Michael L. Perlin

Michael L. Perlin is an American lawyer and professor at the New York Law School. He is an internationally recognized expert on "mental disability law" and how the legal system deals with individuals with mental disorders or intellectual disability. He has authored over 23 books and nearly 300 scholarly articles on the subject.

Perlin started practicing law in New Jersey, US as a public criminal defense lawyer and mental health advocate for people with mental disabilities, and joined the New York Law School faculty in 1984.^[1] In 1985 he filed an amicus brief in Ake v. Oklahoma, in which the Supreme Court ruled that a person who is indigent has a right to receive a psychiatric evaluation, provided by the state, in cases where the insanity defense is being used.^[2]

Perlin has written extensively about "sanism", a concept created from the term "sane" by lawyer-physician Morton Birnbaum.^[3] 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."^[4]

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. Perlin entitled his paper "Dignity was the First to Leave" and since then has used Bob Dylan lyrics to name all of his scholarly law articles.^[5][6]

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).^[1] Professor of psychiatry Harvey Bluestone concluded in review that all psychiatrists should read Perlin, even though he sometimes presents them as responsible for alleged sanism.^[7]

Perlin formó parte de la junta directiva de la Academia Internacional de Derecho y Salud Mental durante 20 años ^{[ 1 ]} y trabajó extensamente con Mental Disability Rights International , impartiendo formación y talleres en países como Hungría y Letonia . ^{[ 8 ]} Desde que recibió financiación en 2008, y como parte de su trabajo con el Justice Action Center, Perlin ha estado colaborando con defensores de Japón, Australia y la Cuenca del Pacífico para crear el Tribunal de Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad para Asia y el Pacífico (DRTAP). ^{[ 1 ] [ 9 ]}

• Perlin, Michael L. (2013). Una receta para la dignidad: repensando la justicia penal y el derecho de la discapacidad mental . Surrey, Inglaterra: Ashgate Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-0-7546-9440-3.
• Perlin, Michael L. (2000). El prejuicio oculto: la discapacidad mental a juicio . Washington, DC: Asociación Americana de Psicología. ISBN 978-1-55798-616-0.
• Perlin, Michael L. (2013). Discapacidad mental y pena de muerte: la vergüenza de los estados . Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-0056-2.
• Perlin, Michael L. (2012). Derecho internacional de los derechos humanos y la discapacidad mental: cuando se escucha a los silenciados . Oxford; Nueva York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-539323-1.
• Perlin, Michael L; Lynch, Alison J (2016). Sexualidad, discapacidad y derecho: ¿más allá de la última frontera? Palgrave Macmillan US. ISBN 978-1-137-48107-8.
• Perlin, Michael L. (2008). Competencia en el derecho: de la teoría jurídica a la aplicación clínica . Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-14420-6.
• Perlin, Michael L. (2006). Derechos humanos internacionales y derecho comparado de la discapacidad mental: casos y materiales . Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 978-1-59460-210-8.
• Perlin, Michael L. (1994). La jurisprudencia de la defensa por demencia . Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-89089-555-9.
• Perlin, Michael L. (1998). Derecho de la discapacidad mental: civil y penal . LEXIS Law Pub. ISBN 978-0-327-00493-6.

Perlin ha tocado el clarinete en la banda comunitaria de Lawrence Township y es aficionado al béisbol y a la ópera. ^{[ 8 ]} Perlin también es un gran admirador de Bob Dylan, a quien ha visto en directo muchas veces y ha titulado muchos de sus artículos de revista jurídica con letras de Dylan.