Check the schedule of classes for days and times: http://classes.berkeley.edu
R1B: Class Action Litigation: Policy & Practice.”, Meredith Spoto, 4 units, Area N/A
This course focuses on the social policies undergirding class action legislation, and
uses comparison with and between of doctrinal law to understand how those policies are
animated in practice. The course is based around understanding how different actors and judicial interpretations ensure or detract from those goals.
Once students understand how a class action operates and why they exist, they read primary source material, including relevant portions of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and some legislative history, which is paired up with related caselaw. Before reading any caselaw, students are trained in the basics of reading judicial opinions, including all relevant vocabulary, and are taught how to write a simple brief. By reading caselaw that illuminates various aspects of class action litigation in practice—including certification, settlement, objection, etc.—students understand a variety of applications of the law that service or obstruct the goals of class action legislation.
The writing portion of the course challenges students to choose two cases (one from each “camp”) and develop a thesis and argument that explains how the cases are different and how they either align or conflict with the policy intentions of the legislation.
NOTE: R1B courses must be taken for a letter grade.
**This course is lower division and will not count towards the major.**
39D: Current Political & Moral Conflicts & the Constitution Frosh/Soph Seminar, Pomerantz, 2 units, Area N/A
**This course is lower division and will not count towards the major.**
There are two sections of 39D Spring 2019. Check the Berkeley Academic Guide Schedule for details.
We will read Supreme Court cases, as well as political and legal commentary from across the political spectrum, and consider not only the opinions of the Justices, but also why they hold those opinions. We will seek to discover the way in which courts use authority and craft law. Here is an article about the course (video included).
100: Foundations of Legal Studies, Simon, 4 units, Core (H, SS)
This is a liberal arts course designed to introduce students to the foundational frameworks and cross-disciplinary perspectives from humanities and social sciences that distinguish legal studies as a scholarly field. It provides a comparative and historical intro to forms, ideas, institutions, and systems of law and sociological ordering. It highlights basic theoretical problems and scholarly methods for understanding questions of law and justice.
103: Theories of Law & Society, Tomlins, 4 units, Core (H, SS) or Area II
Surveys leading attempts to construct social theories of law and to use legal materials for systematic social theorizing, during the period from the mid-eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. The course considers major discussions of such themes as the relationships between law, politics, society and economy; the connection between historical change and legal change; the role of law in the processes of social integration and social discipline; and the distinctive elements of legal ordering in the modern west.
***Course Canceled*** 104AC – Youth, Justice & Culture, Morrill, 4 units, Area I or II ***Course Canceled***
The seminar challenges adult-centered representations of urban youth of different ethnicities, their problems, and the supposed solutions to those problems. It departs from the conceptualizations and methods used to study youth in mainstream criminology and developmental psychology. The seminar builds an alternative, youth-centered perspective, exploring what it means to put youth perspectives at the center of socio-legal inquiry. As a socio-legal endeavor, the seminar studies law as it is lived, shaped, and encountered by urban youth in their everyday lives. It illuminates the conceptual frames, methodological tools, and substantive findings that come to the front when the focus is on how youth make sense of their own lives, assert their own views of justice and law, and act on one another. Particular attention is given to youth conflict, peer relations, identity building within and across ethnic groups, claims on space and territory, the salience of law and rights, and adaptations to adult authorities and practices in the contexts of urban neighborhoods and public schools.
***Course Canceled***
109: Aims & Limits of Criminal Law, Perry, 4 units, Area I
This course focuses on the analysis of the capacity of criminal law to fulfill its aims. What are the aims of criminal Law? How are they assigned relative priority? What principles can be identified for evaluating the effort to control disapproved activities through criminal law?
123: Data, Prediction & Law, Marshall, 4 units, Area I or V
Data, Prediction, and Law allows students to explore different data sources that scholars and government officials use to make generalizations and predictions in the realm of law. The course will also introduce critiques of predictive techniques in law. Students will apply the statistical and Python programming skills from Foundations of Data Science to examine a traditional social science dataset, “big data” related to law, and legal text data.
***Note: students should complete Foundations of Data Science, or complete equivalent preparation in Python and statistics, before enrolling in this course.
132AC: Immigration and Citizenship, Prof. Lisa Knox, 4 units, Area II or IV
We often hear that America is a “nation of immigrants.” This representation of the U.S. does not explain why some are presumed to belong and others are not. We will examine both historical and contemporary law of immigration and citizenship to see how law has shaped national identity and the identity of immigrant communities . In addition to scholarly texts, we will learn to read and analyze excerpts of cases and the statute that governs immigration and citizenship, the Immigration and Nationality Act.
133AC: Law & Social Change: The Immigrant Rights Movement, Abrams, 4 units, Area IV or V
This course will explore the relationship between social movements and the law (ie, statutes, administrative regulations, judicial decisions, and policies and practices of enforcement, at both state and federal levels), focusing on the movement for immigrant rights led and populated by undocumented activists. We will examine that movement as it has emerged both nationally and in the state of Arizona. We will ask how legal action has spurred the formation of a social movement, and how that movement has sought to influence, resist, and transform the law. We will study the ways in which the movement in Arizona has faced a distinctive legal landscape: state legislation and state and local enforcement tactics have made the state almost uniquely hostile for immigrants, yet they has also enabled activists to use the federal courts and the Constitution as vehicles for change. We will also examine the ways in which the movement in Arizona has coalesced with a national movement for immigrant rights, as it has sought legislative and administrative goals: a path to legalization for DREAMers (undocumented youth), comprehensive immigration reform, and relief from deportations. We will finally consider how major changes in the leadership and direction of federal institutions with plenary power over immigration have demanded conceptual and tactical response from this movement, analyzing the transition between Obama and Trump administrations. The course will seek to answer two primary questions about the undocumented activists who are now at the center of this movement: first, how movement participants with no formal institutional role – and in this case, no formal legal status – have become confident and sophisticated legal claims-makers whose actions shape the law and its enforcement; and second, how those participants conceive law and legal institutions, and their own relation to them. The course will also be concerned with the role(s) of lawyers who collaborate with, assist, and work on behalf of the movement; we will consider how these roles may depart from conventional forms of legal representation.
***NOTE: While there are no formal pre-requisites for this course, students are strongly encouraged to take Legal Studies 132AC before enrolling in this class. Knowledge of immigration law will be a great benefit in understanding the legislation, policy, and enforcement with which activists are engaging.
138 001: The Supreme Court & Public Policy, Ben Brown, 4 units, Core (SS) or Area IV or V (Check classes.berkeley.edu for day/time.)
This course examines a number of leading U.S. Supreme Court decisions in terms of what policy alternatives were available to the Court and which ones it chose. Prospective costs and benefits of these alternatives and who will pay the costs and who gets the benefits of them are considered. Among the areas considered are economic development, government regulation of business, national security, freedom of speech and discrimination. Readings are solely of Supreme Court decisions.
138 002: The Supreme Court & Public Policy, Elizabeth Tejada, 4 units, Core (SS) or Area IV or V (Check classes.berkeley.edu for day/time.)
This course examines a number of leading U.S. Supreme Court decisions in terms of what policy alternatives were available to the Court and which ones it chose. Prospective costs and benefits of these alternatives and who will pay the costs and who gets the benefits of them are considered. Among the areas considered are economic development, government regulation of business, national security, freedom of speech and discrimination. Readings are solely of Supreme Court decisions.
141: Wall Street to Main Street, Brilliant/Solomon, 4 units, Area III (room-shared with American Studies 102 and History 133B)
As longstanding metaphors in American history and culture, “Wall Street” and “Main Street” typically refer to streets that intersect at right angles and places that represent the antithesis of each other. In this rendering, Wall Street is home to nefarious big banks and greedy financiers, while Main Street is home to wholesome “mom-and-pop” shops patronized by ordinary people of modest means. What’s good for one is not good for the other. This course, which will be co-taught by a historian and corporate law professor, will examine critical junctures in the intersection of Wall Street and Main Street in American history and culture, how and why Wall Street and Main Street have been understood to point in opposite directions, the extent to which that understanding makes sense, and how and why the relationship between Wall Street and Main Street has evolved over time.
147: Law & Economics II, David Sunding, 4 units, Area III
Microeconomic theory will be applied to government and regulation. Topics include the economic analysis of constitutional law, administrative law, regulation, corporations, and environmental law. To illustrate, the behavior of legislators who want to maximize the votes that they receive will be described and predicted. Similarly, the behavior of regulatory agencies who seek to maximize their own budgets will be predicted. The best forms of regulation will be identified assuming that parties subject to it minimize the cost of compliance, as when corporations try to satisfy environmental controls at least cost. Law & Economics I (LS 145) is not a prerequisite.
158: Law & Development, Bruno Salama, 4 units, Area III or IV
Focusing on developing countries, this course considers the relationship between legal institutions and rules – including informal and traditional ones – and development – defined by different actors by economic growth, education, health, or a wide spectrum of freedoms. It examines efforts by national leaders, international organizations, foreign aid agencies, and NGOs to “reform” law to promote development, along with the resistance and unplanned consequences that often ensue.
159: Introduction to Law & Sexuality, Ilona Turner, 4 units, Area II or IV
This course focuses on the legal regulation of sexuality, and the social and historical norms and frameworks that affect its intersection with sex, gender, race, disability, and class. We will critically examine how the law shapes sexuality and how sexuality shapes the law. Our subject matter is mostly constitutional, covering sexuality’s intersection with privacy, freedom of expression, gender identity and expression, equal protection, reproduction, kinship, and family formation, among other subjects. We will study case law, legal articles, and other texts (including visual works) that critically engage issues of sexuality, citizenship, nationhood, religion, and the public and private spheres domestically and internationally.
***Class Canceled, Sections to be moved to 160.2 LEC***
160.1: Punishment, Culture, and Society, Perry, 4 units, Core (H, SS) or Area I or II
This course surveys the development of Western penal practices, institutions, and ideas (what David Garland calls “penality”) from the eighteenth-century period to the present. Our primary focus will be on penal practices and discourses in United States in the early 21st century. In particular we will examine the extraordinary growth of US penal sanctions in the last quarter century and the sources and consequences of what some have called “mass imprisonment.” To gain some comparative perspective the course will also take up contemporary penality (or penalities) in Europe, South Africa, Central America, and Asia, as well as US penality and society at some earlier conjunctures.
In our analysis of penality, we will draw upon a range of social science theories with general relevance but with particularly rich application to the study of punishment. These theories provide the “tool kits” we will use to interpret and analyze multiplex implications of punishment and its relationship to changes in economic, social, and political relations associated with modernization and more recently the globalization of modern capitalism. The course will examine many examples of penal practices and the ideas associated with them including mass imprisonment, the death penalty, and restorative justice. In the last portion of the class we will examine the recent crisis in California’s juvenile prisons through the lenses both of different social theories and the examples of different national and historical penal patterns.
***Class Canceled, Sections to be moved to 160.2 LEC***
160.2: Punishment, Culture, and Society, Kristin Sangren, 4 units, Core (H, SS) or Area I or II
This course surveys the development of Western penal practices, institutions, and ideas (what David Garland calls “penality”) from the eighteenth-century period to the present. Our primary focus will be on penal practices and discourses in United States in the early 21st century. In particular we will examine the extraordinary growth of US penal sanctions in the last quarter century and the sources and consequences of what some have called “mass imprisonment.” To gain some comparative perspective the course will also take up contemporary penality (or penalities) in Europe, South Africa, Central America, and Asia, as well as US penality and society at some earlier conjunctures.
In our analysis of penality, we will draw upon a range of social science theories with general relevance but with particularly rich application to the study of punishment. These theories provide the “tool kits” we will use to interpret and analyze multiplex implications of punishment and its relationship to changes in economic, social, and political relations associated with modernization and more recently the globalization of modern capitalism. The course will examine many examples of penal practices and the ideas associated with them including mass imprisonment, the death penalty, and restorative justice. In the last portion of the class we will examine the recent crisis in California’s juvenile prisons through the lenses both of different social theories and the examples of different national and historical penal patterns.
162AC – Restorative Justice, Julie Shackford-Bradley, 4 units, Area IV
This course will examine the theory and practice of restorative justice, with an emphasis on the ways that criminal justice systems implicate the emotions and the social integration of both victims and offenders. The course will begin with a critical examination of the current focus of the criminal justice system on retribution and incarceration. It will explore the racially disproportionate effects of this system, a product both of governmental failures to recognize the continuing economic, social and psychological effects of slavery and Jim Crow, and law’s failure to look beyond a narrow, individually-oriented notion of discrimination. The course will also interrogate the ways that existing approaches function – at times, purposefully – to foster vengeance and contempt toward offenders as a social category, complicating the process of re-entry and reintegration.
170: Crime & Criminal Justice, Elizabeth Tejada, 4 units, Area I
This course examines the scope and causes of the crime problem in America, and the uses and limits of our criminal justice system in dealing with it. The class will look at recent trends in crime and at how our crime problem compares with that of other countries. Topics include the massive expansion of the American prison system in recent years and its effect on the crime rate, critical analyses of different theories of the causes of crime, strategies for preventing and controlling crime, death penalty, gun control, white-collar crime, and crime in the family.
174: Comparative Constitutional Law: The Case of Israel, Roy Peled, 4 units, Area IV or V
The seminar will provide an introduction to the comparative study of constitutional law through the lens of Israeli constitutional jurisprudence – a jurisprudence built explicitly on the foundations of a variety of other constitutional systems, reflecting the diversity of approaches to constitutionalism. Through this comparative framework students will learn basic constitutional theory as well as explore some of the major constitutional debates in Israeli contemporary law. The constitutional theory part of the course will discuss the formation of Israeli constitution in comparison with the structure of other constitutions such as the U.S. Constitution and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This framework will introduce the central notions of constitutionalism – the ideas that that constitutions can (and should) limit government; the role of the judiciary in interpreting and enforcing the constitution; and the importance of constitutional rights. Among the constitutional debates that the class will explore are topics such as freedom of expression and freedom of association, equality, the right of human dignity, due process, social rights, freedom of occupation, freedom of religion etc. These topics will also be looked at from a comparative perspective drawing upon different constitutional regimes such as the Canadian Charter and the constitution of South Africa.
177: American Legal & Constitutional History, Brown, 4 units, Core (H) or Area II or III or V
This course explores the history of American legal institutions and doctrine from colonial times to the present. It deals both with the history of American constitutional law (through the study of major U.S. Supreme Court opinions) and with the development of certain important bodies of non-constitutional law, such as the law of property, the law of torts (civil wrongs), and criminal law. In exploring how American law has developed over time the course may serve as something of an introduction to our current legal and constitutional order.
184: Sociology of Law, Kristin Sangren, 4 units, Core (SS) or Area IV
This introductory course explores major issues and debates in the sociology of law. Topics include theoretical perspectives on the relationship between law and society, theories of why people obey (and disobey) the law, the relationship between law and social norms, the “law in action” in litigation and dispute resolution, the roles of lawyers, judges, and juries in the legal system and in society, and the role of law in social change. The course will examine these issues from an empirical perspective.
***Class Canceled*** 190.3: Monetary Law & Regulation, Bruno Salama, 4 units, Area III or V ***Class Canceled***
Summary. The world is experiencing renewed interest in the law and regulation of money. The drivers for that include technological developments that made possible innovations such as cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currencies, alongside fears of excessive debt levels, concerns over the loss of dollar hegemony, and, more recently, unconventional monetary policies enacted in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Despite the appearance of originality, most of the existing questions have already been addressed, in one way or another, during the process of consolidation of modern-day finances. This course discusses some of today’s pressing monetary questions by surveying the history of US monetary law. It covers the first Supreme Court cases on monetary powers under the US Constitution, the creation of the Federal Reserve System, the rise and fall of the Bretton Woods System, the inflation of the late 1970s, and the era of easy money initiated in the aftermath of the 2008 banking debacle. No previous knowledge of monetary matters is required.
***Class Canceled***
190.4: Judicial Politics/Supreme Courts in Latin America, Monica Castillejos, 4 units, Area IV or V
This course introduces the study of comparative constitutional law and different justice systems in Latin America. The seminar also aims to study how political dynamics shape courts, the legal profession and civil society (including justice reforms and recent court decisions) and how courts, in turn, shape politics (including the social impact of institutional rules and decisions). To better understand how the legal system in Latin America functions, the instructor will introduce and discuss recent developments of the two main systems of law in the world (civil law and common law) and the primary theoretical approaches to understanding politics, judicial proceeding, and how domestic and international institutions and actors have interacted to consolidate democratic principles in Latin America, including Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Guatemala.
190.5: History of Prison, Lieberman, 4 units, Areas I or IV
The seminar examines in-depth several major themes in the history of imprisonment from the mid-18th century to the present day. The first area of attention concerns the emergence of imprisonment as the preferred sanction for the punishment of serious crimes in the early 19thcentury. We examine this theme through the reading and discussion of several of the most influential advocacy documents in support of what was then the new institutional invention: the modern penitentiary. In the latter weeks of the semester, we turned to more contemporary developments in the U.S. We consider the rise of “mass incarceration” and its relation to the impacts of race and public policy on criminal justice. We also take up the recent movements and arguments in support of the abolition of the prison.
190.6: Punishment in America, Kutz, 4 units, Area I or II
This seminar will look at the theory and practice of criminal punishment in
the United States: we will read and discuss materials from philosophy, history, law,
anthropology, and sociology to discuss under what conditions state punishment could
be justified, and how the American modern practice of mass incarceration and capital
punishment do or — as most agree — do not meet those conditions. The substantive
goal for this seminar is to give you an understanding of the problems of American penal
policy, and enable you to engage in the project of its reform. A second, and equally
important, goal is to. help you hone skills in interpreting complex materials and
information, both written and observed.
This course is one of the campus’ Art of Writing Program seminars, which means that we will focus intensively on the craft of writing, both analytically and persuasively, through frequent, iterative, writing projects and one-on-one conferences with the instructors (Professor Kutz and a specially-trained GSI).
In non-pandemic times, the seminar would involve field trips to San Quentin State
Prison and the Oakland criminal courts. Given likely conditions preventing direct visits,
we will find substitute virtual experiences, including conversations with those with direct
experience in and with criminal punishment, on both sides of the bars.
190.7: Criminal Justice in the U.S.: Policing, Mass Incarceration, & Paths to Reform, Becca Goldstein, 4 units, Area I
This course will examine policing and mass incarceration in the contemporary United States. The first half of the course will explore policing, considering how the modern police emerged, whether police reduce crime, and why police violence persists. The second half of the course will turn to mass incarceration, examining how the U.S. came to incarcerate people at a greater rate than any nation in history, along with the individual and social consequences of incarceration. For both policing and mass incarceration, we will devote significant focus to the prospects for reform.
Course materials will include scholarly articles (from history, sociology, and political science), journalistic accounts (both written and multimedia), and protest music.
190.8: Constitutional Jurisprudence: Liberty/Equality, Alan Pomerantz, 4 units, Area IV or V
Personal liberty and inalienable rights have been a central tenet guiding our nation since the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The government was created to protect those liberties. But the founding documents were drafted by men of privilege who for decades occupied the important governmental and judicial positions of power. Accordingly, it was inevitable that the preservation of those privileges and the resulting inequities regarding race, the status of woman, sexual preference, gender and voting became imbedded. These inequities began to be addressed beginning with the Civil War, and accelerated after World War II when the federal government and the Supreme Court began to mandate equality at the expense of certain individual liberties and privileges. Recently, the trend has moved back towards protecting individual liberties and historic privileges at the expense of mandated equal treatment. But now the constitutional arguments are different and are based on religious freedom, individual morality, an expanded definition of verbal and “non-verbal” speech and prohibitions on government mandated speech and behavior. In the coming terms, the Supreme Court will be asked to re-examine issues regarding religious freedoms, race, health care, gender, abortion, and self identity through the lens of the developing emphasis on individual rights and privileges.
The course will address the evolution of the Supreme Court’s and federal government’s
activities in areas where liberty and equality are in conflict. The goal is to understanding the current political situation and the likely outcome of decisions the Court will be asked to make that implicate the inherent conflict between individual freedom and mandated equality.
H195B: Legal Studies Honors Thesis, Supervising Professor, 3 units, can be counted towards the Area in which two courses are taken.
Study of an advanced topic under the supervision of a faculty member leading to the completion of a senior honors thesis.
H195C: Legal Studies Honors Research and Writing Seminar, Edelman, 2 unit, Areas not applicable.
The goal of the seminar is to provide Honors students additional support as they conduct the research for and write their senior honors theses, and prepare presentations for the Spring Studies Undergraduate Research Conference. Honors students enroll in the two unit LS H195C seminar during the second semester of the Honors Program along with the three units of LS H195B.