282.1 sec. 001 - Domestic Violence Law Seminar (Fall 2022)
Instructor: Mallika Kaur (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only | profile)
View all teaching evaluations for this course - degree students only
Units: 3
Grading Designation: Graded
Mode of Instruction: In-Person
Meeting:
Tu 6:25 PM - 9:05 PM
Location: 🔒 Log-in to view location
From August 23, 2022
To November 22, 2022
Course End: November 22, 2022
Class Number: 31470
Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 19
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 24
As of: 02/17 06:39 AM

This course will examine the legal system's response to domestic violence (also known as family violence or intimate partner violence). Using an interdisciplinary approach, we will cover historical, psychological, empirical materials as well as topics in criminal, family, tort, immigration, welfare, housing, employment, human rights, privacy, and constitutional law. We will explore how domestic violence laws disparately affect different groups, including people of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, people of faith communities, and peoples who fall outside of the current normative family structures in the U.S.. Ethical and policy issues will be explored throughout, as will discussions of the trajectory of the anti-domestic violence movement in light of racial justice movements (new and sustained).
Through a trauma-centered and intersectional approach, students will be positioned to assess and analyze the responses by the legal system (and lateral/alternative systems) to the persistent and prevalent social issue of domestic violence.
We will use a group discussion format, with each student leading part of one class. Several guest speakers and videos will be included. This course will provide students an opportunity to develop their skills of listening (to each other; guest speakers; interviews; videos), writing (reflections and comments on bCourses; final exam), and facilitation/presentation. The course has a take-home, open-book final exam.
Each Spring semester, Nancy K. D. Lemon, a leading authority on domestic violence law for over three decades, teaches the Domestic Violence Field Placement (formerly the DV Practicum) at Berkeley Law. While students are allowed to take the field placement without taking this DV Law seminar first, they are encouraged to enroll in both courses. Students may take the field placement twice. In it, students work in non-profit, prosecutorial or public defender offices, or with judges around the Bay Area. Topics students work on include prosecution, criminal defense, immigration and asylum law, family law, employment issues, housing, and public benefits. For more information, go to https://www.law.berkeley.edu/experiential/domestic-violence-law-practicum/.
Attendance at the first two weeks of class sessions is mandatory for all currently enrolled and waitlisted students; any currently enrolled or waitlisted students who are not present during the first two weeks of class (without prior permission of the instructor) may be dropped without notice. The instructor can continue to take attendance throughout the add/drop period and anyone who moves off the waitlist into the class must continue to attend or have prior permission of the instructor in order not to risk being dropped without notice.
Exam Notes: (TH) Take-home examination
Exam Length: 4 hours
Course Category: Family Law
This course is listed in the following sub-categories:
Social Justice and Public Interest
If you are the instructor or their FSU, you may add a file like a syllabus or a first assignment to this page.
Readers:
No reader.
Books:
Required Books are in blue
- Domestic Violence Law (American Casebook Series)
Nancy Lemon
Edition: 5th Edition (April 11, 2018)
Publisher: West Academic Publishing
e-Book Available: Yes
e-Book procurement note: https://www.westacademic.com/Lemons-Domestic-Violence-Law-5th-9781683289142
Copyright Date: To Be Determined
Price: $193.00
Price Source: user provided