282.1 sec. 001 - Domestic Violence & the Law: Past and Possible Future (Fall 2026)
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:
Th 10:00 AM - 12:40 PM
Location: TBA
From August 20, 2026
To November 19, 2026
Course End: November 19, 2026
Class Number: 32516
Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 30
Waitlisted: 7
Enroll Limit: 35
As of: 05/25 10:01 PM
During their career, all attorneys will–knowingly or unknowingly–work with and/or represent someone victimized by or someone accused of domestic violence (or intimate partner violence). Since millions of people in the U.S. report being victimized by DV each year, the resulting legal needs are as diverse as our population. Further, the efficacy of legal systems to fairly combat DV in the U.S. is passionately debated today.
This course will examine the legal system's historic response to domestic violence as well as possible future trajectories. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this seminar will survey historical, psychological, and empirical materials as well as topics in criminal, family, tort, immigration, housing, employment, human rights, comparative international, 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 people who fall outside of the current normative family structures in the U.S.
Ethical and policy issues will be explored throughout, and students will develop a trauma-centered and intersectional approach to persistent issues at the intersection of legal and gender asymmetries: racial justice, poverty, immigration policy, mass incarceration, reproductive care, family separation, and more.
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Requirements Satisfaction:
Units from this class count towards the J.D. Race and Law Requirement. |
Exam Notes: (TH) Take-home Final Exam
(Subject to change by faculty member only through the first two weeks of instruction)
Exam Length: 5 hours
Course Category: Family Law
This course is listed in the following sub-categories:
Criminal Law
Race and Law
Social Justice and Public Interest
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Class materials may also be available on bCourses.berkeley.edu
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