Peter Weiss

Peter Weiss, a trailblazing attorney and a tireless advocate for human rights, international law, and the abolition of nuclear weapons, died November 3 at the age of 99, one month shy of his 100th birthday. The cause was old age. Born in Vienna, Austria, Peter led a life defined by resilience, hope, intellect, and a profound commitment to justice and peace.

Fleeing Austria in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution, Peter and his family spent three years in France before finding refuge in New York City. This early experience of injustice and displacement contributed to his lifelong dedication to defending human rights and holding those who violate them accountable through the rule of law. Peter served in the U.S. Army during WWII at a top-secret prisoner of war camp outside Washington, D.C. where German-speaking Jewish soldiers hosted and interrogated Nazi POWs (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/camp_confidential_americas_secret_nazis). After the war he was stationed in Berlin, working to dismantle Nazi-aligned industrial cartels.

After his service, Peter finished his undergraduate education at St. John’s College in Annapolis in 1949, where his study of the Great Books had a profound influence on his life and work. He earned his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1952 and set off on a long professional legal career that included countless hours of pro bono work.

Peter joined Langner & Parry, an intellectual property law firm in New York City, in 1955. In 1969 he was a founding partner of a successful international trademark firm, Weiss, Dawid, Fross & Lehrman. He represented a wide variety of clients, from Bozo the Clown and Laurel and Hardy to Chanel and Budweiser. He retired from trademark law at the age of 80.

With his education and a moral compass as strong as any, he never wavered in his belief that the rule of law should prevail. “I have a friend who likes to needle me by saying ‘law is the dead hand of the past laid upon the present,’” Peter once told a group of law students, “to which I usually reply, ‘law is the burning vision of the future leading us onward.’ Of course, we are both wrong. But I still prefer my version.”

Throughout his professional career, Peter was involved in a wide range of political activities and movements. He was the chair, president, or vice president of many organizations that he served or created. These include the American Committee on Africa, Center for Constitutional Rights, Institute for Policy Studies, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, and New Jewish Narrative (formerly Americans for Peace now). In addition to his work to abolish nuclear weapons, he supported decolonization in Africa, and years later helped to write the constitution for the newly independent nation of Eritrea. He also supported the U.S. civil rights movement, an end to the American war in Vietnam, the dictatorship in Chile, and the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, to name a few.

Peter was a visionary leader in the fight against nuclear arms, which he saw as the ultimate threat to the human race. He co-founded the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy in 1981 and served as the founding president of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms in 1988. In 1996, he and his colleagues brought a case before the International Court of Justice where half the justices sided with their position that the threat or use of nuclear weapons was a violation of international law (https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2016-07/news/world-court-delivers-opinion-legality-nuclear-weapons-use).

One of Peter’s most well-known and groundbreaking cases was in the field of human rights. Peter, together with Rhonda Copelon, an attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, rediscovered the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), an obscure commerce law from 1789 that gives federal courts jurisdiction over international tort claims brought by non-U.S. citizens. The legal team successfully used the ATS to win a landmark case in the 2nd District Court of Appeals, Filártiga v. Peña-Irala (https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/fil-rtiga-v-pe-irala). The 1980 decision found a Paraguayan official living in the U.S. accountable for the torture of the son of an opposition leader in Paraguay. This groundbreaking precedent established that people who violated international human rights law could be held accountable in the United States.

In spite of on-going crimes against humanity, Peter was never a cynic. He loved to mentor young people considering a career in law, reminding them to use their knowledge and skills for social justice. His life was driven by many passions in addition to the law and the truth. He loved language – reading novels and poetry, the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle, and writing. Peter never missed giving a toast and wrote one for every occasion. He had a well-known dry sense of humor. As he wrote about himself years ago, his hobbies were “playing tennis and suing the president.” For example, he sued Richard Nixon over the U.S. secret bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War. He wrote short form poetry where his humor found a home. He loved opera and classical music, like his mother Paula, who lived to be 104, and also exposed his children to the Beatles, Richie Havens, Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger, and jazz greats like Duke Ellington and Mose Allison. He loved art, films, and theatre.

Peter was a devoted husband to Cora, a dedicated feminist and noted advocate for peace education and the abolition of war. Their partnership of 69 years exemplified a shared mission of advancing peace and justice around the world. They did everything together, from inspiring countless individuals to take up the cause of social justice, to watching the sunset every summer on Martha’s Vineyard.

Peter’s legacy is preserved not only in the legal precedents he established and in his deep ties to his family and many friends, but also in the vast archive of his personal and professional papers housed at Tamiment Library at New York University.

Peter is survived by his beloved wife, Cora, their three children Judy, Tamara, and Danny (Anne Stewart), grandchildren Jules (Emily), Noah (Kelsey), Maria (Gabi), Catherine, (Brianna) and Simon, his former son-in-law Gary, and a global community of activists and legal professionals who carry forward his vision of a more just and secure world. His indomitable spirit, intellect, and compassion will continue to inspire generations to come.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to organizations supporting human rights and nuclear weapons abolition.

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