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Vera Bergelson

Professor of Law and Robert E. Knowlton Scholar

Professor Bergelson earned her diploma in Slavic languages and literatures with distinction from Moscow State University and her Ph.D. in philology from the Institute of Slavic and Balkan Studies in Moscow, Russia. She earned her J.D. cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was on the Law Review and was named to the Order of the Coif.

Professor Bergelson has been a lecturer at Moscow State University, the Polish Cultural Center, and the Literary Institute in Moscow. Before joining the Rutgers faculty in 2001, she was an associate with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York for six years. She is fluent in Russian and Polish and has a reading proficiency in Bulgarian, Belorussian, and Ukranian.

Professor Bergelson’s book Victims’ Rights and Victims’ Wrongs: A Theory of Comparative Criminal Liability was published in 2009 by Stanford University Press. Forthcoming articles are “The Duty to Protect the Victim or the Duty to Suffer Punishment” in Law and Philosophy (2013); “The Boundaries of the Criminal Law” in Criminal Law and Philosophy (2013); and “The Defense of Consent” in Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013).

Her recent articles include “Victimless Crimes,” in International Encyclopedia of Ethics (Hugh LaFollette et al., eds.) (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013); “Vice Is Nice but Incest Is Best: Problem of a Moral Taboo,” 7 Criminal Law and Philosophy 43 (2013); “Choice of Evils: In Search of a Viable Rationale,” 6 Crim. L. and Phil’y 289 (2012); “A Fair Punishment for Humbert Humbert: Strict Liability and Affirmative Defenses,” 14 New Crim. L. Rev. 55 (2011); “Justification or Excuse? Exploring the Meaning of Provocation,” 42 Texas Tech. L. Rev. 307 (2009); “The Case of Weak Will and Wayward Desire” in Criminal Law and Philosophy (2009); “Provocation: Not Just a Partial Excuse” in Criminal Law Conversations (Oxford University Press, 2009); “Consent to Harm” in the Pace Law Review and also in The Ethics of Consent Theory and Practice (Alan Wertheimer & Franklin G. Miller, eds., Oxford University Press, 2009); “Justification or Excuse? Exploring the Meaning of Provocation” in the Texas Tech Law Review (2009); “Autonomy, Dignity, and Consent to Harm” in the Rutgers Law Review (2008); “The Right to Be Hurt: Testing the Boundaries of Consent” in the George Washington Law Review (2007); and “Rights, Wrongs, and Comparative Justifications” in the Cardozo Law Review (2007) and also in Law of Privileges — Journalists and Executives (R. Satyanarayana, ed., ICFAI University Press, 2009).

Professor Bergelson was 2010-2011 chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ Section on Jurisprudence. She is a Fulbright Specialist (2009-2014) and on the editorial boards of BdeF and Edisofer (Buenos Aires and Madrid) and Law and Philosophy.