
s or
intellectual disability
Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability in the United Kingdom and formerly mental retardation,Rosa's Law, Pub. L. 111-256124 Stat. 2643(2010). is a generalized neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by signifi ...
. He has authored over 23 books and nearly 300 scholarly articles on the subject.
Biography
Perlin started practicing law in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, US as a public
criminal defense lawyer
A criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer (mostly barristers) specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal activity. Some criminal defense lawyers are privately retained, while others are employed by the various ...
and mental health advocate for people with mental disabilities, and joined the New York Law School faculty in 1984. In 1985 he filed an
amicus brief
An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...
in
Ake v. Oklahoma
''Ake v. Oklahoma'', 470 U.S. 68 (1985), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment required the state to provide a psychiatric evaluation to be used on behalf of an in ...
, in which the Supreme Court ruled that a person who is
indigent
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little
has a right to receive a psychiatric evaluation, provided by the state, in cases where the
insanity defense
The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to an episodic psychiatric disease at the time of the cr ...
is being used.
Perlin has written extensively about "
sanism
Mentalism or sanism refers to the systemic discrimination against or oppression of individuals perceived to have a mental disorder or cognitive impairment. This discrimination and oppression is based on numerous factors such as stereotypes a ...
", a concept created from the term "sane" by lawyer-physician
Morton Birnbaum
Morton Birnbaum (October 20, 1926 – November 26, 2005) was an American lawyer and physician who advocated for the right of psychiatric patients to have adequate, humane care, and who coined the term sanism.
His seminal paper on "The Right To T ...
.Sanism in Theory and Practice May 9/10, 2011. Richard Ingram, Centre for the Study of Gender, Social Inequities and Mental Health.
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...
, Canada Perlin refers to the widespread prejudice and discrimination that "permeates all aspects of mental disability law and affects all participants in the mental disability law system: litigants, fact finders, counsel, and expert and lay witnesses."
In 1996 Perlin wrote an article criticizing the Supreme Court decision Godinez v. Moran, as its repercussions were evident in what was widely considered a "charade" trial of mass murderer
Colin Ferguson
Colin Ferguson (born July 22, 1972) is a Canadian-American actor, director and producer. Yahoo! Mov ...
. Perlin entitled his paper "Dignity was the First to Leave" and since then has used
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
lyrics to name all of his scholarly law articles.
Perlin has said that he sums up the essence of his attempt to educate society about the manner in which sanist bias prevents equal justice in his ninth book ''The Hidden Prejudice: Mental Disability on Trial'' (2001). Professor of psychiatry Harvey Bluestone concluded in review that all
psychiatrists
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...
should read Perlin, even though he sometimes presents them as responsible for alleged sanism.
Perlin sat on the board of the
International Academy of Law and Mental Health
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
for 20 years and worked extensively with
Mental Disability Rights International
Disability Rights International (DRI), formerly Mental Disability Rights International, is a Washington, DC based human rights advocacy organization dedicated to promoting the human rights and full participation in society of persons with disabilit ...
, providing training and workshops in nations such as
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
and
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
. Since the receipt of funding in 2008, and as part of his work with the Justice Action Center, Perlin has been collaborating with advocates from Japan, Australia, and the
Pacific Rim
The Pacific Rim comprises the lands around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. The ''Pacific Basin'' includes the Pacific Rim and the islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim roughly overlaps with the geologic Pacific Ring of Fire.
List of co ...
to create the Disability Rights Tribunal for Asia and the Pacific (DRTAP).
Bibliography
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Personal life
Perlin has played
clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound.
Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...
for the Lawrence Township Community Band, and is a fan of baseball and opera. Perlin is also a huge fan of Bob Dylan, having seen him many times live and titling many of his law review articles with Dylan lyrics.