Constitutional Law and History Program
The Constitutional Law and History Program was inaugurated with the delivery of the ILR Lecture in Constitutional Law. The first lecture, "School Vouchers: Federal Constitutional Issues After the Cleveland Case," was given by Professor Jesse H. Choper on September 18, 2002. Subsequent speakers have included John Fabian Witt of Columbia University and John Witte, Jr. from Emory University.
ILR Director Gives Plenary Speech to 2007 9th Circuit Judicial Conference
Harry N. Scheiber, Director of the Institute for Legal Research and the Riesenfeld Professor of Law and History at Boalt Hall, was a plenary-session speaker on July 19 at the 2007 Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, which brought together in Honolulu the bench and bar from federal courts throughout the western United States.Professor Scheiber's address opened the conference session on the courts in wartime, where he discussed the federal judiciary and the impact of martial law in Hawaii during World War II, an often-forgotten episode in the nation's constitutional history. In co-authorship with Jane L. Scheiber, who is Assistant Dean in the College of Chemistry at UC Berkeley, he is completing a book, "Bayonets In Paradise," a full history of the military courts, federal appellate litigation, and the Army's impact on life in Hawaii during the war years.
Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle welcomed the attendees at the opening session, and the closing segment featured Associate Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court. Some 800 judges, judiciary employees, government officials, and private attorneys attended the conference, whose theme was "Collision Course: When Liberty and Order Clash."
ILR Lectures in Constitutional Law
"Stranger in a Surprisingly Strange Land: A Canadian Lawyer Defends Lord Conrad Black in U.S. Federal Court in Chicago"(co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Law and Society; the Berkeley Center for Law, Business, and the Economy; the Institute for Governmental Studies, and the Canadian Studies Program)
Edward Greenspan, Q.C.
January 30, 2008
"The Transformation of Law and Economy in Early America"
Professor Bruce H. Mann
Harvard University
March 9, 2007
"The Rule of Law in the Age of Terrorism – An Audit"
(co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Law and Society)
David Neal, Q.C.
Visiting Scholar, Institute for Legal Research
January 30, 2007
"The King and the Dean: Melvin Belli, Roscoe Pound, and the Common Law Nation"
(co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Law and Society)
Professor John Fabian Witt
Columbia University
November 9, 2006
"State Constitutions for the Twenty-First Century"
(co-sponsored with the Institute for Governmental Studies)
Professor Robert F. Williams
Rutgers School of Law-Camden
October 11, 2006
"The Almighty and the Dollar: Catholics, Protestants, and School Funding At Mid-Century"
Professor Sarah Gordon
University of Pennsylvania
April 6, 2006
"Someday All This Will Be Yours: Aging Parents, Adult Children, and Inheritance in the Modern Era"
(co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Law and Society)
Professor Hendrik Hartog
Princeton University
January 31, 2006
"Separation of Church and State: Facts and Fictions of American History"
Professor John Witte, Jr.
Emory University
February 7, 2005
"Inside the 9-ll Commission: The Bush White House, Executive Privilege, and Separation of Powers"
Daniel Marcus
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States ("9-11 Commission")
November 10, 2004
"Property Rights and Military Necessity in American Constitutional Law"
(co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Law and Society)
Professor Harry N. Scheiber
UC Berkeley
January 27, 2004
"Sweden During the Second World War"
(co-sponsored with the Robbins Collection)
Professor Jan-Olof Sundell
Stockholm University
November 5, 2003
"School Vouchers: Federal Constitutional Issues After the Cleveland Case"
Professor Jesse H. Choper
UC Berkeley
September 18, 2002
Conference on "Earl Warren and the Warren Court: A Fifty-Year Retrospect"
February 27-28, 2004, 9:00 am-5:00 pm
140 Boalt Hall
This conference commemorated the constitutional legacy of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren and the Warren Court (and marked the fiftieth-year anniversary of the Warren Court's initial term). The conference featured a set of lectures by leading constitutional lawyers, legal historians, and political scientists. Several of the lectures dealt with the impact of the Warren Court on legal development in Europe, Asia, and the Americas; others treated the Court's legacy in U.S. law in major areas such as criminal justice, freedom of speech, equal protection, and desegregation.
The conference was sponsored and organized by the Institute for Legal Research, and co-sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the following UC Berkeley departments: Berkeley Law; the Center for the Study of Law and Society; the Institute of Governmental Studies; the Jefferson Lectures Committee; and the Robbins Religious and Civil Law Collection.
The proceedings from the conference, Earl Warren and the Warren Court: The Legacy in American and Foreign Law (edited by Harry N. Scheiber), have been published by Lexington Books.
For a copy of the conference program, click here. For photos from the conference, click here.
The conference dinner featured speeches by UC Berkeley Chancellor Emeritus Robert M. Berdahl and four former Warren Court clerks: Professor Jesse H. Choper, UC Berkeley; Chancellor Emeritus Ira Michael Heyman, UC Berkeley; Professor Scott Bice, University of Southern California; and Hon. James R. Browning, U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit. To read Chancellor Berdahl's talk, click here. To read Judge Browning's remarks, click here.
Selected Publications
Earl Warren and the Warren Court: The Legacy in American and Foreign Law, edited by Harry N. Scheiber, Lexington Books, 2007.
Individual Rights and Liberties under the U.S. Constitution: The Case Law of the U.S. Supreme Court, by Ioannis G. Dimitrakopoulos, Brill Academic Publishers, 2007.
"Taking Liberties," by Harry N. Scheiber and Jane L. Scheiber, Legal Affairs, May/June 2003.