Harvard Plagiarism Archive: The Tribe Transgression: Harvard's Official Statement of April 13, 2005

Harvard Plagiarism Archive

"[T]he problem of writers . . . passing off the work of others as their own . . . [is] a phenomenon of some significance."
PROFESSOR LAURENCE TRIBE, e-mail to Dean Lawrence Velvel, 9/13/2004

"'I . . . delegated too much responsibility to others . . .,' [Prof. Charles Ogletree] said. 'I was negligent
in not overseeing more carefully the final product that carries my name.' * * * Ogletree told The Crimson that
he had not read the passage of Balkin’s book that appears in his own work. An assistant inserted the material
into a manuscript . . . . But Ogletree said he was closely involved in most of the drafting of the book . . . ."
STEVEN MARKS, "Ogletree Faces Discipline for Copying Text," The Harvard Crimson, 9/13/2004

"'Ronald Klain . . . then only a first-year student at Harvard law . . . spent most of his time with
Tribe working on Tribe's [1985] book God Save This Honorable Court,'" the Legal Times added in 1993.
* * * 'Many of Klain's friends and former colleagues say that he wrote large sections of the book . . . .'"
JOSEPH BOTTUM, "The Big Mahatma," The Weekly Standard, 10/4/2004

"[A]fter several plagiarism scandals broke over distinguished faculty members at Harvard's law school, including
Laurence Tribe,a group of students there set up a blog, Harvard Plagiarism Archive, to follow the University's
handling of the problem. They believe that the University, President Summers, and Dean Elena Kagan
essentially white-washed the scandal and are demanding further action.
PROF. RALPH LUKER, History News Network's "Cliopatria" blog,4/26/2005

“The Tribe and Ogletree matters have catalyzed bitter complaints from Harvard students that the university
employs a double standard. . . . The students have every right to be incensed over this gross double standard.
They in fact ought to raise hell peacefully about it: a constant barrage of letters, emails, statements . . . .”
DEAN LAWRENCE VELVEL, "Velvel on National Affairs" blog, 4/28/2005

"If you want to keep track of this story, I recommend the new Harvard Plagiarism Archive. . . . [I]t's pretty thorough."
TIMOTHY NOAH, Slate's "Chatterbox" blog,9/28/2004

"[Y]ou have done a wonderful service to all by operating the AuthorSkeptics website . . . a fine public service."
DEAN LAWRENCE VELVEL, author of "Velvel on National Affairs," e-mail to AuthorSkeptics, 4/19/2005

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

The Tribe Transgression: Harvard's Official Statement of April 13, 2005

Dean Velvel has kindly provided us with copies of Harvard's official statement, and of Professor Tribe's statement e-mailed to the press.

Dean Velvel obtained these statements from a source other than the Harvard administration or Professor Tribe. It is unfortunate neither the Harvard administration nor Professor Tribe cooperated in making these statements available on the Internet.

Here is Harvard's official statement, dated April 13, 2005, and released April 14, 2005. We will next post Professor Tribe's statement.

April 13, 2005

STATEMENT OF PRESIDENT LAWRENCE SUMMERS
AND DEAN ELENA KAGAN

This past fall, a magazine article contended that a 1985 book by Professor Laurence H. Tribe of Harvard Law School, entitled God Save This Honorable Court, contained a number of passages or phrases not appropriately attributed to a 1974 book by Professor Henry Abraham of the University of Virginia, entitled Justices and Presidents.

After learning of this report and reviewing the books in question, Professor Tribe promptly issued a public statement acknowledging his failure to properly attribute some of the material identified in the magazine article, and taking full responsibility for that failure. He also sent a letter of apology to Professor Abraham.

Regarding the matter as one warranting examination, we jointly asked three distinguished faculty members -- Derek Bok, President Emeritus, Jeremy Knowles, former Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Sidney Verba, Pforzheimer University Professor and Harvard University Librarian -- to inquire into the circumstances by reviewing the materials and speaking with the individuals principally involved. They in turn reported their factual findings to us.

With the benefit of this inquiry, and as publicly acknowledged by Professor Tribe himself, it is apparent that his book contained various brief passages and phrases that echo or overlap with material in the Abraham book, and that he failed to provide appropriate attribution for them. We have taken note that the relevant conduct took place two decades ago, that Professor Tribe's book (written without footnotes and for a general audience) mentioned the Abraham book in a concluding bibliographic note, and that the unattributed material related more to matters of phrasing than to fundamental ideas. We are also firmly convinced that the error was the product of inadvertence rather than intentionality. Nevertheless, we regard the error in question as a significant lapse in proper academic practice -- as does Professor Tribe himself. The failure of an author to attribute sources properly, however inadvertent the error, is a matter of serious concern in an academic community.

We have conveyed these conclusions and concerns to Professor Tribe, and now consider the matter closed. In line with usual University practice, we intend no further comment on the matter.

Harvard Plagiarism Archive