Study Hall

Faculty Honors & Scholarship

Research Spotlight:

Exploring the Legacy of Eugenics

hese days, it’s a rare scientist who would admit to working in eugenics. The word conjures historical horrors: mass sterilization of people judged unfit to reproduce, state anti-miscegenation laws, and Germany’s justification for the Holocaust.

But to Berkeley Law Professor Osagie K. Obasogie, the discredited theory that selective breeding can — and should — be used to improve the human race lives on in hidden but insidious ways. He wants to bring those ideas in science and medicine out of hiding to prevent a repetition of the past.

“Few people today will call themselves eugenicists,” says Obasogie, who also holds a joint appointment at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and the UC Berkeley/UCSF Joint Medical Program. “However, it’s not uncommon for mainstream scientists to embrace some of the ideas, ideologies, and practices that would be eminently familiar to a eugenicist of the past.”

Reproductive technologies that purport to help parents select embryos with particular traits concerning hair or eye color, or create children who might excel at music or sports, might align with eugenic thinking in ways that people might not immediately realize, Obasogie says. He believes such technology must be scrutinized from both a scientific and ethical perspective to avoid the terrible racism and classism that defined eugenics from its founding.

“This idea has been around for a very long time,” he says. “It’s been incredibly harmful and we have to maintain our historical commitment to resisting this way of thinking.”

Toward that end, Obasogie has teamed up with the Los Angeles Review of Books in launching a two-year project called “Legacies of Eugenics.” Its goal is to spark a national conversation on the history of eugenics and the ways it still shapes various aspects of science, medicine, and technology.

Experts from the humanities, medicine, health, social sciences, and other disciplines will contribute a variety of eugenics-related essays to the series, which is supported by the university’s School of Public Health and Othering & Belonging Institute, among others.

Articles will explore the entanglement of eugenics in statistics, the role of eugenics in the founding of Stanford University, researchers’ quest for genes that are associated with high intelligence, and more.

Obasogie’s introductory essay argues that eugenics thinking did not end in the last century, as many believe.

“Eugenics stood for the idea that a person’s abilities and social position were innate traits determined by their biological and genetic makeup, and the same traits would be passed on to their children,” he writes. “Everything from intelligence to poverty to criminality to general morality was thought to be inherited.

“In the late 19th century, when race science was all the rage, eugenics extended the conversation on scientific racism by providing not only a seemingly objective way to understand the achievements of wealthy whites across generations but also an explanation for why poor or disabled people and racial minorities seemed stuck, unable to break what appeared to be inescapable cycles of destitution. In short, biology was thought to be destiny.” — UC Berkeley School of Public Health

Honors Spotlight:

Repeatedly Tapped for Their Expertise

Across their wide-ranging areas of focus, Berkeley Law faculty members continue to be selected for prominent roles and honored for their seminal contributions.

digital illustration of multiple arms putting together a puzzle with a lightbulb with a brain on the side

Illustration by Mohamed Hassan

RISING LEADER: Assistant Clinical Professor Stephanie Campos-Bui ’14, who co-directs the law school’s Policy Advocacy Clinic, won the 2024 Thomas I. Yamashita Prize from Foundations for Change, which honors an emerging social change activist/scholar in California who bridges the academy and the community to transform our social landscape. Campos-Bui guides law and public policy students in addressing systemic racial, economic, and social injustice through various nonlitigation efforts.

VALUED VOICE: Professor Khiara M. Bridges, a leading scholar on race, class, and reproductive rights, was named this year’s Frank R. Lautenberg Award winner by the Rutgers School of Public Health and served as its graduation speaker. The school’s most prestigious award honors those who have made major contributions to public health through program development, advocacy, and capacity building that fuels research, education, and service opportunities.

JUSTICE IN SCIENCE: Human Rights Center Faculty Director Eric Stover won the American Association for the Advancement of Science Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. His renowned work merges pioneering science and technology to hold to account perpetrators of atrocities and advance justice for their victims, including forensic investigations of mass graves. Stover also co-founded a group that won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for striving to ban landmines.

CORPORATE WISDOM: Corporate Practice Commentator named an article by Professors Steven Davidoff Solomon and Adam Badawi and Berkeley Center for Law and Business Senior Fellow Matthew Cain one of the top 10 corporate and securities articles of 2023 — the eighth such honor for Solomon and second for Badawi. Their Journal of Law and Economics piece on changes in Delaware disclosure requirements for fairness opinions in tender offers assesses the impact of voluntary versus mandatory disclosure.

DEMOCRACY DUTY: Professor Emily Rong Zhang is one of the first recipients of Public Agenda’s Democracy Renewal Project grants, which fund studies to fuel universal access to elections. Zhang will help expand an Alliance for Safety and Justice text messaging initiative to enhance political participation among people with criminal records and their families, analyzing whether such outreach from reliable messengers can build trust among a historically underrepresented voting constituency.

BOOKING ACCOLADES: Professor Dylan Penningroth’s book Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights keeps racking up prizes: The Organization of American Historians’ Ellis W. Hawley Prize (best book in U.S. politics and institutions), the Merle Curti Award (best book in American social history), the Langum Foundation’s David J. Langum Sr. Prize in American Legal History, and the Law & Society Association’s J. Willard Hurst Book Prize (best book in socio-legal history).

Scholarship Spotlight:

Taking on Vital Issues With Clarity and Care

Copyright’s impact on political campaigns. The influence of sustainability concerns on corporate governance. AI’s potential to increase health care inequities. When it comes to pressing societal issues, Berkeley Law professors routinely provide important insights, revelations, and guides to potential solutions.

Here’s a quick snapshot of a dozen recent articles that exemplify our faculty’s prolific and meaningful scholarship.

REBECCA WEXLER

Law Enforcement Privilege

Michigan Law Review

The law enforcement privilege doctrine allows police and prosecutors to rely on results of secret investigative methods while withholding information from the defense about how such methods work. Arguing that this risks perpetuating unconstitutional conduct and enabling wrongful convictions, Wexler urges courts to evaluate the marginal risk of leaking posed by in-court disclosure to help detect mistaken, exaggerated, pretextual, or fraudulent claims to the privilege.

JONATHAN S. GOULD

Cost-Benefit Analysis in Polarized Times

Administrative Law Review

Even amid rising polarization, presidential administrations of both parties have used regulatory cost-benefit analysis for decades. Gould explores the factors driving this by examining the parties’ policy agendas and the structure of administrative law. He says the persistence of cost-benefit analysis should not mask the conflicts between the parties over how the method operates in practice. Conflicts will persist as long as the parties continue to maintain sharply divergent regulatory agendas.

COLLEEN V. CHIEN
WITH MIRIAM KIM

Generative AI and Legal Aid: Results From a Field Study and 100 Use Cases to Bridge the Access to Justice Gap

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

The authors probe how AI can help millions of low-income Americans who lack adequate assistance for 90% of their civil legal problems. A novel field study of lawyers and a companion survey of legal aid professionals suggest that generative AI tools can significantly reduce the justice gap when introduced properly. Participants’ experiences support viewing such tools as augmenting rather than threatening lawyers’ work, with potential to dramatically increase service coverage.

JOSÉ ARGUETA FUNES

The Civilization Canon: Common Law, Legislation, and the Case of Hawaiian Adoption

UCLA Law Review

Noting that American legal scholarship largely ignores how empire may shape statutory interpretation, Argueta Funes highlights how legislation and the common law should be studied in their given socio-historical contexts. Examining debates over the meaning of 19th century Hawaiian adoption and descent statutes,he reveals how “imperial anxieties” fueling the push to assimilate Hawaiians to Anglo-American culture shaped how statutes were interpreted.

PAMELA SAMUELSON

Did the Solicitor General Hijack the Warhol v. Goldsmith Case?

Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts

In last year’s case assessing whether Andy Warhol’s 16 visual art works based on a 1981 photo of the music star Prince constituted fair use or infringement, the Office of the Solicitor General’s amicus curiae brief greatly narrowed the case’s scope before the U.S. Supreme Court. Finding the office’s influence “especially troubling given that the U.S. government did not have a meaningful federal interest at stake in the litigation,” Samuelson assesses its motivations and the implications of the Court’s decision for fair use analyses.

STAVROS GADINIS
WITH AMELIA MIAZAD ’02

The ESG Information System

Seattle University Law Review

With investors and consumers increasingly pushing companies to factor environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into their decisions, the business world is seeing more reports touting sustainability credentials. Amid growing greenwashing and accountability concerns, the authors say the ESG information system is modeled on key corporate governance innovations of the last 50 years and reflects a logical evolution of this governance system rather than a threat to it.

JONATHAN D. GLATER

The Elision of Causation in the 2023 Affirmative Action Case

Journal of College and University Law

In finding consideration of race in college admissions unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court did not address a vital aspect of standing doctrine: whether the practice complained of caused the harm alleged. Glater explores the ruling, places it in a pattern of decisions favoring plaintiffs challenging affirmative action efforts, explains why the failure to establish causation is problematic, and notes some undesirable implications of the Court’s reasoning and analysis.

MANISHA PADI
WITH GRACE CHOI

Inclusive Occupational Licensing

California Law Review

Occupational licensing is widely seen as too inefficient, costly, and hurtful to employment opportunities, consumers, and competition. Amid a growing push to limit or repeal licensing regimes, the authors argue that solving these problems lies not in less licensing but more. They use various examples to illustrate how such licensing can effectively bolster workers’ labor market power and diversify a wide range of industries, including those where workers are less educated, lower income, and more vulnerable.

JONAH B. GELBACH
WITH NORA FREEMAN ENGSTROM, DAVID FREEMAN ENGSTROM, AUSTIN PETERS & AARON SCHAFFER-NEITZ

Secrecy by Stipulation

Duke Law Journal

For decades, stipulated protective orders (SPOs) — which require keeping discovery information confidential — have hidden deadly product defects and pervasive abuse from the public. Studying whether the “good cause” requirement for such orders is followed, the authors undertook the first comprehensive accounting of SPOs in federal civil litigation. They found they’re more prevalent than thought, and granted so often that a large share of federal judges have never rejected one.

MARK GERGEN

Equity’s System of Open-Ended Wrongs and Limited Remedies

Texas A&M Law Review

This paper excavates the law of equitable wrongs and their limited remedies, which do not include compensatory damages. Equitable wrongs include duress, taking advantage of someone’s mistake (aka constructive fraud), undue influence, and unconscionability. Gergen argues that these doctrines can be open-ended substantively because of their limited remedies. He also argues that the doctrines have largely retained their traditional form and function in modern U.S. law.

MOLLY VAN HOUWELING

Private-Law Attorneys General

Minnesota Law Review

Van Houweling explains how both copyright and patent owners, granted rights designed to spark investments in works of knowledge and technology, can be understood as “private attorneys general” authorized to bring lawsuits that serve public interests as well as their own. Demonstrating how these rights take the form of private property rights, she assesses the benefits and risks involved — including potential threats private-law attorneys general pose to balanced IP law.

TEJAS N. NARECHANIA

Hamilton’s Copyright and the Election of 1800

Wisconsin Law Review

Copyright is deeply enmeshed in electoral campaigns, from candidates using it to obscure their prior policy statements to local governments using it to protect incumbents by hiding public meeting recordings. Using the story of Alexander Hamilton’s secret, copyrighted pamphlet that was aimed at unseating John Adams atop the Federalist Party (before it got leaked to the opposition), Narechania says public governance interests in political speech should take precedence over copyright’s restraints.

Teaching Spotlight:

Prized Faculty Duo Honored for Classroom Prowess

wo Berkeley Law faculty members were honored last spring for their extraordinary classroom skills: Seth Davis with the school’s Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence and Kristen Holmquist with a UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award.

The latter recognizes a small group of faculty — five this year — from across the university for “sustained excellence in teaching.” Professors must be nominated for the award, submit some course materials, and are observed by multiple former winners. Holmquist is the 18th law school professor to be recognized and fourth to receive a campus-wide award in the last five years.

“I don’t think I knew until it happened how good it would feel to have master teachers recognize me as deserving … To have people who are not part of that relationship watch and say what you’re doing in the classroom works and is important just felt amazing,” she says.

Now faculty director of the school’s Experiential Education Program, Holmquist came to Berkeley Law in 2008 to bolster its Academic Support Program, which provides advising and skills training for law students during their first and most rigorous academic year.

The faculty speaker at the 2014 graduation and the 2017 Rutter Award winner, she teaches Constitutional Law as well as Estates and Trusts, but has also built out a sub-curriculum focused on helping students develop the skills and emotional resilience to be good lawyers and happy people.

“She teaches more than traditional doctrine,” says Traelon Rodgers ’24, who took courses with Holmquist and worked as her teaching assistant. “She goes the extra mile with both assignments and supplemental classes that help students understand what to expect on law school exams, how to pass the bar, and how to be a happy and healthy practitioner. As if being a great professor isn’t enough, she is a wonderful advisor and boss.”

The Rutter Award has been given annually to a law professor since 1995. At the award ceremony, Kelsey Lutgen ’24 and Cameron Washington ’25 offered eloquent praise for Davis’ commitment to students.

“It was very moving to receive the Rutter Award,” he says. “I was especially honored listening to the students who spoke.”

Davis joined the faculty in 2018, regularly teaches Federal Courts and Torts, and is the faculty director of the Center for Indigenous Law and Justice, which launched last fall. A renowned Indian Law scholar, he teaches courses in the field, is the faculty supervisor for the student-led Native American Legal Assistance Project, and helped students revive Berkeley Law’s Native American Law Students Association (NALSA) chapter.

Lutgen spent a lot of time with Davis: He was her Federal Indian Law professor, advised her independent study project as a 3L, and worked extensively with her through NALSA.

“Professor Davis brings a level of compassion, empathy, and humility to the classroom that is uncommon among law school professors,” she says. “Among the many other responsibilities he juggles as an academic, an appellate advocate, and a father, his commitment to the classroom demonstrates that he takes teaching and mentorship very seriously.” — Gwyneth K. Shaw

Seth Davis smiling while holding an award

SHINING BRIGHTLY: Seth Davis is all smiles after the spring Rutter Award ceremony. Photo by Tylor Norwood

Kristen Holmquist smiling in front of a stairwell

CLASS ACT: Kristen Holmquist is one of five UC Berkeley professors recognized with a 2024 Distinguished Teaching Award. Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small

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