In Life and in Death 2003–2004 535
‘sexual harassment.’ In their principle, these laws seem to me
just and useful. But everyone knows that, in practice, they can
give rise to applications that are abusive, capricious, or even
perverse and deceitful [.. .].
First, as concerns probability, I can testify on the basis of
what I have been told by many colleagues (including Dragan,
obviously). It would seem that the allegations of the plaintiff
are unfair and in bad faith (I will not yet say perverse). When
there has been neither any coercion or violence brought to bear
on her, nor any attack (moreover very improbable!) on the pre-
sumed ‘innocence’ of a 27- or 28-year-old woman, where does
she fi nd the grounds, how can she claim to have the right to initi-
ate such a serious procedure and to put in motion such a weighty
juridico-academic bureaucracy against a respectable and uni-
versally respected professor? I have also heard said that all the
legal procedures were not observed in the conduct of the inquiry,
notably in the way in which the administration informed (in fact
failed to inform) our colleagues of new aspects of the law.^43Hardening his tone, Derrida emphasized that it was because of the
‘trusting friendship’ that united him to the University of California,
Irvine that he had donated all his archives to the library’s Special
Collection.
What I am preparing to say to you, I assure you with a solemn
oath, constitutes in no way, in my mind, pressure brought to
bear on anyone. But it is my duty to tell you the truth on this
subject, without delay and in all strictness. The truth is this: if
the scandalous procedure initiated against Dragan Kujundzic
were not to be interrupted or cancelled, for all the reasons I
have just laid out, if a sanction of whatever sort were allowed
to sully both his honor and the honor of the university, I would
sadly be obliged to put an end, immediately, to all my relations
with UCI. [.. .]
Another consequence: since I never take back what I have
given, my papers would of course remain the property of
UCI and the Special Collections department of the library.
However, it goes without saying that the spirit in which I
contributed to the constitution of these archives (which is
underway and growing every year) would have been seriously
damaged. Without renouncing my commitments, I would
regret having made them and would reduce their fulfi llment to
the barest minimum.Several of Derrida’s friends and colleagues at Irvine, however, regret-
ted his position, feeling that he had yielded too quickly to pressure