News
May 24, 2013
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Berkeley Law Welcomes Its Largest Professional LL.M. Class
Representing 36 countries from every continent other than Anarctica, the students will earn Master of Law degrees over two consecutive summers.
May 17, 2013
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Human Rights Center Fellows to Confront Injustice Worldwide
The center’s chosen fellows include Berkeley Law students Ioana Tchoukleva ’14, Elizabeth Jimenez ’14, and Genevieve Painter ’14.
May 10, 2013
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Clinic Students Play Vital Role in Capital Case
The outcome was bittersweet: life without parole for a condemned man. But for seven Death Penalty Clinic students, it was a hard-fought victory.
Read more news on the Newsroom page.
2013 Commencement
US Attorney General Eric Holder, who has served under the Obama administration since 2009, delivered the Berkeley Law commencement speech on May 11. He used the platform to promote the use of civilian courts in terror cases, calling critics of the idea “simply wrong.” Professor Melissa Murray, chosen by popular demand, delivered the faculty speech to more than 400 graduates at the Hearst Greek Theatre (see photos). Congratulations all!
Nancy Lemon ’80 Wins ABA’s Corbitt Award >>
Berkeley Law Lecturer Nancy Lemon ’80 has been awarded this year’s Corbitt Award from the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence. The annual award recognizes the exceptional service and leadership of an attorney who is working to improve the legal responses to domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Lemon, the director of Berkeley Law’s Domestic Violence Practicum, has been teaching a seminar on the topic—the first law school one of its kind—since 1988. She received the Corbitt Award May 9 at an ABA conference in San Francisco. (5/14/13)
Executive Program Hosts Thai Delegation >>
Berkeley Law’s International Executive Legal Education (IELE) program concluded a two-week intensive training session on E-Commerce regulations for a delegation of judges visiting from Thailand. The high-ranking Supreme Court and appellate court judges were selected to participate in a national Thai competition; they were honored at a closing ceremony on May 10. Since 2010, IELE has provided year-round programs for more than 500 participants from Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Africa. This also marks the fourth straight year the program has trained members of Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission. (5/14/13)
Kinch Hoekstra Receives Mentoring Honor >>
Berkeley Law Professor Kinch Hoekstra has received the university’s Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentorship of Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs), one of only four faculty members so honored this year. The award is sponsored by the UC Berkeley Graduate Council’s Advisory Committee and the GSI Teaching and Resource Center. Hoekstra, who holds a joint appointment with the Department of Political Science, specializes in the history of political, moral, and legal philosophy. An authority on ancient, renaissance, and early modern political thought, he taught philosophy at Oxford from 1996 to 2007. (5/14/13)
Video: Christina Swarns of the NAACP
Christina Swarns is the director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund's Criminal Justice Project. She spoke on "Post-Racial America: The View from Death Row" at a recent Henderson Center Rutch Chance Lecture. Watch here »
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Melissa Murray’s prize-winning paper What's So New About the New Illegitimacy debunks the idea of an improved legal climate for out-of-wedlock births. If anything, illegitimacy is making a political comeback. Liberals call it an “injury” forced upon kids of same-sex couples, but Murray warns against using it as an argument for marriage equality.
In an article, Industry self-governance: A new way to manage dangerous technologies, co-author Stephen Maurer suggests that private firms can often regulate the sale and purchase of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons more effectively than governments. He says treaties to regulate this trade take too long to create and often go unenforced.
An article by Kate Jastram examines the legal plight of Haitian children whose dangerous escape by sea from their impoverished homeland ended in military custody on Guantanamo. Jastram argues that it was the Haitian refugees’ legal struggles that set the stage for the post-9/11 litigation over what rights, if any, could be claimed by non-U.S. citizens held there.
- Increase in fracking in CA outstrips agencies' ability to protect environment, needs close oversight. (San Francisco Chronicle)
- Prof. Charles Weisselberg says Miranda decision provides little protection, but stands as a symbol for legal rights. (LA Times)
- Dan Farber says SCOTUS shows less interest in environmental risk regulations, more in individual property rights. (Legal Planet)