Reporting from a 2026 University of Bonn conference, Harris and Maget Dominicé distill two days of cross-disciplinary debate on how returning cultural property might inform broader theories of restitution — from Nazi-looted art and colonial-era objects to ancestral remains and reparations. Two tensions recur: the limits of legal remedies for historic wrongs, and the gap between symbolic gestures and real transfers of power.
The Hermeneutics of Restitution
Canvas, Issue 29
This month, we cover ownership disputes, the first AI-raised generation of student artists, and the hermeneutics of restitution.
2026 Berkeley Art, Law, and Finance Intensive Seminar
The Berkeley Art, Law, and Finance Intensive Seminar is a four-day program bringing together attorneys, museum professionals, collectors, advisors, and artists to explore the legal and financial forces shaping art markets today.
Private Tour of the Fisher Collection at SFMOMA
The Berkeley Art, Law, and Finance Project hosts an invitation-only tour of the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at SFMOMA, one of the world’s great holdings of postwar and contemporary art. Led by Laura Nagle, Director of the Fisher Art Foundation, this intimate evening offers a small group the chance to ask questions and discuss the work.
Clinic Marks 25 Years of Innovation and Impact
BARRIERS TO NATIVE AMERICAN VOTING RIGHTS
(October 2026)
Libby Washburn, Senior Fellow, Edley Center on Law & Democracy
Mikaela Bledsoe Downes, Native Vote Fellow, Arizona State University Indian Legal Clinic
This white paper documents persisting and often compound barriers to equal access to voting that face Native American voters today. The white paper summarizes case law and legislation involving the right of Native Americans to vote, recognizes both that Native voters remain burdened by persistent electoral barriers and that court decisions cannot retroactively remedy votes forever lost through past voter disenfranchisement, and calls for lasting protection through strengthening voting rights.
STATES AND CITIES MUST LEAD ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
(October 2026)
Donald K. Sherman, Senior Fellow, Edley Center on Law & Democracy, President & CEO, CREW
Stuart McPhail, Director of Campaign Finance Litigation, CREW
This white paper explains that after the United States Supreme Court decided Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the American political system has been flooded with big donor money influencing elections and public policy, diminishing the voices of average Americans in deciding who represents them and what policies those representatives pursue. The white paper notes that whereas federal legislative and oversight efforts for reform have stalled, states and localities have taken important steps to combat corruption and, in doing so. to protect free and fair elections for all Americans. The white paper explains that these state efforts have benefits that can accrue to other states and to the nation as a whole, and calls on states and cities to lead this democracy protective work.
PAC Featured in National Jurist’s A+ Ranking for Berkeley’s Criminal Law Program
National Jurist, 10/27/2026
Global Rights Innovation Lab Clinic Roars Out of the Gate With Multiple Pathbreaking Projects
From a secure open-source translation tool to an evidence-based roadmap to prevent violence against human rights defenders, GRIL is delivering on the mission that fueled its creation: using data to support advocacy, policy, and social change — at home and abroad — by and for human rights defenders and victims.