AIR’s mission is to connect the worlds of law and art by supporting artists locally and around the world. By informing artists about their legal rights and safeguarding legal protections for artistic speech, students can help to empower the artistic community, who is often found at the helm of social change. AIR consists of two projects: a partnership with the Center for Art Law (CAL) and a partnership with the Artistic Freedom Initiative (AFI). Students will participate in one of the two projects.
Center for Art Law: Similar to the mission of the Center for Art Law, AIR-CAL aims to educate students on the intersection between art and law. As art law is still developing as a field, CAL is building the Case Law Corner in order to consolidate one resource that can be used to find cases on art law. The project responds to the unmet need for accessible legal resources in the arts community for the benefit of artists, students, academics, and legal professionals.
Our collaboration with the Center for Art Law (CAL) is primarily focused on research. Law students will work to review cases and contribute to CAL’s Case Law Corner, which is a collection of case law involving artwork, artists’ rights, cultural heritage, copyright, property, IP, and restitution. Students will have the opportunity to learn about relevant topics in the world of art law. Simultaneously, students will grow and refine skills involving case analysis, synthesis, and summarization.
Artistic Freedom Initiative: AIR is also partnered with the AFI. Along with the legal team at AFI, students have the opportunity to participate in one of two projects. In both projects, students will prepare a comprehensive study of the suppression of artistic freedom in various countries. Students will research the various universal, regional, and national instruments that protect creative expression, as well as efforts by the governments of the selected countries to restrict artistic freedom. Researchers will help to identify the effects of these efforts, as well as recommended public policies, legal measures, and best practices countries should take to further protect freedom of artistic expression. This legal and policy research will culminate in a report to be published and distributed at an AFI event at a future date to be announced. Students are invited to attend the event and may have the opportunity to present their research.
The two AFI projects are tentatively as follows:
(1) UPR Submissions: Under the supervision of an attorney, students will draft and publish a submission to the United Nations identifying ways in which a country’s government is restricting artistic freedom, and recommending public policies, legal measures, and best practices the country should take to further protect freedom of artistic expression. The country will be selected based on those scheduled for review under the UN’s Universal Periodic Review.
(2) Artistic Freedom in the USA: Under the supervision of an attorney, students will conduct research and draft a report that tracks public policies, legal measures, and legislation that limit artistic freedom in the USA.
Supervision: Students in AIR provide legal services under the supervision of Center for Art Law and from Artistic Freedom Initiative.
Time commitment: Students working in the CAL team are expected to work 2-4 hours per week and there will likely be an optional meeting every other week to do work in community. Students working in the AFI team are expected to work 2-3 hours per week.
For more information, please contact the student leaders at airprobono@law.berkeley.edu.