Following the police murder of George Floyd, there have been calls to “Abolish, Defund, and Reform” the police. Elected officials around the country have called for 50% reductions in the police budgets that account for much of local government spending. At the same time, there is little agreement on the meaning of what could or should be defunded or what can be reformed; in many cases, the very language of this movement has impeded the necessary public debate about the appropriate role of...

Since 2017, California’s institutional prison population has hovered at about 115,000 inmates. Steven Raphael, Goldman School of Public Policy, looks at the last decade of prison reform including reducing overcrowding, the impacts of proposition 47 and the effects of racial disproportionality in criminal justice involvement. Series: "UC Public Policy Channel" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 36684]

Ian Haney López is is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes on race and racism in the law. His focus for the last decade has been on the use of racism in electoral politics, and how to respond. Ian develops and promotes a race-class praxis which argues that powerful elites exploit social divisions for private gain, so no matter what our race, color, or ethnicity, our best future requires building cross-racial...

Zachary Norris is the Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, author of We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just, and Inclusive Communities, and co-founder of Restore Oakland, a community advocacy and training center that will empower Bay Area community members to transform local economic and justice systems and make a safe and secure future possible for themselves and for their families. Zach is also a co-founder of Justice for Families, a national alliance of...

Many observers believe we need to grapple with challenges arising from the many well-established laws, regulations and policies which have been ignored or violated over the past four years. Goldman School of Public Policy faculty and former UC President and former Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, with Leon Panetta, L. Song Richardson and Eric Swalwell explore the norms, assumptions, and governmental practices that have changed during the Trump presidency and the ensuing...

Today we explore the life and legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the consequences her death may have for election 2020. The sudden death of the 87 year old jurist and feminist icon has not only disrupted the already unprecedented election season, but it has raised the stakes for the Presidency, the Senate and the future of the Supreme Court going forward. In this discussion we try to illuminate the partisan politics behind seeking her replacement, the constituencies most committed to replacing...

Socio-economic equality and rights have historically been marginalized in the human rights system but remain a front of racial discrimination. Panelists will engage with this history, identify contemporary patterns, and reflect on the analytical benefit of combining TWAIL (Third World Approaches to International Law) and CRT (Critical Race Theory). Series: "UCLA Law Review Symposium " [Show ID: 35630]

Panelists consider global and national displacement, rights and protection regimes, and the ways that race and political economy drive policy decisions and institutional and normative responses to migration and migrants. The discussion covers the criminalization and detention of immigrants and the impact of historical and social forces, and reflects on the analytical benefit of combining TWAIL (Third World Approaches to International Law) and CRT (Critical Race Theory). Series: "UCLA Law...

Contemporary global and national political crises, many of which threaten the human rights of millions and even the international system itself, bring into sharp relief enduring colonial legacies of racial injustice and racial inequality all over the world. In this opening and framing discussion, panelists will interrogate the role of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) in developing a transnational legal discourse on racial injustice and...

Emergency law permits states to derogate from globally agreed upon norms of human rights. While some rights cannot be suppressed, states still use emergency law to justify policies that reproduce inherently racialized colonial logics, including within the anti-terrorism frame. Panelists reflect on the analytical benefit of combining TWAIL (Third World Approaches to International Law) and CRT (Critical Race Theory) in scholarship on emergencies and crisis. Series: "UCLA Law Review Symposium "...

The keynote presentation of the Transnational Legal Discourse on Race and Empire Symposium features Aziz Rana whose research and teaching center on American constitutional law and political development, with a particular focus on how shifting notions of race, citizenship, and empire have shaped legal and political identity since the founding. Rana is a Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. Series: "UCLA Law Review Symposium " [Show ID: 35628]

By virtually any measure, prisons have not worked. They are sites of cruelty, dehumanization, and violence, as well as subordination by race, class, and gender. Prisons traumatize virtually all who come into contact with them. Abolition of prison could be the ultimate reform. Georgetown Law Professor Paul Bulter explores what would replace prisons, how people who cause harm could be dealt with in the absence of incarceration, and why abolition would make everyone safer and our society more...

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Professor Paul Butler, Albert Brick Professor Law at Georgetown, for a discussion of the law and blacks. Topics covered include formative experiences including influence of his parents, his upbringing in Chicago, his education, and his work as a prosecutor. Emphasis is on how and why his ideas about reform and activism evolved as he came to understand black confrontation with the law. Series: "Conversations with History" [Show ID: 35257]

Some young adults have trouble fitting into societal norms and slip through the cracks. The professionals on this panel are unsung heroes who advocate for our lost youth to create a better future. They discuss what led them to their work, as well as the challenges and rewards. Series: "Global Empowerment Summit" [Show ID: 35329]

With the 2020 general elections looming, the nominee for the Democratic Party undetermined, and a defiant and volatile president at the helm, the impeachment inquiry is sure to heat up in the weeks ahead. At stake in this topsy-turvy political theater are our democratic institutions, which may be forever altered. This UC Berkeley's Social Science Matrix event features two prominent scholars: Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of Berkeley Law, and Robert Reich, Carmel P. Friesen Professor of Public...

San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan discusses her work to stop human trafficking. Series: "Global Empowerment Summit" [Show ID: 35330]

San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan discusses her work to stop human trafficking. Series: "Global Empowerment Summit" [Show ID: 35330]

This panel explores the relevance of race, citizenship, immigration status, and community context in explaining lethal violence and criminal case outcomes, both currently and historically. Drawing from a variety of data sources and employing a wide range of analytical approaches, the panel illuminates largely overlooked and underappreciated racially-contingent micro- and meso-level processes and their enduring consequences for Latinx defendants, Latinx victims, and Latinx communities....

This panel explores how statewide direct democracy measures, including ballot initiatives, have propelled affirmative criminal justice reforms in jurisdictions with large Latinx populations. Panelists discuss the ways in which Latinx people were and were not meaningfully incorporated into the campaigns and subsequent implementation efforts for Florida’s Amendment 4, California’s Propositions 47 and 57, and a handful of drug referendums. This discussion focuses on lessons learned and highlight...

This panel focuses on questions surrounding the influence of race and ethnicity on the imposition of capital punishment. The Supreme Court struck down unitary standardless capital punishment statutes in the early 1970s. Only a few years later the Court upheld two forms of bifurcated, more structured death penalty statutes relying in part on an assumption that the narrowing required by such statutes would eliminate the influence of racial bias. None of the cases considered the possibility of...

Panel of explores how Latinx communities perceive the criminal justice system and provides a general overview of what we know and don't know about Latinx incarceration. The panel also explores the content and consequences of Latinx racialization (including the prevalence of negative racial stereotypes) and the various ways in which U.S. immigration law and policy punishes and criminalizes migrants. Moderator: Laura Gomez, UCLA School of Law. Panelists: Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve, University...

UCLA Law professor emeritus Gerald López has litigated extensively as lead counsel in a wide variety of criminal and civil matters. In this talk, he captivates the crowd with reflections on his childhood in East Los Angeles in the 1950s, where he watched the criminal justice system target Latinx people — activity that, he noted, continues to this day. Series: "UCLA Law Review Symposium " [Show ID: 34537]