Recent Faculty Scholarship

The most recent St. Thomas Law School study on law school scholarly impact, in 2024, placed UC Berkeley Lawʼs faculty sixth among all law schools in the United States. Many of our faculty were among the most cited in their fields. This reflects UC Berkeley Law having a prolific faculty who write in many different disciplines. This brochure provides you a description of what our faculty members have written recently.

Why does it matter? A crucial function of a major research university is advancing knowledge. That is why a core responsibility of faculty members is producing cutting edge scholarship.

Legal scholarship by faculty takes many different forms. Many of our faculty members have produced casebooks and treatises that are primarily directed at law students and other instructors. Some of
these are widely used at law schools across the country. These allow us to educate a wider audience of law students than just those in our classrooms.

Often scholarship is written primarily for judges and lawyers, considering crucial areas of legal doctrine, seeking to illuminate it and guide its future. Countless positive changes in the law and our legal system have been the result of scholarship by Berkeley law professors.

Sometimes scholarship is intended for other academics, engaging in a scholarly dialogue that enhances understanding of the law. In addition to advancing knowledge, these scholarly discussions often ultimately come to shape the law in profound ways.

And sometimes law professors write for a general audience, seeking to inform and educate non-lawyers as well as attorneys about the law. Several members of the UC Berkeley Law faculty have written award-winning books.

Although this brochure focuses on books and articles, many of our faculty members also write op-eds, pen blog posts, do social media commentary, and produce podcasts that influence public understanding and opinions about the law. Through all of these media, UC Berkeley Law faculty are writing about the most important legal and social issues of our time.

I hope you enjoy learning about our facultyʼs scholarship and perhaps are inspired, as I was in perusing this, to read some of the articles and books that are listed. I am sure you will see why I am so proud to be the dean of UC Berkeley Law.

Warmly,

Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law
University of California, Berkeley School of Law

VIEW RECENT FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP