JSP Scope

Ashley Rubin wins LSA Best Grad Paper Prize

2010-04-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

Ashley Rubin's paper, "Race, Ethnicity, and Nativity at Eastern State Penitentiary: A Study of the Variation in Sentence Length, 1829-1871," has been selected by the Law and Society Association to receive the 2010 prize for best graduate student paper next month in Chicago. Congratulations to Ashley and to Malcolm Feeley for nominating the paper. The abstract follows:

Multiple theories have been generated and tested to explain the presence or absence of sentencing disparities at all levels of the criminal justice system. Yet these theories have been derived from and explain data coming primarily from the last fifty or so years. Consequently, little is known about the longevity of the contemporary sentencing literature’s explanatory power beyond this period. This project tests the leading theories in the literature by examining the presence of disparities in and influences on prison sentence length in nineteenth-century Pennsylvania. The basic hypotheses explaining contemporary sentencing disparities, including the various group threat theories, court community perspective, and focal concerns, are tested on data for over 6,000 inmates sentenced to Pennsylvania’s Eastern State Penitentiary between 1829 and 1871. This study finds that several contemporary theories have explanatory power for the nineteenth century, suggesting that the social dynamics and decision-making practices that influence sentencing outcomes remain relatively consistent over time.

Doug Spencer Publishes in the Election Law Journal

2010-03-02T11:36:00.000-08:00

JSP graduate student Douglas Spencer has published his article (with Zachary Markovits), "Long Lines at Polling Stations? Observations from an Election Day Field Study" in the recent issue of the Election Law Journal.

Ming Chen Publishes in the American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law

2010-03-02T11:29:00.000-08:00

JSP graduate student Ming Chen is publishing her article "Alienated: A Reworking of the Racialization Thesis after September 11th" in a symposium on LatCrit in a forthcoming issue of the American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and Law (read the SSRN version). Ming's article was praised in a post by Dean Kevin Johnson on ImmigrationProf Blog.

James Philip's Working Paper Reaches Top Ten on SSRN Journal of Experimental and Empirical Studies

2010-01-12T10:19:00.000-08:00

The paper by JSP student James Philips and Edward Carter of Brigham Young, titled "Gender and U. S. Supreme Court Oral Argument on the Roberts Court: An Empirical Examination of the Sotomayor Hypothesis," is currently listed at number 7 in the current hits section of SSRN's Journal of Experimental and Empirical Studies. The article has also gotten a lot of comments in the legal blogosphere: SCOTUS Blog
; the blog How Appealing; and the Legal Theory Blog

Megan Wachspress Publishes Article in the International Journal of Law in Context

2009-11-24T13:55:00.000-08:00

JSP doctoral student Megan Wachspress has published her article,"Rethinking sovereignty with reference to history and anthropology", in Volume 5, Issue 3 (September 2009), pp. 315-330 of the International Journal of Law in Context
. The volume was a special issue on socio-legal studies and the humanities.

Jamie Rowen Defends Court Trials for 9/11 Suspects in SF Chron Op-Ed

2009-11-18T09:27:00.000-08:00

JSP student Jamie Rowen published an opinion column in the San Francisco Chronicle responding to critics of the Obama Administration's decision to try at least some of the 9/11 terror suspects in federal court (rather than military tribunals).

Why do lawmakers question law in 9/11 trial?

I just returned from Sarajevo where there were daily updates on the trial of Radovan Karadzic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

Shauhin Talesh Publishes article in the Law & Society Review

2009-11-11T07:21:00.000-08:00

JSP student Shauhin Talesh published his article, "The Privatization of Public Legal Rights: How Manufacturers Construct the Meaning of Consumer Law," in Volume 43, Issue 3, of the Law & Society Review, 527-62. An earlier version won the 2008, Sociology of Law (ASA), best graduate student paper prize. Congratulations Shauhin!

Abstract: This article demonstrates how the content and meaning of California's consumer protection laws were shaped by automobile manufacturers, the very group these laws were designed to regulate. My analysis draws on and links two literatures that examine the relationship between law and organizations but often overlook one another: political science studies of how businesses influence public legal institutions, and neo-institutional sociology studies of how organizations shape law within their organizational field. By integrating these literatures, I develop an "institutional-political" theory that demonstrates how organizations' construction of law and compliance within an organizational field shapes the meaning of law among legislators and judges. This study examines case law and more than 35 years of California legislative history concerning its consumer warranty laws. Using institutional and political analysis, I show how auto manufacturers, who were initially subject to powerful consumer protection laws, weakened the impact of these laws by creating dispute resolution venues. The legislature and courts subsequently incorporated private dispute resolution venues into statutes and court decisions and made consumer rights and remedies largely contingent on consumers first using manufacturer-sponsored venues. Organizational venue creation resulted in public legal rights being redefined and controlled by private organizations.

James Phillips' article forthcoming in Santa Clara Law Review

2009-09-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

First year JSP graduate student James Phillip's is publishing a new co-authored article (with Edward Carter of Brigham Young) in the 2010 Volume of the Santa Clara Law Review. The article (you can read the draft on SSRN here) provides an empirical look at how Supreme Court oral argument behavior effects decision making.

Mark Massoud Wins 2009 Corwin Prize

2009-08-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

JSP graduate Mark Massoud's recent dissertation, Who Rules the Law? How Government, Civil Society, and Aid Agencies Manipulate Law in Sudan, has won the 2009 Corwin prize of the American Political Science Association for the best dissertation in public law. Mark's dissertation was supervised by Malcolm Feeley, who nominated the thesis for the Corwin prize.

Ashley Aubuchon Wins Coblentz Civil Rights Fellowship

2009-06-16T14:31:00.000-07:00

JSP 3rd year, Ashley Aubuchon, has been awarded a Coblentz Fellowship which will support her research with JSP Professor Malcolm Feeley this coming Fall through the Center for the Study of Law & Society. The Colbentz Fellowship program supports Berkeley Law students in pursing research and activism on racial and ethnic justice in California and the Nation. In this, the first year of the program, six fellows were selected to work under one of Berkeley Law's research centers.

Pablo Rueda Recieves Honorable Mention in the LSA Graduate Student Paper Prize

2009-05-24T16:11:00.000-07:00

In a continuation of JSP's near sweep of graduate student paper prizes from the Law & Society Association and Law & Social Inquiry, JSP doctoral student Pablo Rueda has received an honorable mention in the always hotly contested graduate student prize category. The paper LEGAL LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL CHANGE DURING COLOMBIA’S ECONOMIC CRISIS, was nominated for the prize by Professor Malcolm Feeley. It will appear in print in a book titled LEGAL CULTURES AND JUDICIALIZATION IN LATIN AMERICA, edited by Alexandra Huneeus (JSP PhD, JD Berkeley), Rachel Sieder and Javier Couso (JSP PhD).

Jonathan Simon delivers 4th Annual Roger Hood Public Lecture at Oxford

2009-05-23T04:22:00.000-07:00

JSP professor Jonathan Simon delivered the lecture to the Oxford Centre for Criminology on Thursday, May 21 and conduced a seminar on the lecture at All Souls College the following morning. The Hood lecture, named in honor of the Chair emeritus in Criminology at Oxford, Roger Hood, may be becoming something of a Berkeley franchise as the 3rd annual Hood lecture was delivered by JSP professor Franklin Zimring.

2008- 2009 GSI Award Winner

2009-05-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

Three JSP students, Hillary Berk, Alexander Rosas, and Shauhin Talesh have received Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor awards for 2008-2009. The award reflects strong evaluations and nominations from Legal Studies students and faculty. Congratulations to Hillary, Alexander and Shauhin.

Jamie Rowen and Shauhin Talesh Awarded NSF Grants

2009-05-13T06:30:00.000-07:00

JSP doctoral students Jamie Rowen and Shauhin Talesh have each been awarded prestigious National Science Foundation "dissertation improvement grants." These highly competitive NSF grants:

provide funds for items not normally available through the student's university. Additionally, these grants allow doctoral students to undertake significant data-gathering projects and to conduct field research in settings away from their campus that would not otherwise be possible. Proposals are judged on the basis of their scientific merit, including the theoretical importance of the research question and the appropriateness of the proposed data and methodology to be used in addressing the question.

Professor Lauren Edelman is chairing both dissertations.

Shoaib Ghias Wins Law & Social Inquiry Graduate Student Paper Prize

2009-05-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

JSP doctoral student Shoaib A. Ghias has been selected as the winner of the Law & Social Inquiry 2009 Graduate Student Paper prize for his paper, "Miscarriage of Chief Justice: Lawyers, Media, and the Struggle for Judicial Independence in Pakistan." Shoaib wrote the paper for the Sawyer Seminar last year under the guidance
of Malcolm Feeley. Shoaib also credits conversations with Gordon
Silverstein, Bob Kagan, Martin Shapiro, Tom Ginsburg and Manoj Mate. The paper will be published in the journal, Law & Social Inquiry, the peer reviewed journal of the American Bar Foundation.

Simon on Parole on UCNewsCenter

2009-05-06T12:53:00.001-07:00

The UC Berkeley News Center carries the first of a two part interview with JSP Associate Dean Jonathan Simon on California's broken parole system. The interview with NewsCenter reporter Cathy Cockrell can be accessed here.

Shauhin Talesh's Article Accepted for Publication in the Law & Society Review

2009-04-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

JSP graduate student Shauhin Talesh has received an acceptance from the Law & Society Review for his article, "The Privatization of Public Legal Rights: How Manufacturers Constructthe Meaning of Law"

Shauhin's article demonstrates how the content and meaning of California's
consumer protection laws were shaped by automobile manufacturers, the very
group these laws were designed to regulate. His analysis draws on and links
two literatures that examine the relationship between law and organizations
but often overlook one another: political science studies of how businesses
influence public legal institutions and neo-institutional sociology studies
of how organizations shape law within their organizational field. By
integrating these literatures, he develops an "institutional-political"
theory that demonstrates how organizations' construction of law and
compliance within an organizational field shapes the meaning of law among
legislators and judges.

Gwen Leachman wins LSA Student Article Prize

2009-04-15T13:49:00.000-07:00

JSP/JD student Gwendolyn Leachman will be awarded the Law and Society Association's Best Graduate Student Paper prize at the 2009 annual meeting next month in Denver. Gwen was chosen for her paper "Who Frames the Message? Countermovements and Public Perception of Social Movements’ Legal Agendas."

Abstract: Social conservatives have historically used populist
rhetoric and “activist judges” framing to de-legitimate progressive
social movements’ litigation strategies. In this paper, I show that
opponents to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights
have used these discursive resources to draw attention to same-sex
marriage litigation – a tactic that constitutes only a small part of
the LGBT movement’s legal docket. I argue that as a result of this
resonant countermovement framing, the LGBT movement has become widely
mischaracterized in the mainstream media, in academia, and within the
movement itself as dominated by its focus on same-sex marriage. This
paper therefore demonstrates how a social movement’s litigation
strategy can be used to support countermovement rhetoric, which may in
turn distort a movement’s message and its public identity.

Jamie Rowen Publishes Two Articles

2009-02-26T10:52:00.000-08:00

JSP student Jamie Rowen has two recent articles out, one co-authored with Laurel Fletcher and Harvey Weinstein of Berkeley's Human Rights Center, and one solo authored.

Fletcher, Laurel E., Harvey M. Weinstein with Jamie Rowen, Context, Timing and the Dynamics of Transitional Justice: A Historical Perspective
Human Rights Quarterly - Volume 31, Number 1, February 2009, pp. 163-220.

Rowen, Jamie, Social Reality and Philosophical Ideals in Transitional Justice, Cardozo Journal of Public Law, Policy and Ethics- Volume 7, Number 1, Fall 2008, pp.93-120.

David Kirp on Schools as Part of the Proposition 8 Debate

2008-11-03T18:28:00.000-08:00

David Kirp, Professor of Public Policy and Visiting Professor of Law at UC Berkeley, was quoted in the New York Times article on Sunday November 2nd, discussing the anti-gay marriage initiative (Proposition 8), on this fall's California ballot (read the feature by Jesse MicKinley in the Week in Review).

The Proposition would strip same sex couples of the right to marry currently (since the California Supreme Court ruled in May) protected by the sate's constitution through an amendment that would define marriage constitutionally as being between a "man and a woman." Yet considerable advertising attention by both sides has focused on whether schools would end up teaching about gay marriage. A noted author on education policy, Kirp noted that this focus was hardly accidental:

“Schools are still there as part of the story because whatever their politics, families are conservative when it comes to their kids,” said David L. Kirp, a professor of law and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. “No family regards their kids as a social experiment.”

Ashley Aubuchon's Paper Accepted for Publication

2008-09-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

JSP Student Ashley Aubuchon has had her paper, Rehabilitating Durkheim: Social Solidarity and Rehabilitation in Eastern State Penitentiary, 1829-1850, accepted for publication in the International Journal of Punishment and Sentencing. Ashley's paper seeks to explore the relationship between social solidarity, which Durkheim took to be the central value in punishment, and rehabilitative penology (Durkheim treated such punishment as inherently retributive in nature) by examining the discourses and practices surrounding Philadelphia's influential Eastern State Penitentiary in the early 19th century.

Shauhin Talesh Wins ASA Grad Student Paper Prize

2008-07-14T14:49:00.000-07:00

JSP student Shauhin Talesh won the Best Graduate Student Paper Award, of the American Sociological Association, Sociology of Law Section, for his paper "The Legislature, 'Lemons,' Legal Endogeneity: How Manufacturers Force Consumers to 'Holster' Consumer Warranty Protection Law 'Weapons.'" The award will be presented in Boston next month. Way to go Shauhin!!!

Professor Sarah Song wins Ralph Bunche award from APSA

2008-06-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

JSP Professor Sarah Song has learned that her recent book, Justice, Gender and the Politics of Multiculturalism (Cambridge 2007) will be honored in August at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, where it will be named winner of the 2008 Ralph Bunche Award. The prize, which includes $1,000, "is awarded annually for the best scholarly work in political science which explores the phenomenon of ethnic and cultural pluralism."

Mark Massoud Wins LSA Grad Student Paper Prize!

2008-04-02T14:30:00.000-07:00

JSP student Mark Massoud has been named the winner of the 2008, Law & Society Association, Best Paper by a Graduate Student Prize. His winning entry was titled:
"Myth-making and the Collision of Rights in Sudan." Mark will be honored at the awards ceremony in Montreal next month.

Hamsa Murthy Reviews Sally Merry's Human Rights & Gender Violence

2008-03-27T07:11:00.000-07:00

JSP student Hamsa Murthy has just published a review of Merry's study of the role of NGO's in "translating" the products of international law drafters into "local justice" in Asia and the United States. Professor Merry, a distinguished anthropologist of law, is the Director of New York University's Institute for Law & Society.

Murthy's review appears in the most recent issue of Law, Culture & the Humanities

Before Life Meant Life: NPR interviews Prof. Simon on California's Growing Population of Lifers

2008-03-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

Twenty years ago, when many California life sentenced prisoners first went to prison for second degree murder, they could reasonably expect to be paroled within 15 to 25 years if they took advantage of rehabilitative programming and kept their record free of disciplinary problems. Today those prisoners find themselves facing the likely prospect of dying in prison no matter what they do. The law remains the same, but the politics of parole has in fact amended it.

JSP Professor Jonathan Simon spoke with NPR correspondent Nancy Mullane, in a segment that aired during Morning Edition on Sunday, March 16.

JSP Prof Sarah Song Comments on the Controversey over Islamic Law in UK Courts

2008-03-12T16:06:00.000-07:00

In a column published in the March 7 edition of the Recorder (online here but requires a subscription), Professor Sarah Song explores the complicated legal and social controversy opened up recently when the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke in favor of opening UK courts to enforcing Islamic law principles in some areas like family law. While the Archbishop's comments were greeted by harsh criticism from many British newspapers and politicians, Professor Song suggests that both the Archbishop and critics need to look beyond the label of "Islamic courts" to question the interpretation of Islam being promoted in those courts and the impact of that interpretation on the rights of Muslim women in the UK.

JSP Student Ariel Meyerstein Publishes "Law and Lawyers as Enemy Combatants"

2008-01-17T10:14:00.001-08:00

Meyerstein's article began as a paper in a JSP orientation seminar. In his forward to the 20th anniversary issue of the University of Florida Journal of Law and Public Policy, where Meyerstein's article appears UC Irvine Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says this of the article:

[T]he Court has had to begin considering constitutional rights in the context of the war on terrorism. There have been only a few cases so far--Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, Rasul v. Bush, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld-- but no area of law has been more important since September 11. Ariel Meyerstein's magnificent article situates these cases in cultural rhetoric about the critical role of lawyers and the legal system and should be a “must read” for judges dealing with these issues.

Simon Speaks French? C'est What?

2008-01-10T11:00:00.001-08:00

Associate Dean Simon talks about his recent book, Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear, on the French website, la vie des idees.fr with Sorbonne Political Scientist Sophie Body-Gendrot. The interview, posted here, is in translation (Simon remains sadly monolingual)

JSP Student Ashley Aubuchon Wins a 2007 UC Berkeley Library Prize for Undergraduate Research

2007-12-13T14:27:00.000-08:00

This year Ashley Aubuchon is a first year JSP student. Last year however, she was a double major in history and legal studies and wrote two honors theses, one in each field. Ashley's history thesis was one of the four winners of the Library Prize for Undergraduate Research and was this month featured in the library newsletter.

The prize committee wrote:

In her History 101 project entitled "A Means to an End: The Role of Religion in Eastern State Penitentiary during 'The Experiment,'" Ashley Aubuchon investigates the crucial and novel ways in which religion helped to define the rhetoric of prison experience, as well as a substantial part of the prison experience itself in Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary between the years of 1829 and 1849. Her project makes ample and effective use of some of the more obscure and fascinating primary resources in the Doe Library, the Environmental Design Library, and Boalt Library, including annual reports of the Penitentiary inspectors and chaplains, state penal statutes, articles in contemporary journals and newspapers, and various accounts of contemporary visitors to the prison, including Charles Dickens and Alexis de Tocqueville.

Her advisor praises Ashley's "fine and evolving historical sensibility," her "ability to carve out of this massive body of material a well-designed and very smart historical essay," and her ability to find her "own historiographical and critical voice within a variety of literatures."

JSP Student Larisa Mann's Blog posting on the New Anti-File Sharing Law that Endangers Funding for Higher Education Gets National Attention

2007-12-04T17:05:00.000-08:00

Writing on the youth news website "WireTape Magazine", JSP student Larisa Mann addresses a recent bill reported out of committee in the House that would use federal educational funds to compel universities and colleges to take proactive measures to discourage illegal student file sharing.

Glory be, the big copyright owners have found yet another way to threaten students' access to education -- this time by going for the biggest support of higher education -- federal funding.

On Nov 22 the House Education and Labor Committee approved H.R. 4137, the College Opportunity and Affordability Act (COAA). The name sounds like something everyone can support -- but the devil is truly in the details.

Page 411 of this 747-page bill is "Section 494(A): CAMPUS-BASED DIGITAL THEFT PREVENTION" wherein the bill's meaning takes a serious detour from its title. To prevent college students from illegally accessing copyrighted material, the section says all schools shall (when you see the word "shall" in a law, it's a requirement, not a suggestion):

1) Have "a plan for offering alternatives to illegal downloading or peer-to-peer distribution of intellectual property"

and

2) Have "a plan to explore technology based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity.”

Read the full posting on WireTap Magazine.

Larisa's posting has been reprinted (or reposted) on the webpage of the Nation and in the Chicago Tribune.

Shauhin Talesh Publishes Article on Mental Health Court Judges in Depaul Law Review

2007-11-26T10:57:00.000-08:00

The DePaul Law Review has just published “Mental Health Court Judges as ‘Dynamic Risk Managers’: A New Conceptualization of the Role of Judges,” (57 Depaul L. Rev. 93 (2007) by Shauhin Talesh, a second year JSP Ph.D student. Talesh’s article attempts to illuminate how concepts of risk management are becoming more a part of the role of judges in problem solving courts (and in particular, mental health courts). More importantly, this analysis begins to move scholarly debate away from the traditional debate of the judge’s role as a “passive, neutral arbiter” versus “activist,” and instead toward thinking closely about how risk management approaches by judges play a growing role in the criminal process and what the potential effects of such an approach are. This article was an outgrowth of 2 JSP courses Talesh took in his first year at JSP: Courts and Social Policy (taught by Malcolm Feeley) and Jurisprudence of Risk (taught by Jonathan Simon & Charles Weisselburg).

JSP Student Mark Massoud Presents on Legal Aid in Sudan

2007-10-29T15:45:00.000-07:00

JSP Student Mark Massoud will present his research "Legal Aid Organizations and the Rule of Law in Sudan", this Thursday, November 1, 2007, Noon to 1:30 pm, at the Blum Center for Developing Economies.

The Onion Quotes Fictional Boalt Criminologist

2007-10-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

Taking a leaf perhaps from Doonesbury's fictional boalt student Joanie Caucus , the satirical newspaper The Onion, interviewed Dr. Daniel Blecker, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, and expert on capital punishment,for a sickeningly hilarious send up of the real life Supreme Court case on lethal injection, and the wave of moratoriums that have occurred as a result in some states (including California). Titled, Lethal Injection Ban Leads To Rise In Back-Alley Lethal Injections, the article profiled an anonymous governor forced to seek a back alley lethal injection for a death row inmate in order not to lose face with voters.

Dr. Blecker (perhaps a conflation of Robert Blecker, a pro-death penalty law professor at New York Law School, and JSP's own Frank Zimring), offered the following analysis:

"Every day more and more governors find themselves in dank basements or filthy garages with a retinue of prison guards and a convicted killer," said Blecker, referring to testimony he has gathered from more than a dozen politicians who have participated in illegal lethal injections. "In extreme cases, the inexperienced executioners will inject the prisoners with cheap, common household poisons, such as oven cleaner and bleach, instead of the suggested sodium thiopental, Pavulon, and potassium chloride cocktail that a state-licensed executioner would use."

Blecker also cited reports of back-alley injections performed so hastily that no last meal was provided.

"The reality of the situation is that you can't legislate lethal injections away," Blecker said. "If governors can't inhumanely execute prisoners legally in prisons, they're going to turn elsewhere for the procedure. More often than not with tragic results."

JSP Alum Christopher Jewell Publishes New Comparative Study of Welfare

2007-10-02T09:29:00.000-07:00

Palgrave MacMillan has just published Agents of the Welfare State: How Caseworkers Respond to Need in the United States, Germany, and Sweden by Christopher Jewell, a recent JSP grad and currently a post-doctoral research fellow at UCSF. It is based Chris's dissertation research and provides a closely-observed, illuminating perspective on the legal, social, and political construction of welfare law implementation in Los Angeles, Bremen, and Malmo. Chris's article-length condensation of the book appears in the most recent issue of Law & Policy. According to JSP Professor Robert Kagan, "research on the vitally important kind of legal decision making that goes on in the bureaucracies of the welfare state is woefully rare, and comparative research of this kind is virtually unprecedented."

Shauhin Talish Wins APSA Courts and Law Section's CQ Press Award

2007-09-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

JSP 2nd Year Shauhin Talesh has received the CQ Press Award of the American Political Science Association's Law & Courts Seciton for the best graduate student paper on law and courts. Shauhin's paper ‘Lemons,’ and Legal Endogeneity: How Manufacturers Force Consumers to ‘Holster’ Consumer Warranty Protection Law ‘Weapons’ applies sociological theory on organizational adaptation (from our own Lauren Edelman) and the economic theory of the "market for lemons" to analyze the way consumer protection law has been absorbed by manufacturers.

Professor Jonathan Simon's New Book to be Featured Conversation on the Inkwell.vue

2007-07-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

Professor Simon's recent book, Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Tranformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear (OUP 2007) will be featured in a conversation on the Inkwell.vue starting Wednesday, July 11th and running for two weeks. The Inkwell.vue is a public forum on books, art, technology, and other aspects of contemporary society, hosted by The Well, the pioneering online community the began in 1985. Simon will be questioned by a number of readers, led-off by Doug Masson, Indiana lawyer and host of Mason's Blog --- A Citizens Guide to Indiana. Readers will be able to email in questions.

Professor Lauren Edelman Joins the Sociologial Research Association

2007-06-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

Professor Lauren Edelman has been invited to join the prestigious Sociological Research Association. According to the Association, founded in 1936:

.. the SRA's mission is to recognize and promote excellence in sociological research. Currently, its membership numbers about 425. Invitations to membership are extended to to a limited number of sociologists each year, based on their long-term careers of distinguished research.

Professor Edelman's work on the symbolic construction of equal opportunity within organizations subject to equal employment laws has been among the most widely cited socio-legal research of recent years and has helped revitalize the intersection between the sociology of organizations and the sociology of law. Professor Edelman taught a new seminar on that intersection in the spring of 2007

Largest JSP Doctoral Hooding Ever!

2007-05-16T07:05:00.000-07:00

Seven JSP students were hooded in recognition of the completion of their doctoral degrees during the May 12, 2007, Boalt Hall commencement exercises at the Greek Theater.

Susan M. Dennehy / hooding by Kristin Luker

Shifting Family Boundaries: State Courts, Functional Parents, and the Expansion of Parental Status

This dissertation examines how state courts define legal parenthood and assign parental rights in a social landscape with a wide variety and large number of non-traditional families. Courts have extended parental rights to some individuals who function as parents in some circumstances, such a grandparents who are primary caretakers or the cohabiting partner of a biological parent. At the same time, courts have not established a new framework in which diverse families are widely accepted. On the contrary, courts have construed their decisions to fit within a traditional values paradigm.

Future plans: Susan is currently in student affairs in the department of French and Comparative Literature, here at UC Berkeley.

Alexandra Huneeus / hooding by Robert Kagan

The Dynamics of Judicial Stasis: Judges, Pinochet-Era Claims, and the Question of Judicial Legitimacy in Chile (1998-2005)

How does a judiciary once complicit with an authoritarian government come to embrace human rights norms? Chile’s judges finally began prosecuting Pinochet-era claims of human rights violations in 1998, a quarter century after they took place. The dissertation argues that the change in the jurisprudence reflects both that judges wanted to redeem their institution and themselves from the authoritarian past, but, paradoxically, that they were also concerned with deferring to the executive.

Future plans: Alexandra is currently a post-doc at Stanford, and in the fall will begin teaching at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Law School and Legal Studies Program.

Chrysanthi Settlage Leon / hooding by Frank Zimring

Compulsion and Control -- Sex Crime and Criminal Justice Policy in California, 1930-2007

Until about 1980, California's sex offender punishment regime differentiated among sex offenders (for better and for worse), tracking the majority of offenders as misdemeanants, civilly committing some, and sending others to prison. After 1980, sex offender incarceration increased as a tailwind effect of general incarceration, while a singular theory of sexually offending conduct justified other shifts in penal policy, including broad community notification laws. Since the public has almost always held an undifferentiated image of the sex offender as a monster, sex offender policy is likely to continue to show increasing punitiveness even when general incarceration moderates. Experts and criminal justice decision-makers--especially victim advocates and prosecutors--will have to publicly identify the problems caused by this undifferentiated approach if we hope to truly improve public safety, allocate scarce resources wisely, and protect all citizens from harm and injustice.

Future plans: Santhi will be Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware beginning in July.

Shahla Maghzi-Ali / hooding by Malcolm Feeley

International Arbitration and Mediation in East Asia: Examining the Role of Domestic Legal Culture and Globalization on Shaping East Asian Arbitration

*The dissertation examines the dual impact of globalization and cultural diversity on the practice of international arbitration in East Asia. It finds that because of the flexible structure of the United Nations Model Law framework, procedural variation of arbitration approach can coexist with a relatively high level of substantive legal convergence across regions.

Future plans: After graduation: Shahla plans to both teach and practice in the field of
international dispute resolution in East Asia.

Dorit Rubinstein / hooding by Malcolm Feeley

Regulatory Accountability: Telecommunications and Electricity Agencies in the UK, France and Sweden

This dissertation examines the response of administration agencies to multiple and conflicting accountability pressures in the context of the agencies regulating the liberalized electricity and telecommunications sectors in the UK, France and Sweden. The dissertation concludes that agencies use different accountability strategies to legitimize their behavior and those strategies vary according to the issue in question, not according to national factors or sector characteristics.

Future plans: Dorit will be taking a tenure track position in UC Hastings College of Law.

Shalini Satkunanandan / hooding by Jonathan Simon

Encountering the Ground of Obligation: Plato and Kant on the Turn

This dissertation studies Plato's and Kant's accounts of conversion in order to illuminate the character of obligation. Plato's and Kant's accounts of conversion challenge the contractual explanation of obligation that prevails in political, legal, and moral theory.

Future plans: Shalini will be Harper Fellow in the Society of Fellows at the University of Chicago and a Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences Collegiate Division.

Joshua Wilson / hooding by Robert Kagan

Rights, Process, & Political Passions: A Study of Three Anti-Abortion Protest Regulation Cases

The dissertation examines three case studies involving anti-abortion protests and speech rights in order to study how legal ideals, procedures, and actors affect individual political passions. The project shows how law can occasionally facilitate, but more often undermines the ability to constrain or structure political passions.

Future plans: Josh will be an Assistant Professor in the Government Department at CUNY John Jay.

JSP Dissertation to be Recognized at 2007 LSA Annual Meeting

2007-05-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

The Law and Society Association recently announced that the dissertation of Dr. Virginia Mellema (2006) entitled: Race Matters: The Paradox of Race in Police Personnel Decisions has received honorable mention after being nominated for the LSA 2007 Dissertation Prize.

A special awards session is scheduled during the July, 2007 LSA/RCSL meetings in Berlin where an announcement will be made of this outstanding scholarly achievement. Ginna will be attending the meetings and will be in attendance at this special session.

(Ginna's hooding '06, with Dean Edley and Professor Edelman presiding)

Congratulations Ginna!

JSP Job Results 07

2007-03-12T07:37:00.000-07:00

The faculty hiring market for 2007 will continue for another month or so (even longer for some positions) but most of the JSP students and recent graduates looking for jobs this year have already accepted offers on the following outstanding faculties:

Hadar Aviram, Assistant Professor, Hastings College of Law (Fall 07)
Jacqueline Gehring, Assistant Professor, Allegheny College (Fall 07)
Alexandra Huneeus, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison (Fall 07)
Chrysanthi Leon, Assistant Professor University of Delaware (Fall 07)
Dorit Rubinstein, Assistant Professor, Hastings College of Law (Fall 07)
Josh Wilson, Assistant Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (Fall 07)

Many of these students had other job offers or pending consideration at other schools, including UC Irvine, at the time they accepted their current position.

Congratulations to all of the JSP students involved in the 07 job market

D.J.(SP) Ripley and Berkeley's Hip Hop Working Group Featured in the SF Chronicle

2007-03-05T22:20:00.000-08:00

JSP students have long been known for their innovative moves, but rarely on the arts pages of the SF Chronicle. A recent feature, however, profiled UC Berkeley's Hip Hop working group made up of Berkeley graduate students in a number of fields including Larisa Mann, AKA, D.J. Ripley, and pictured both her and her record collection!

JSP Students Participate in Interdisciplinary Workshop on Immigration

2007-03-01T10:18:00.000-08:00

JSP students Ming Chen and Keith Hiatt present papers at Spotlight on Immigration : Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Newcomers and Their Children, Friday, March 2nd, at the UC Berkeley Womens' Faculty Club. The workshop is sponsored by the Institute for Industrial Relations. Ming's paper is titled "A Nation of Immigrants” or a “New Civil Rights Movement?”.
Keith's paper is titled "Immigrant Danger? Immigration and Increased Crime in Europe." They appear on the same panel from 1:30 to 3:00 pm.

Its a Boy! JSP Grad students Produce Baby (Dissertations to Follow)

2007-03-01T10:08:00.000-08:00

JSP Doctoral students Willow Tracy and Tim Meyer reported the news that their son, WYATT JOSHUA MEYER, was born Sunday, February 25th, at one minute to mid-night! Mother and Child are doing well!!!!

The JSP Scope is flush with pride at the first known all JSP baby! Congratulations to Willow (how bad can a dissertation be after labor!) and Tim (you'll be up late anyway)

Faculty in the Spotlight: Philip Selznick

2006-12-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

The December 18 issue of The New Yorker magazine carries a fascinating critique of US military strategy in Iraq and the war on terror (George Packer, A Reporter at Large: Knowing the Enemy: Can Social Scientists Redefine the War on Terror). The gist of the argument is that US military strategy relies too much on hard power and not enough on social science informed soft power directed toward the social networks and local contexts that fuel global insurgencies. In pointing back to classic examples of social science informed strategic thinking, Packer cites JSP founder Philip Selznick's 1952 classic, The Organizational Weapon: A Study of Bolshevik Strategy and Tactics. Of course the implicit optimism about our ability to win the war on terrorism if we only learn more from social science, begs a question raised by the later Selznick: can a morally bankrupt mission be saved by good social science ? (see, The Moral Commonwealth: Social Theory and the Problem of Community).

Eric Feldman '94 and the Law of the Tuna

2006-08-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

In the March 2006 issue of the California Law Review, JSP alum and Penn law professor Eric Feldman does for the tuna of Tokyo's famed Tsukiji fish auction what Professor Robert Ellickson did years ago for Shasta County's cattle, transformed them into enduring icons of legal studies as a field, destined to anchor in the minds of generations of Phd qualifying exam takers, whole bodies of social and legal theory. While often headless and tale-less, these fish are, as rendered by Feldman, quite unforgettable. Captured in beautiful color photographs by Feldman (perhaps a law review first, I'm not sure) and described in rich ethnographic narrative, the tuna open themselves to us, revealing law to have invested even their internal flesh. While Ellickson's cattle have come to represent the universal appeal of informal coordination without law, Feldman's tuna will enter the stream of academic debate as markers for the prolix and productive nature of formal legal institutions. For while the players in the Tsukiji fish auction are classic repeat players with apparently easy access to informal resolutions, the auction has evolved a highly efficient and practical but undeniably formal court institution to resolve disputes over tuna sold at auction. Rather than a costly mechanism which produces discontent for both winners and losers, the tuna court has evolved to resolve disputes at a low cost to all participants while reinforcing the shared confidence in their common technical expertise which ultimately binds the tuna buyers and brokers.

Summer Reading!

2006-07-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

JSP profeessor Kristin Luker's latest book, When Sex Goes to School: Warring Views on Sex--And Sex Education--Since the Sixties (WW. Norton 2006) is in the book stores (I saw it at Moe's) and the standard internet sources. As in her earlier books, Luker goes back into American history, not to adjudicate the past, but to place the reader (as if for the first time) in the midst of our most contentious and familiar current public policy conflicts (in this case sex and gender in the classroom). For a quick outline of the argument, check out this highly positive reivew in the Washington Post.

Shai Lavi Win's 2006 ASA Soc of Law Book Prize

2006-06-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

JSP Alum, Shai Lavi, now a member of the faculty at Tel Avi University's Buchmann School of Law, has won the 2006 Distinguished Book Award of the American Sociological Association's, Section on the Sociology of Law for his book, The Modern Art of Dying: The History of Euthanasia in the United States (Princeton University Press, 2005), a revision of his JSP dissertation.

A renowned Berkeley sociologist has said this of Lavi's book:

"Shai Lavi has enormously deepened the current argument over euthanasia by putting it in a perspective that has seldom entered the discussion, namely, its history. The genealogy of the idea and practices that have turned the art of dying into the technique of dying does not solve the current debate, but it does allow us to see it not just as an argument between ethicists, but as one about the cultural meaning of death. This book is essential for anyone who is concerned about euthanasia and has the potential of changing the very terms of the discussion."--Robert N. Bellah, University of California, Berkeley, coauthor of Habits of the Heart and The Good Society.

South Asians and Immigration Legislation

2006-05-30T15:57:00.000-07:00

JSP students do not shy away from the tough issues of public policy, local, national, or transnational. Veena Dubal discusses the stance of South Asians toward the recent immigration legislation and nationwide protests. While these events have been framed primarily around Mexican immigrants, Dubal argues that South Asian's should get involved as well. Her op-ed piece appears in SAMAR, an on-line journal of South Asian politics

http://www.samarmagazine.org/

Virginia Mellema "Hooded" at Boalt's May 13 Commencement

2006-05-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

Gina Mellema marked the completion of her JSP PhD in the "old school" way with a hooding in front of the Boalt commencement crowd. Lauren Edelman, Gina's dissertation chair, did the honors. (For those who have not witnessed it, the hooding is an impressive moment of individual recognition quite in contrast with the assembly line certificate and handshake moments that necessarily dominate most undergraduate and law school graduation exercises). Dean Christopher Edley described Gina's dissertation for the assembly thusly:

"Race Matters: The Paradox of Race in Police Personnel Decisions"

This dissertation explores how police officials, both past and present, perceive race and departmental diversity to matter to law enforcement. Despite formal law which prohibits the use of race as a consideration, the unique nature of police work raises questions of how race may legitimately be used, if at all, in recruiting, hiring, promoting and making assignments. This project examines how the evolving ideology of race and racism has impacted race-conscious policies and practices over the past four decades and how contemporary police administrators reconcile what they term the "unavoidable salience of race" with formal legal prohibitions on race-based personnel decisions.

For the moment Gina will remain in the Bay Area where she serves as an administrative judge for the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in San Francisco.

Congratulations Gina! We're proud of you and glad to have you near for at least another year.

Six JSPers Celebrate JD degrees at Boalt May 13, 2006 Commencement

2006-05-17T21:50:00.000-07:00

Veena Dubal, Edi Kinney, Sonya Lebsack, Santhi Leon, Mark Massoud, and Ariel Meyerstein all walked in Boalt's commencement exercises at the Hearst Greek Theater on May 13, 2006. It was a memorable day marked by spotless blue skies and blazing sun, the absence of commencement speaker Howard Dean and Dean Christopher Edley's almost frighteningly accurate rendition of Dean's fatal 2003 Scream speech in Iowa. Much partying ensued afterwards as most of Boalt's 270 plus JD graduates looked forward to the Bar, high incomes, and adulthood. But what of our six? Although several are reported to be taking the Bar, all six swear they are forging on for the PhD, high incomes and adulthood can wait (for a while).
(Above: Mark Massoud, Edi Kinney, and Ariel Meyerstein celebrate; credit, Jonathan Simon 2006)