News
July 24, 2014
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Report: FERC Can Bypass Congress to Mitigate Climate Change
A new Berkeley Law report calls on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to mitigate the impact of climate change by enforcing existing laws.
July 17, 2014
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Freedom Rider: Cindy Dinh ’16 Selected for Civil Rights Event
Dinh and fellow student activists join six original Freedom Riders on a symbolic bus trip celebrating the Civil Rights Act’s 50th anniversary.
July 14, 2014
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Death Penalty Clinic’s Legal Win Helps Shape Criminal Law
The clinic scores a big victory when the California Court of Appeal gives a death row prisoner access to a district attorney’s records.
Read more news on the Newsroom page.
Legal Writing for Lawyers
Berkeley Law’s International and Executive Legal Education program is offering a rigorous legal writing workshop Aug. 8-9. Approved for 12 hours of MCLE credit, “Writing to Persuade: Giving Judges What They Want” will help practicing lawyers improve their legal analysis, writing style, and persuasiveness. The workshop, taught by professional skills faculty members, will feature a small class size, targeted written exercises, and personalized feedback.
Memorial Service Planned for O’Neil >>
A memorial service for Beth Cobb O’Neil, Berkeley Law’s admissions director from 1976-1988, will be held July 19 at 2 pm in the UC Berkeley Alumni House. Online condolences for the family may be left here, and donations to the law school’s Beth Cobb O’Neil Scholarship Fund here. O’Neil, who died May 22, also worked for UC Berkeley’s Educational Opportunity Program, ran the San Francisco Foundation Scholars Program, and was Mills College’s Dean of Admissions. Throughout her career, she pioneered minority admissions policies and worked to find ways to create a diverse student body in the face of challenges to affirmative action. (6/25/14)
Mayo ’12 Receives Education Fellowship >>
Kelsey Mayo ’12 has been awarded a coveted National Academy of Education (NAE) Spencer Dissertation Fellowship. Only 30 fellows—each of whom receives a $25,000 award—were chosen from more than 600 graduate student applications. The fellowship encourages top young scholars to work on education-related issues, and fellows are invited to discuss their work at two NAE meetings in Washington, D.C. A Berkeley Law Jurisprudence & Social Policy Program Ph.D. candidate, Mayo studies education law from a sociological perspective. She focuses on legal environments for school choice and charter schools, and mobilizing educational rights. (6/23/14)
Gideon’s Promise Selects Stuckey ’15 >>
Nathan Stuckey ’15 has been accepted to this year’s highly selective Gideon’s Promise Summer Law Clerk Program. Sixteen chosen clerks will assist Southeast public defender offices that partner with Gideon’s Promise, a nonprofit which mobilizes and trains advocates to provide indigent clients with quality representation. Stuckey will work this summer at the public defender office in Augusta, Georgia. Gideon’s Promise, which partners with 32 such offices across 13 states, recruits talented law students who want to improve the struggling indigent defense system and who display the traits needed to become a promising public defender. (6/6/14)
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 »
More:
- Multimedia Page: Our multimedia page collects all the great Berkeley Law video, audio recordings, and podcasts into one place.
August 7-8: 14th Annual Intellectual Property Scholars Conference
Calendar »
- International and Executive Legal Education Register now for IELE summer certificate trainings.
- Professional LL.M.
- Traditional Track LL.M.
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In Refracted Justice, Prof. Laurel Fletcher argues that international courts and tribunals consistently frustrate the victims of mass atrocities. In her analysis of transitional justice and victims' rights, she questions whether the International Criminal Court can live up to its moral commitments.
In Breaking Bad, Prof. Dan Farber examines the government’s reliance on “breakeven analysis” to calculate risks and benefits of agency regulations. He suggests that this type of analysis, although workable on paper, may not be ideal in practice.
In Marriage Equality and Postracialism, Prof. Russell Robinson says the fight for same-sex marriage has aggravated a fissure between black and gay communities. Although the marriage equality movement bills itself as a descendant of the black civil rights movement, he says “it often treats its forefather as dead.”
- Op-ed by Frank Zimring: Why America needs stories like California Chrome, the dark horse that conquers. (New York Post)
- Prof Dan Farber explains the legal basis for EPA's rules to reduce carbon emissions. (Legal Planet)
- Prof. john powell says economic polarization is not driving political polarization, but rather anxiety, fear, and hostility to the “other.” (Berkeley Blog)