Legal Studies Latest News as of 3/30/26

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1) Sign Up to Walk

2) Proj. Analyst Position

3) SLC Neurodivergent Event

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If you want to walk in the Legal Studies Commencement Ceremony, sign up now.
Here is the link to sign up.

- Even if you aren't sure yet, but you think you might walk, sign up.

- If you are finishing summer or fall, but you want to walk, sign up.

- If you're graduating and you aren't walking, sign up...it's good for us to have your answers.

I'll let you know when I hear back from the box office about the ticket purchase link.

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2) Proj. Analyst Position

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3) SLC Neurodivergent Event

Dear strategic learners,

The SLC Strategic Learning Program’s Neurodivergent Student Advisory Board is thrilled to invite you to “Our Stories, Our Campus: A Community Conversation for Neurodivergent Learners at Cal” on Monday, April 13! 

In the inaugural semester of the Advisory Board, our goal is to cultivate a greater sense of connection and community among neurodivergent learners at Cal. In that spirit, this community dialogue is designed for Cal neurodivergent learners to come together and engage in meaningful dialogue and heartfelt connection. 

By attending this event, you will: 

• Build a greater sense of community with peers

• Find solidarity in shared and diverse experiences

• Help shape the narrative of neurodivergence and learning at UC Berkeley

Event details

• Wednesday, April 13, 2026 | 6 - 8 PM; Main Program begins at 6:30 PM
• Hybrid (In-person at Chavez Student Center, Room 113 & Virtual via Zoom)
• Dinner is provided for in-person participants.

RSVP by Wednesday, April 8th at 5 PM to secure your spot! 

If you have any questions or for accommodations, please feel free to reach out to strategiclearningprogram@berkeley.edu. We look forward to having you join us!

Warmly,

SLC Strategic Learning Program 

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4) UC Ctr Sacramento

Please join us for a virtual info session to learn about UC Center Sacramento! We have scheduled a couple of virtual info sessions on the following days to get more information, and anyone interested can RSVP at uccsprogram@ucdavis.edu.

• Thursday, April 2^nd from 12-1pm
• Friday, April 10^th from 2-3pm
• Wednesday, April 15^th from 11am–12pm
• Monday, April 20^th from 1-2pm
• Tuesday, May 5^th from 3-4pm
• Wednesday, May 20^th from 2-3pm
• Thursday, May 28^th from 11am–12pm
• Tuesday, June 2^nd from 12-1pm
• Friday, June 12^th from 3-4pm
• Monday, June 22^nd from 1-2pm

Spend a term studying and interning in and around the CA State Capitol at UC Center Sacramento! Gain professional development, academic credit, research, and internship experience!

•         Learn more at: uccs.ucdavis.edu

•         Apply at: https://apply.uccs.ucdavis.edu

Fall 2026 Term

Rolling Admissions

Final Deadline: Thursday, April 23, 2026

Spring 2027 Term

Rolling Admissions

Final Deadline: Thursday, June 25, 2026

Summer 2027 Term

Priority Deadline: Thursday, December 3, 2026

Final Deadline: Thursday, January 7, 2027

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5) Mayor Ishii Intrnshp

• Community Relations Intern
• Communications Intern
• Infrastructure Policy Intern
• Public Safety Policy Intern
• Housing & Homelessness Intern
• BerkeleyCorps Intern

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6) FBI Info Sess

Date: April 24, 2026
Time: 1 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. (12:30 p.m. Check-in)
Location: 450 Golden Gate Ave, San Francisco, CA (Note: Exact room location will be shared after registration.)

Description: Step inside the world of the FBI. This is your opportunity to connect, ask questions, and get inspired.

At this exclusive Information Session & Career Expo, you'll:

• Hear directly from FBI employees about life behind the badge
• Get a rare chance to meet the people behind our squads and specialized units
• Discover career paths driven by purpose, impact, and national service

You'll also learn about careers at the FBI from:

• Special Agent
• Analysts
• Forensic Accountants
• Operational Support Technicians
• Linguists
• Surveillance Specialists
• Electronic Technicians
• Logistics, Property & Procurement Specialists
• Information Technology Specialists
  And many more…!

Please submit this form to register by 5 p.m. (PST) on April 23, 2026.

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Su26 Legalst Courses

This is a shameless plug for our Summer 2026 Legal Studies classes.

We offer courses in Session A and Session D.

These are the two six-week sessions.

Classes move quickly and are over quickly, so please take just one per session.

This is perfect because Financial Aid requires that you take 6 units during the summer, so one course in Session A and one course in Session D will fulfill that minimum unit requirement.

It is common for students' gpas go up in the summer because they are focusing on that one class. It's also a good way to spread out your requirements.

Campus and the surrounding streets and businesses are much quieter during the summer, which can be a really nice experience.

We will need to cancel certain classes if they don't reach a minimum number of enrolled students, which would be a shame for those already enrolled and for the instructors who are relying on the employment.

2026 Summer Schedule
A - First Six-Week Session May 26 July 2
D - Second Six-Week Session July 6 August 14

Session A:   100, 138, 177, 184
Session D:   103, 132AC, 150, 157, 160, 162AC


Session A - Six Weeks: May 26 - July 2    

100: Foundations of Legal Studies, Naomi Yitref, 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.

138: The Supreme Court & Public Policy, Kyle Deland,  4 units, Core (SS) or Area IV or V  ONLINE COURSE

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.

177: American Legal & Constitutional History, Helen Jennings, 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, Nandina Babic, 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.

Session D - Six Weeks:  July 6 - August 14

103: Theories of Law and Society, Rahel Fischer, 4 units, Core (H, SS) or Area II

A historical examination of major interpretations of law, morals and social development, with special emphasis on the social thought of the 18th and 19th centuries. The course covers Montesquieu, Maine, Marx, Durkheim, Weber, and other theorists.

132AC: Immigration and Citizenship, Sharaban Zaman, 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.

150: Intimate Partner Violence, Mallika Kaur, 4 units, Area I or IV   ONLINE COURSE
***Currently full...but there are 10 waitlist seats.***
This course will investigate the phenomenon of intimate partner violence (also known as family violence, or domestic violence), by studying empirical evidence; theories of violence; and the disparate impacts on different communities. Through a trauma-centered and intersectional approach, students will be positioned to assess and analyze the responses by our legal system to this persistent and prevalent social problem.

157: International Relations & Intl. Law, Daimeon Shanks-Dumont, 4 units, Area IV or V

This course will evaluate and assess modern theories of international law. We will examine the work of legal scholars and look to political science and economics to see how these disciplines inform the study of international law. We will also examine a host of fundamental questions in international law, including, for example, why states enter into international agreements, why states comply with international law, and what kind of state conduct is likely to be influenced by international law.

160: Punishment, Culture & Society, 4 units, Alessandro De Giorgi, Core 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.

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8) US District Crt Intrnshp

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT  NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA  Position: Student Intern Classification Level: CL 22  Salary Range: $40,740-$66,203 Location: San Francisco, CA  Opening Date: March 23, 2026  Closing Date: Position open until filled.  (Apply by April 30, 2026, for priority consideration. Position open until filled)  The United States District Court, Northern District of California is now accepting applications for a unique, one-year term as a Student Intern as part of the Federal Judiciary’s Model Intern Program (MIP) offered through the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The Federal Judiciary is committed to developing and investing in a strong pipeline of talented individuals with diverse backgrounds to advance its mission of delivering fair and impartial justice. The MIP focuses on providing hands-on exposure to a variety of legal and non-legal career paths within the Judiciary. This is an excellent opportunity for an individual who is interested in learning about the Federal Court system.  POSITION OVERVIEW  This unique, one-year student internship is located in the United States District Court, Northern District of California, in San Francisco. The Intern will provide a wide range of services and will gain exposure to the work performed by several court units, including the District Court, Bankruptcy Court, Probation Office, Pretrial Services, and the Federal Defender Program.  For more information about the program checkout our YouTube promo here:  MIP Intern Video  The one-year internship will start on June 15, 2026, and end on May 29, 2027.  The intern will work no more than 40 hours per week during the summer semester and no more than 20 hours per week during the fall and spring semesters to accommodate class and exam schedules. The Intern will function as a student trainee, and the duties will include:  Key Responsibilities:  Observing a wide variety of hearings and trials in civil, bankruptcy, and criminal cases to develop familiarity with the judicial process.  Job shadowing court-system professionals, such as court staff, judges, Clerk’s Office staff, and Federal Defender Staff Attorneys to understand the Federal Court system.  Performing basic social science, historical, statistical, and other research to support judicial, legal, professional, and administrative staff.  Assisting judicial, legal, professional, and administrative staff as needed in handling special events, such as naturalization ceremonies, and in jury matters.  Assisting judicial, legal, professional, and administrative staff in collecting, maintaining, and processing case information.  Collecting, organizing, and summarizing statistical, accounting, or other data on case processing, budgetary, workload, and other court-related issues for judicial, legal,

The mission of the Clerk’s Office of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California is to support, defend and preserve the Constitution of the United States by:  • Serving and supporting the court  • Providing access to the court  • Maintaining the records of the court  • Providing information about the court  • Performing our mission with a commitment to excellence  The United States District Court is an equal focus employer.

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9) P/NP Deadline Fri 4/3

P/NP Deadline Fri 4/3

This is your friendly reminder that the deadline to change a course to P/NP is this Friday April 3rd.

Remember that all major requirements must be taken for a letter grade.

If you do change a major requirement to P/NP, you will not be able to use it for the major.

You will need to find a replacement course and take that for a letter grade.

Letter grades are much more useful to admissions committees.

Nine times out of ten, students who choose the P/NP option, end up working just as hard and had they left the course for a letter grade, they would have been happy with the outcome.

Only change to P/NP if you are in dire straights...like if you know now that you will get an F.

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