Welcome to the Center for the Study of Law and Society (CSLS)

Hank Willis Thomas 'Raise Up' Statue, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery Alabama (Getty Images)

Criminal Justice

Hank Willis Thomas 'Raise Up' Statue, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery Alabama (Getty Images)

Lighting the World Protesting Darkness, Fayek Tasneem Khan (Getty Images)

Democracy and Civil Society

Lighting the World Protesting Darkness, Fayek Tasneem Khan (Getty Images)

Martin Luther King Jr's speech 'I Have A Dream' at the Lincoln Memorial (public domain)

Inequality

Martin Luther King Jr's speech 'I Have A Dream' at the Lincoln Memorial (public domain)

The Center for the Study of Law and Society

The Center supports theoretically-based, empirical research on new developments at the interplay of law and society in contemporary and historical contexts.  While part of Berkeley's School of Law, the Center fosters a multidisciplinary context in which UC Berkeley faculty and graduate students from many departments interact and engage with visiting socio-legal scholars from universities in the United States and abroad.

CSLS former and current Faculty and Executive Directors

Please consider making a donation to support CSLS.  

Donate $100 dollars or more and you will receive a CSLS t-shirt!  

Funds will support BELS Fellows, JSP Students, 60th anniversary conference, and crucial and timely programming focused on our three pillars of Criminal Justice, Inequality, and Democracy and Civil Society. 

See our full CSLS Spring Speaker Series line up here! (events are in-person and livestreamed via Zoom with lunch provided)

March 18, 2024 CSLS Speaker Series Event

Before the Movement:
The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights
(Liveright, 2023)

Dylan Penningroth
Professor of Law and Alexander F. & May T. Morrison Professor of History;
Associate Dean of Program in Jurisprudence and Social Policy/Legal Studies,
Berkeley Law

Philip Selznick Seminar Room
2240 Piedmont Avenue
Time:
 Reception: Lunch 12:15-12:45 p.m. 
Program: 12:45 p.m.-2:00 p.m.