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February 7, 2024

Since his arrival from the University of Washington last summer, Michael Paz has rapidly become a sought-after presence in 2240. His weekly roundups are already legendary. Most people would be satisfied to learn the ropes during their first year in a new job. Michael is not most people. He has been tracing the ropes to the levers, finding the wheels within wheels of the intricate clockwork we call UC Berkeley. His resourcefulness and initiative has now been recognized by higher powers.

December 19, 2023

December 7, 2023

Law & Society Review, the publication of the Law & Society Association, published a special memorial issue to honor the late Professor Lauren Edelman.

December 1, 2023

Special Recognition to JSP Alum '20 Tobias Smith! He's part of the 8th Round of Fellows in the the Public Intellectuals Program, presented by The National Committee on United States-China Relations.

Links:

https://www.tobiasjsmith.com/

November 17, 2023

Congratulations to Bonnie Cherry and Brianne Felsher for being named Student Research Colloquium Fellows bythe American Society for Legal History!

The American Society for Legal History website: https://aslh.net/

October 30, 2023

Congratulations to Brianne Felsher for receiving a 2023 Cromwell Fellowship for early career scholars from the American Society for Legal History.

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Dylan Penningroth talks with host Alexis Madrigal about his new book “Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights”

Listen here: https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101894860/before-the-movement-the-hidden-and-vibrant-history-of-black-civil-rights

September 26, 2023

What the conventional narrative gets wrong about the civil rights movement

The Washington Post reviews Professor Dylan Penningroth’s book, Before The Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights.

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Why The True History Of Black Civil Rights Must Be Traced Back To The Days Of Slavery

Professor Dylan Penningroth appears on LAist’s AirTalk to discuss his new book, Before The Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights

September 20, 2023

DA Brooke Jenkins reverses 8-year decline in convictions

“One of the ironies of the call to a more ‘law and order’ approach is that people often associate it with being more effective at trying to reduce crime,” Jonathan Simon said. “I think we have to live with the fact that the actual effects on crime are going to be marginal.”

September 15, 2023

The Legal Lives of Slaves in America

To understand slavery in all its cruelty, writes historian and Berkeley Law professor Dylan C. Penningroth, we have to grasp what sounds like an oxymoron: the legal lives of slaves.

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August 25, 2023

August 1, 2023

Berkeley Law News

A hardware store that lost $700,000 to shoplifters illustrates the woes behind a multi-county Bay Area spike

Jonathan Simon, a professor of criminal justice at UC Berkeley’s law school, said incarcerating people over minor property crimes makes little sense. “Jail does real harm and makes it more likely the person will be arrested again,” Simon said.

Berkeley Law News

Eight New Professors Further Bolster Our World-Class Faculty“The quality of any educational institution is largely determined by the quality of its faculty and we simply could not have had a better year in our hiring,” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says. 

July 21, 2023

Michael Banerjee's essay, "California's Constitutional University: Private Property, Public Power, and the Constitutional Corporation, 1868-1900," won second place in the California Supreme Court Historical Society's Selma Moidel Smith Student Writing Competition.

July 11, 2023

Berkeley Law News

Rising 3Ls Chloe Pan and Zabdi Salazar are expanding engagement and making changes, including how students join the journal and the way articles are selected and edited. 

July 6, 2023

Sarah Song’s book Immigration and Democracy [link] (Oxford, 2019) was recently lauded in 

Chris Tomlins was named co-winner (with Michael McCann, of the University of Washington) of the Harry J. Kalven, Jr. Prize of the Law and Society Association.  The Kalven Prize (according to the LSA) is “not a book award, nor is it a career achievement award, but is given in recognition of a body of scholarly work, including some portion of work having been completed within the past few years.” Previous Berkeley Law (JSP) winners of the Kalven Award include Philip Selznick (2003), Bob Kagan (2006), Frank Zimring (2013), Malcolm Feeley (2015), and Laurie Edelman (2018). 

June 2, 2023

Congratulations to JSP Student Dvir Yogev who has been awarded the 2023 CSLS Graduate Student Paper Prize for his paper, Holding Justice Accountable: Intensive vs. Extensive Margins in Prosecutor Elections!

The CSLS Graduate Student Paper Prize is awarded annually to a current Berkeley graduate student whose nominated paper best represents outstanding law and society research.