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ADMISSIONS > Welcome >
The teaching of law at Berkeley began when the Department of History and Political Science offered the first law course, Roman Law, in 1881. The Department of Jurisprudence was founded in 1894, and the Boalt Memorial Hall of Law was built in 1911 with a major gift from Elizabeth Josselyn Boalt (in memory of her husband, John Henry Boalt, who was an attorney and judge), as well as supplemental donations from California lawyers. In 1912 the Department of Jurisprudence gained autonomous status and was renamed the School of Jurisprudence. That same year, the school hired full-time legal scholars as professors and the California Law Review was founded.
In 1950 the School of Jurisprudence became the School of Law, and "Boalt Hall" became the school's popular name. The School of Law occupied the Boalt Memorial Hall of Law until 1951 when it moved to its current location in the new Boalt Hall, at the southeast corner of the campus. Improvement to the building in 1959, 1967 and 1996 included an expansion to the law library (North Addition) and the addition of Simon Hall.
The Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program and the Center for the Study of Law and Society are located next to Boalt Hall in an attractive historic building.
Throughout the years, the law school has expanded its programs and continues to grow. Highlights include the founding of the Center for the Study of Law and Society (1961), the Earl Warren Legal Institute (1963), the Ecology Law Quarterly (1970), the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law (1976), the Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program (1978), the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal (1981), the Berkeley Journal of International Law (1983), the Berkeley Women's Law Journal (1984), the Berkeley Technology Law Journal (1986), the Asian Law Journal (1991) and the African-American Law and Policy Report (1992).
More recently, Boalt Hall has added the Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance (1994), the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology (1995), the Center for Clinical Education (1998), the International Human Rights Law Clinic (1998), the California Criminal Law Review (1999), the Center for Social Justice (1999), the Kadish Center for Morality, Law and Public Affairs (2000), the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic (2000), the Death Penalty Clinic (2001), the Berkeley Business Law Journal (2003), the California Center for Environmental Law & Policy (2004), the Berkeley Center for Law, Business, and the Economy (2004) and the Institute for Legal Research (2005).
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Boalt Hall Deans
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