Mission Statement
The Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law (hereafter, “Center”) is a group of scholars, activists, anti-discrimination/equality body legal professionals and private lawyers from six continents working together to address the problem of discrimination and inequality.
Founded in 2011 by a handful of European and Berkeley Law scholars, the group has expanded to
include more than 400 members on every continent but Antarctica.
Our Goals
- To facilitate the study of comparative equality between scholars, activists, and anti-
discrimination/equality bodies around the globe;
- To nurture the work of emerging scholars and activists, and the work of scholars and activists
from underrepresented groups and developing countries;
- To connect the work of global legal scholars and anti-discrimination/equality body workers in
the enforcing anti-discrimination law;
- To serve as a multinational virtual think tank on comparative equality and anti-discrimination
law, seeking innovative approaches to the problem of inequality;
- To host and to mentor visiting legal scholars at Berkeley Law and other host/participant
universities;
- To publish papers and books on comparative anti-discrimination law, sharing this information
with other scholars, and with legislators, equality bodies, litigators, and jurists.
- To encourage collaboration with scholars and legal practitioners working in different legal
systems.
Participating and Influencing Issues of the Day
The Center has issue-focused working groups on important current topics, most recently, rethinking all aspects of sexual harassment law. The group recently held an international conference on “The Globalization of the #MeToo Movement”. Participants include law professors and attorneys from Australia, California, Colorado, China, New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota, France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, and the UK. The keynote speakers were Catharine MacKinnon (Michigan/Harvard), Kimberlé Crenshaw (UCLA/Columbia) and Lauren Edelman (Berkeley). A follow-up conference, on Times Up! The Globalization of Resistance to Sexual Harassment will be held in May 2019.
A second working group, focused on the rights of persons with disabilities, has just been formed. We are discussing forming a third working group, on racism and inequality, later in the year.
Where We Are
- Anadolu University, Turkey
- Autonomous University of Barcelona
- Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
- Berkeley Law
- Brescia University
- Bucerius Law School, Hamburg
- Charles University, Czech Republic
- Colombia Law School
- Deakin University, Australia
- European University Institute, Florence
- Fordham University
- Hanyang University School of Law, Korea
- Harvard University
- Humboldt University, Berlin
- Indian Institute of Public Administration, India
- Instituto de Derecho Comparado Franco-Argentino
- International University College of Turin, Italy
- Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey
- Istanbul University, Turkey
- Kabarak University, Kenya
- Keio University, Japan
- King’s College London
- Kwangshin University, Korea
- London School of Economics, England
- Loyola Law School
- Lund University, Sweden
- Maastricht University, the Netherlands
- Masaryk University-Brno, Czech Republic
- Melbourne Law School, Australia
- Monash University, Australia
- National University of Ireland Galway
- National University of Lviv, Ukraine
- New York University
- NOVA Southeastern University
- Pace Law School
- Paris Nanterre University, France
- Sciences-Po Paris, France
- Seikei University of Tokyo, Japan
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
- Stanford Law School
- Stockholm University, Sweden
- Tel Aviv University, Israel
- Temple University
- The Chinese University of Hong Kong
- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- The Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta (LUMSA), Rome
- The University of Dublin, Ireland
- The University of Hong Kong
- The University of Newcastle, Australia
- The University of Southern Queensland
- Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, Argentina
- Universidad Nebrija, Spain
- Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Spain
- Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
- University College London, England
- University of Akron
- University of Alcala, Spain
- University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
- University of Bergamo, Italy
- University of Bologna, Italy
- University of Bristol, UK
- University of Brussels (ULB), Belgium
- University of California, Irvine
- University of Canterbury
- University of Cape Town, South Africa
- University of El Salvador, Argentina
- University of Florence, Italy
- University of Florida
- University of Hasselt, Belgium
- University of Hawaii
- University of Iceland
- University of Illinois Springfield
- University of Iowa
- University of Leeds, England
- University of Leicester, England
- University of Lund, Sweden
- University of Michigan
- University of Milano, Italy
- University of Minnesota
- University of New South Whales, Sydney
- University of Oslo, Norway
- University of Oxford
- University of Paris I (Sorbonne-Pantheon)
- University of Southern California, Gould School of Law
- University of Sydney
- University of Technology Sydney
- University of the Basque Country, Spain
- University of Toronto, Canada
- University of Trento, Italy
- University of Valencia, Spain
- University of York
- Utrecht University, Netherlands
- Virginia Polytech Institute and State University
- West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, India
- Willamette University
- Yale Law School
- Yeshiva University
Others of us can be found at government organizations, including the French and German anti-discrimination agencies, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the California Fair Employment and Housing Council, the European Commission, the United Nations and NGO’s, including the Open Society Justice Initiative.