Anthony M.  Dillof

Anthony M. Dillof

Professor of Law

Contact

Room 3253
(313) 577-9450

Anthony M. Dillof

  • Biography

    Anthony Dillof currently teaches Torts, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Appellate Advocacy. In the past, he has taught Civil Rights and Jurisprudence. These classes complement his scholarly interest in exploring the forms of justice that underlie our civil, criminal and constitutional law systems respectively.

    Dillof has published articles in many of the nation's leading law journals. Topics he has written on include the concept of causation in personal injury law, the moral justification of the entrapment defense, the nature of wrongdoing in possessory offenses, the criminal law doctrine of transferred intent, the significance of harm for punishment assessment, and the free speech implications of hate crime laws. He believes that careful inquiry into the law's areas of stress, uncertainty and contradiction is necessary to chart its course forward.

    Dillof earned a bachelor’s in philosophy from Harvard University. At Columbia Law School, he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a member of the law review. He worked at the Center for Law in the Public Interest in Los Angeles before taking a position as a law clerk for the Honorable William C. Canby, judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He then served as special legal assistant for the American Civil Liberties Union where he worked on immigration issues.

    Dillof later joined the New York City Law Department, Office of the Corporation Counsel. There, he handled a wide range of civil matters including high-profile lawsuits involving challenges to New York City's recycling, solid waste disposal programs, and homeless litigation, as well as many cases before state and federal appellate courts. In 1994, Dillof was selected as one of three participants in Columbia Law School’s Associate of Law fellowship program. He subsequently joined the faculty at Texas Wesleyan University School of Law where he organized a student chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and a Pro Bono Criminal Law Project. Since 2002, he has been a member of the faculty of Wayne State University Law School.

    Dillof's interests outside of law include chess, aerogami, mathematics and book collecting. He also sings lead for a couple of local punk rock bands.

  • Degrees and Certifications

    LL.M., J.D. Columbia University
    A.B., Harvard University 

  • Courses Taught

    Appellate Advocacy
    Advanced Topics in Criminal Law and Procedure
    Criminal Law
    Criminal Procedure: Adjudication
    Criminal Procedure: Investigation
    Law and Economics
    Torts

  • Selected publications

    Objective Punishment, 89 U. Cin. L. Rev. 628 (2021)

    Doomed Steamers and Merged Fires: The Problem of Preempted Innocent Threats in Torts30 Ga. St. U. L. Rev 703 (2014)

    Modal Retributivism: A Theory of Sanctions for Attempts and Other Criminal Wrongs, 45 U. Rich. L. Rev. 467 (2011)

    Unraveling Unlawful Entrapment, 94 J. Crim. L. & Crim. 827 (2004)

    Unraveling Unknowing Justification, 77 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1547 (2002)

    Putting Hate in Its Place: The Codification of Bias Crime Statutes in a Modern Penal Code, 4 Buff. Crim. L. Rev. 341 (2000) (Model Penal Code Symposium issue)

    Transferred Intent: An Inquiry Into the Nature of Criminal Culpability, 1 Buff. Crim. L. Rev. 501 (1998) (New Voices in Criminal Theory symposium issue)

    Punishing Bias: An Examination of the Theoretical Foundations of Bias Crime Statutes, 91 Nw. U. L. Rev. 1015 (1997)

  • Social Science Research Network
  • Accomplishments
    • Anthony Dillof wrote “Possession, Child Pornography and Proportionality: Criminal Liability for Aggregate Harm Offenses” for the Florida State University Law Review. The article explores federal penalties for possessing child pornography. Read the full article.
  • Courses taught by Anthony M. Dillof

    Winter Term 2024 (current)

    Fall Term 2023

    Winter Term 2023