Conferences and Events

The Legal Process and the Promise of Justice: A Conference to Honor the Work of Malcolm M. Feeley

October 22-23, 2015

Malcolm M. Feeley headshot on left with separated photo of related law, policy, and justice books on right.Organized and sponsored by the Center for the Study of Law and Society (CSLS)

Co-sponsored by the Office of the Dean, Berkeley Law; the Division of Social Sciences; the Jurisprudence & Social Policy Program; the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies; the Sho Sato Program in Japanese and US Law; and the Institute for Legal Research

[COPY OF PROGRAM]  [ABSTRACTS]

The scholarship of Malcolm Feeley, Claire Sanders Clements Dean’s Professor of Law, was honored in a two-day program, which included many of his colleagues, students, and co-authors from Berkeley and around the world.


THE EXPERIENCE OF VETERANS IN AMERICAN SOCIETY

February 3, 2010

Illustration showing outline of soldiers with an American flag in the background

Co-sponsored with the Jefferson Lectures Series

[VIDEO]  [AUDIO]  [COPY OF PROGRAM]

The Institute for Legal Research organized a forum on “The Experience of Veterans in American Society” as an informal follow-up to the February 2nd Jefferson Lecture by historian James Wright, president emeritus of Dartmouth College.  The forum featured speakers with past and current military experience and from the fields of law, history, political science, and medicine.

Moderator:  Prof. Harry Scheiber, Berkeley Law

Opening reflections:
• Prof. Richard Abrams, History, UC Berkeley
• RADM Harold Robinson, CHC, USN (Ret.), Jewish Chaplains Council
• Prof. T.J. Pempel, Political Science, UC Berkeley
• Jan Scruggs, Esq., Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

Panelists:
• President Emeritus James Wright, Dartmouth College
• Dr. Michael Ascher, Institute of Medicine’s Board of Military and Veterans Health
• Prof. Lloyd Burton, Public Affairs, University of Colorado, Denver
• Prof. Richard Cándida-Smith, History, UC Berkeley
• Col. Rocky Chavez (USMC, Ret.), California Department of Veterans Affairs
• Prof. Todd La Porte, Political Science, UC Berkeley
• Lt. Col. Leland Liebe (US Army), ROTC, UC Berkeley
• Prof. Melissa Murray, Berkeley Law
• Prof. Gordon Silverstein, Political  Science, UC Berkeley
• Lt. Col. Brian Stone (USAF), ROTC, UC Berkeley


CONSTITUTION DAY EVENTS

SEPTEMBER 15 AND 17, 2009

The Institute for Legal Research organized two events in connection with Constitution Day (September 17), the national celebration of the signing of the US Constitution.

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CIVIL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES: THE CONSTITUTION IN CRISIS TIMES

September 15, 2009

A gavel set on paper titled we the peopleCo-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Law and Society

This colloquium featured talks on the “Constitutional Crisis in Birmingham:  The Civil Rights Movement and Beyond,” by Willoughby Anderson, Law Clerk, Chambers of Senior Judge John T. Nixon, US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee; and “Martial Law and Military Courts:  Hawaii in World War II,” presented by Harry N. Scheiber, Professor of Law, and Jane Scheiber, Asst. Dean (Ret.) of Chemistry and CSLS Research Associate, UC Berkeley.  Professors Goodwin Liu and Gordon Silverstein, UC Berkeley, provided commentary for the event.

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TECHNOLOGY, DEMOCRACY, AND THE LAW

September 17, 2009

computer circuit board

Co-sponsored with the Jefferson Lecture Series

[AUDIO]  [COPY OF PROGRAM]

This forum featured a talk by Professor Steven Usselman of the School of History, Technology, and Society at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  Professor Usselman specializes in the history of technology and American political economy.  His book, Regulating Railroad Innovation:  Business, Technology, and Politics in America, 1840-1920 (Cambridge University Press, 2002), won the Ellis W. Hawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians and the Hilton Prize in railroad history.  He also served as the president of the Society for the History of Technology from 2007-2008.

Commentators included Professor Robert Merges, Director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, UC Berkeley, and Lee Tien, Senior Staff Attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.


COURTS, POLITICS, AND THE MEDIA

September 16, 2008

[COPY OF PROGRAM]  [BERKELEYAN ARTICLE]

This forum on the interplay of courts, politics, and the media showcased several nationally prominent journalists, including Linda Greenhouse, formerly of the New York Times, where she served for 30 years as the nation’s foremost reporter covering the US Supreme Court.  Other speakers included Judge William A. Fletcher of the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and member of the UC Berkeley faculty; Emily Bazelon, a legal writer for Slate.com; Henry Weinstein, legal reporter and analyst for the Los Angeles Times until his recent retirement; and Gordon Silverstein, a professor in UC Berkeley’s Political Science Department.  The forum also featured a panel of specialists, including Berkeley Law professors Goodwin Liu and Jesse H. Choper, and Molly Selvin, a legal historian and former reporter and editorial staff member on the LA Times, who is interim dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School.

(L-R) Linda Greenhouse, Judge William Fletcher, Emily Bazelon, and Henry Weinstein
(photo by Jim Block)


LAW, WAR, AND HISTORY

globe of the world set on a pile of booksFebruary 16-17, 2007

Co-sponsored with the William Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

[COPY OF PROGRAM]

Scholars from England, Israel, Japan, and the United States met at Boalt Hall to deliver and discuss papers at a symposium on “Law, War, and History.”  Presentations from the conference were published in 2008 as a special issue of the Law and History Review, the official journal of the American Society for Legal History, and includes revised conference papers on international law from ancient to modern times.

 


Governing and Living in a Time of Terror: Law Beyond 9/11

Illustration of world graphic with text: Covering and living in a time of terror: law beyond 9/11September 8-9, 2006

Co-sponsored with the School of Law’s Office of the Dean

[COPY OF PROGRAM]

Boalt presents Governing and Living in a Time of Terror: Law Beyond 9/11, a unique conference for our faculty, alumni, staff and students along with UC Berkeley faculty. The event, organized by Professor David Caron and David Kaye (’95), inaugurates a long-term research initiative on areas of law and policy influenced by the September 11 attacks. 


US Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren

EARL WARREN AND THE WARREN COURT: A FIFTY-YEAR RETROSPECT

February 27-28, 2004

[COPY OF PROGRAM]  [PHOTO GALLERY]

This conference commemorated the constitutional legacy of US Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren and the Warren Court (and marked the fiftieth-year anniversary of the Warren Court’s initial term).  Several of the lectures dealt with the impact of the Warren Court on legal development in Europe, Asia, and the Americas; others treated the Court’s legacy in US law in major areas such as criminal justice, freedom of speech, equal protection, and desegregation.  The proceedings from the conference, Earl Warren and the Warren Court: The Legacy in American and Foreign Law (edited by Harry N. Scheiber), were published by Lexington Books.

The conference dinner featured speeches by UC Berkeley Chancellor Emeritus Robert M. Berdahl and four former Warren Court clerks: Professor Jesse H. Choper, UC Berkeley; Chancellor Emeritus Ira Michael Heyman, UC Berkeley; Professor Scott Bice, University of Southern California; and Hon. James R. Browning, US Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit.

To read Chancellor Berdahl’s talk, click here.  To read Judge Browning’s remarks, click here.

Chancellor Emeritus Robert Berdahl and Judge James Browning

Chancellor Emeritus Robert Berdahl and Judge James Browning
(photo by Jim Block)