The central mission of the Center for the Study of Law and Society, established in 1961, is to facilitate interdisciplinary discussion and research by faculty from the Berkeley campus and throughout the world. Each year, the Center hosts visiting socio-legal scholars from across the United States and around the world. It sponsors weekly research presentations and talks by scholars from Berkeley and elsewhere, as well as conferences and colloquia on socio-legal studies. The Center administers research projects for individual faculty members interested in socio-legal studies and provides limited support for individual student and faculty research projects.
The Center has received substantial extramural funding to support major research programs, such as the Guggenheim Crime Policy Program, the Comparative Regulation Program, the Corporate Legal Culture Program, the John Olin Program in Law and Economics, the Legal History Program, the Ocean Law and Policy Program, and the Federalism Studies Symposium. Each of these programs has led to a substantial body of books, articles and other publications. Most recently the Center received an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar grant for the project, “The Dilemmas of Judicial Power: Constitutional Courts, Politics and Society.”
Boalt Hall J.D. students, along with students in the Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program and other graduate programs, are active in the life of the Center, working on research projects with faculty and taking part in the Center’s many symposia, conferences and informal lunchtime discussions.
How to reach us:
Center for the Study of Law and Society
2240 Piedmont Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94720- 2150
The central mission of the Center for the Study of Law and Society, established in 1961, is to facilitate interdisciplinary discussion and research by faculty from the Berkeley campus and throughout the world. Each year, the Center hosts visiting socio-legal scholars from