Reflections from Berkeley Law Jurisprudence and Social Policy Ph.D. candidate Naomi M. Yitref: This summer, I had the opportunity to teach Legal Studies 100: Foundations of Legal Studies through the lens of race, ethnicity, and the law. Inspired by Berkeley Law's Race and the Law graduation requirement, I designed the course around a simple premise: if every future legal practitioner should understand how race has shaped American law and legal institutions, undergraduate legal studies students deserve that same foundation. Although the Legal Studies Department does not yet offer a dedicated Race and the Law course, Assistant Dean Jonathan Marshall encouraged me to build upon the thematic approach Professor Calvin Morrill introduced in LS 100 in Fall 2020. Drawing on my five years of doctoral training in Berkeley Law's Jurisprudence and Social Policy (JSP) Ph.D. program, I designed a syllabus that moved from foundational law-and-society scholarship and critical legal theory to landmark case law and contemporary debates on policing, the carceral state, education, and migration, encouraging students to examine each through an interdisciplinary lens. Together with my Graduate Student Instructor, Mariel Bustamante (JSP Ph.D. student), we cultivated a classroom centered on critical inquiry, meaningful discussion, and intellectual curiosity. My pedagogical philosophy is not to tell students what to think, but to equip them with the analytical tools to think critically for themselves. Rather than prescribing conclusions, I present competing arguments and invite them to challenge, refine, and build upon the ideas we encounter together. The response from students was deeply rewarding. Many described it as one of their favorite courses at Berkeley and shared that it fundamentally changed their understanding of the relationship between law on the books and law in action. Pictured here are just a handful of those students. 𝘍𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘸 ⬇️ 📷 by @winbam #BerkeleyLaw #LawSchool #LegalStudies

View post on Instagram

NY Times bestselling author, co-host of @strictscrutinypodcast, and @nyulaw Professor Melissa Murray joined Dean Erwin Chemerinsky to discuss her new book, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘜.𝘚. 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯: 𝘈 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳, at Mrs. Dalloway's bookstore in Berkeley, CA. During the discussion, Chemerinsky asked why Murray organized the book around the Constitution's individual provisions rather than as a narrative. Her answer: "The whole document is meant to be read in one sitting. That's how the framers thought about it. I wanted to organize [my book] in a way that anyone could come to it and get a thumbnail glance of what each piece is about." #BerkeleyLaw #ConstitutionalLaw #Constitution

View post on Instagram

Can the president order someone seized in a different country? #ItsTheLaw #BerkeleyLaw Video Description: Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky sits at a wooden conference table in front of a wood-paneled wall, speaking directly to the camera. Text overlay on the video reads: 'Can the president order someone seized in a different country?'

View post on Instagram