More Just

UC Berkeley Law Dean  Erwin Chemerinsky  is joined by three renowned experts: UCLA Law Professor  Ann E. Carlson  and UC Berkeley Law Professors  Daniel A. Farber  and  Sharon Jacobs . For full show notes and the transcript, please visit this episode page on the UC Berkeley Law Podcast Hub. Production by Yellow Armadillo Studios. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pr...

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is both one of today’s hottest technologies and a significant challenge for lawmakers and regulators. As AI-based applications continue to proliferate, where are guardrails needed, and where might a hands-off approach be smarter? And how can legal scholars impact the discourse while teaching the next generation of lawyers about this important innovation? In this epi...

This special episode features UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky in conversation with Professor  Katerina Linos  and Temple Law Professor  Mark Pollack introducing a wider audience to the  European Union Court of Justice  and a  special series of Linos’ “Borderlines” podcast  on the court. Together, these three leading legal educators introduce listeners to t...

This November’s race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is expected to go down to the wire. But ahead of, on, and after Election Day, both campaigns and parties at the local, national, and state level will be ready to fight not just at the ballot box, but in the courtroom. From when mail-in ballots can be counted to the final Electoral College tally, state and f...

Constitutional Law has changed dramatically in the past few years, and therefore so has the course for law students. In this episode, Berkeley Law Dean  Erwin Chemerinsky  — a leading scholar in the field who has been teaching the class for decades and is the author of a popular casebook — talks about the U.S. Supreme Court’s most recent term. It’s the latest in a series of monumental ye...

Debates over free speech have simmered, and occasionally boiled over, on university campuses for decades. But in recent months, the clash over words and phrases has reached a flashpoint, reaching beyond classrooms and quads as far as the halls of Congress. College and university presidents have faced fierce criticism — chronicled in extensive media coverage — over how they’ve handled protests over...

Herma Hill Kay Memorial Lecture with Justice Sonia Sotomayor in Conversation with Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. Recorded Monday, January 29, 2024, at UC Berkeley. Have a question about the law, or a topic you’d like us to cover? Send an email to morejust@berkeley.edu to tell us your thoughts.  For a transcript, please  visit the episode page  on the Berkeley Law podcast hub....

Leadership is a key component of other professional schools, particularly business and policy programs. But it’s less emphasized in law schools. Should it be taught in law schools, and what are the most important elements for them to learn? Another critical question is whether leadership training will make a real difference for lawyers as they move into the profession. In this episode, Berkeley La...

The U.S. Supreme Court had another momentous term. From affirmative action in college admissions to critical administrative law and First Amendment cases, the court again handed down a string of decisions that will resonate for generations.  In this episode, veteran court analyst Joan Biskupic returns to break down the term with Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. Biskupic has covered the co...

Since 1983, U.S. News and World Report has published rankings of the nation’s law schools. For almost as long, there have been complaints about the way the rankings are done and what value they offer to prospective students.  Last fall, Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken announced that Yale — which consistently earned the top spot in the rankings — would no longer participate in the process...

For recent law school graduates, clerking for a federal judge can be a key career stepping stone, and the hiring process is both highly opaque and famously nerve-wracking. Even as law school cohorts have become more diverse, the clerkship ranks have remained heavily skewed toward white men, particularly from a handful of top-ranked law schools.  Leaders from Berkeley Law’s Berkeley Judicial I...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas built a legacy of strong progressive and libertarian views. Nominated by President Franklin Roosevelt, he was confirmed in 1939 at age 40 and served until 1975 — the longest tenure of any associate justice.  Law students get to know Douglas well because he turns up in many of the most famous cases of the 20th century. He wrote for the majority in...

Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky has been defending free speech — as a scholar, educator, and administrator — for decades. Recently, he joined Michelle Deutchman, the executive director of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement , for an episode of the center’s podcast, “ Speech Matters .” They discussed how to foster and protect free speech on campuses...

With authoritarian regimes on the rise around the world, the need to protect basic human rights is more urgent than ever. How can law schools, law students, and law faculties help do this critical work — at home and internationally? Three Berkeley Law experts join Dean Erwin Chemerinsky for this episode: Chancellor’s Clinical Professor Laurel E. Fletcher , co-director of the school’s International...

The U.S. Supreme Court just wrapped up one of the most consequential terms in recent memory, handing down a string of momentous decisions that strike at the heart of our legal system. In this episode, Joan Biskupic, legal analyst for CNN and the author of several books about the court, joins Dean Erwin Chemerinsky to discuss what happened and the implications of these opinions.  About:  ...

In 2021, only 11.6% of the workforce in the United States was unionized — down a half a percentage point from 2020. But after decades of decline, there are also hopeful signs for unions and the rights of workers. The rise of the gig economy, years of flat wages, and the economic turbulence unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic have given rise to a new movement, from Amazon warehouses to graduate scho...

On the night of May 2, Politico published a draft Supreme Court majority opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, that would overrule the seminal abortion rights cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. While the draft opinion was from February — and the Court has yet to release a binding decision — the news sent seismic shocks through the nation.  Since Justices Brent Kavanaugh a...

Since the First Amendment was written, there has been vigorous discussion, and often vehement disagreement, about exactly what “free speech” does, and should, mean. Increasingly, campuses are where the debate over free speech boils over.  Universities — and law schools — aspire to be laboratories for knowledge, a place where ideas and debate about those ideas flow freely. And yet, free speech...

More than three dozen states have passed, or are considering, laws restricting how public school teachers can talk about racism under the guise of banning “Critical Race Theory.” But what is Critical Race Theory? And how can law schools, law professors, and law students respond to these campaigns, when most — if not all — of the political discussion falls somewhere on the spectrum between misleadi...

How should law professors teach about the foundations of constitutional law when it’s clear the current Supreme Court won’t respect precedent and approach the law as the institution once had? Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky explores the impact on legal education — and the public’s perception of the legal system — of the court’s change in trajectory. His three guests, who are all teaching or ha...

I'm Erwin Chemerinsky , Dean of Berkeley Law , and this is "More Just," a podcast about how law schools can and must play a role in solving society's most difficult problems. I've been a law school dean for more than a decade, and a constitutional law professor for 40 years. But things seem different today. The problems facing society and the world seem harder and more intractable: Threats to our...