Study Hall

Bradt, also the faculty director of the Civil Justice Research Initiative, writes and teaches primarily in the areas of civil procedure, conflict of laws, and civil remedies, with a particular recent interest in multidistrict litigation. Bradt is serving a five-year term as Associate Reporter to the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He joined the faculty in 2012 and won the school’s Rutter Award for Teaching Distinction in 2019.

Dagan, who founded and directs the Berkeley Center for Private Law Theory, arrived in 2023 after more than three decades at Tel Aviv University. A world-renowned scholar of private law theory, his most recent book, Relational Justice: A Theory of Private Law, with co-author Avihay Dorfman, builds on years of their scholarship to lay out a new approach to understanding some of society’s most important touchstones and has drawn rave reviews.

Also the faculty director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business, Gadinis examines questions in corporate law and financial regulation, with a particular emphasis on the interplay between companies and regulators and the framework of enforcement, compliance matters, and risk management. Recently, he has focused on sustainability and social issues as an attempt to expand the scope of corporate governance. Gadinis joined the faculty in 2010.

Linos, also the co-director of the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, joined the faculty in 2010 and was previously the Irving G. and Eleanor D. Tragen Professor of Law. Her research is empirical and focused on developing and applying new qualitative and quantitative methods. Linos teaches International Business Transactions, International Law, European Union Law, and International Organizations, and also hosts the “Borderlines” podcast.

A scholar in the areas of international law, criminal law, and human rights, Mohamed’s research primarily focuses on questions of responsibility for wrongdoing in situations of armed conflict and mass atrocity. Her most recent projects examine how international and domestic law regulate the government’s treatment of its military personnel. A faculty member since 2010, she was a Berlin Prize fellow in 2023 and won the Rutter Award this past spring.

Shachar is an internationally renowned scholar who has taught and published on a wide variety of topics, including American and comparative immigration law and policy, citizenship theory, borders and human rights, transnational law, and women’s rights and religious diversity. A recipient of the prestigious Leibniz Prize, she joined the faculty in 2023 and won the American Political Science Association Migration & Citizenship Career Achievement Award in 2024.

Tyler, previously the Shannon C. Turner Professor of Law, is the inaugural holder of the chair endowed by Tom Clark ’72 to honor his wife, who died in 2022. Tyler’s research and teaching interests include the Supreme Court, federal courts, constitutional law, legal history, civil procedure, and statutory interpretation. She joined the faculty in 2012 and won the Rutter Award in 2020. — Gwyneth K. Shaw

he revival of UC Berkeley Law’s annual Celebration of Faculty Books revealed its professors’ enormous influence. Highlighting seven of their books published since 2022, a different faculty colleague weighed in on each one — and described why it resonated so strongly.

The event helped “recognize the depth, creativity, and impact of our faculty’s prolific work,” said host Jessica Whytock, Associate Dean of the UC Berkeley Law Library.

In American Patent Law: A Business and Economic History, Professor Robert P. Merges — one of the nation’s most-cited scholars in law and technology — supplies the first comprehensive look at the nation’s patent system and patent doctrine since its inception in 1790.

“In the field of patent scholarship, Rob is simply unrivaled in terms of both his significance and his influence — two traits that don’t always go together,” said Lecturer Talha Syed. “He delivers extremely careful analyses of doctrinal subtleties, and he developed and pioneered ways of economic analysis to show larger policy implications.”

Professor Emeritus Melvin Eisenberg’s Legal Reasoning dissects how courts make and apply common law rules. A leading authority on contract law and corporate law, he illuminates reasoning from binding case precedents, authoritative but not binding sources, and more.

Describing Eisenberg as “an absolute giant” and “a mentor to so many,” Professor Christopher Kutz called his book “a deep well of learning” and his concise prose “a treasure.” He said Eisenberg views legal reasoning as more rule-based than deductive, and understands “that law is something not wholly separate from politics and society.”

In Open Hand, Closed Fist: Practices of Undocumented Organizing in a Hostile State, Professor Kathryn Abrams tracks how undocumented activists advanced justice for immigrants. Professor Calvin Morrill said her book “shows how collective agency can not only change political and social institutions, but also enable agency in the individual.”

In No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States, Dean Erwin Chemerinsky argues that the Constitution’s inherent flaws and faulty application have put American democracy in jeopardy. Professor Daniel A. Farber said, “This is not just another academic book, it’s an alarming book.”

In Graphic: Trauma and Meaning in Our Online Lives, Professor Alexa Koenig and Andrea Lampros probe growing exposure to distressing digital imagery and provide science-based ways to minimize harm from investigating human rights abuses online. Professor Laurel E. Fletcher said, “There’s now a teaching responsibility to equip our students with this knowledge.”

In Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights, Professor Dylan C. Penningroth shows how Black people actively used law in their daily lives long before the civil rights movement. Professor José Argeuta Funes said, “His book feels like a friend walking you through a puzzle.”

In Belonging Without Othering: How We Save Ourselves and the World, Professor john a. powell and Stephen Menendian describe the harmful rise in denigrating people and urge expanding a paradigm of belonging. Thelton E. Henderson for Social Justice Executive Director Savala Nolan ’11 hailed the book’s “actionable, affirmative steps we can take as individuals and communities to bridge and connect through our complexities.” — Andrew Cohen