Welcome to the Center for the Study of Law and Society (CSLS)

Hank Willis Thomas 'Raise Up' Statue, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery Alabama (Getty Images)

Criminal Justice

Hank Willis Thomas 'Raise Up' Statue, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery Alabama (Getty Images)

Lighting the World Protesting Darkness, Fayek Tasneem Khan (Getty Images)

Democracy and Civil Society

Lighting the World Protesting Darkness, Fayek Tasneem Khan (Getty Images)

Martin Luther King Jr's speech 'I Have A Dream' at the Lincoln Memorial (public domain)

Inequality

Martin Luther King Jr's speech 'I Have A Dream' at the Lincoln Memorial (public domain)

The Center for the Study of Law and Society

The Center supports theoretically-based, empirical research on new developments at the interplay of law and society in contemporary and historical contexts.  While part of Berkeley's School of Law, the Center fosters a multidisciplinary context in which UC Berkeley faculty and graduate students from many departments interact and engage with visiting socio-legal scholars from universities in the United States and abroad.

Share your memories and reflections about Laurie Edelman here.

A Tribute to Professor Lauren Edelman by CSLS Faculty Director, KT Albiston

I write with a heavy heart to report the untimely death of our dear colleague and friend Laurie Edelman. An exceptional scholar, she developed the field of law and organizations through her pathbreaking and award-winning scholarship about civil rights laws and work organizations. Empirically sophisticated and theoretically rich, her work helped explain why civil rights laws failed to bring about promised change. More than an internationally recognized scholar, Laurie was also an extraordinarily generous mentor, colleague, and friend. She served the field in so many ways, from helping to found the ASA Sociology of Law Section, serving as President of the Law & Society Association and on numerous LSA committees, serving on the National Science Foundation Law and Social Science Program Panel, on the Board of the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, and on the Board of the American Bar Foundation, and on the editorial boards of the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, and Contemporary Sociology, among others. She also was a generous mentor to junior scholars and graduate students across the country, taking time from her own work to counsel young scholars on research design and funding, grant applications, the tenure process, and publishing. She founded mentoring programs for junior faculty both in the ASA Sociology of Law Section and the Law & Society Association, and she was especially enthusiastic in promoting the careers of young scholars of color. Every time I talked to her, she was offering comments on someone’s paper or grant proposal or serving on a national committee or writing a tenure letter or peer review. In recent years, she led the Legal Studies honors program, mentoring young scholars in their undergraduate careers. It is hard to comprehend such a devastating loss for Berkeley Law, JSP, CSLS, LSA and the broader law and society community. We are grateful for the time we had with her, and we will always remember her generosity, kindness, and brilliance. The memorial service for Laurie Edelman will be held on Tuesday, April 4, at 4:00 p.m. in the Warren Room at Berkeley Law. The service will be streaming live on youtube as well. You can find the link here.

See our full CSLS Fall Speaker Series line up here! (events are in person and livestreamed via Zoom with lunch provided)

November 13, 2023 CSLS Speaker Series Event

"The Hamster Wheel Is on Fire:
How the Pandemic Amplified Inequality in the Academy"

Tonya Brito
Burrus-Bascom Professor of Law,
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Daniela Campos Ugaz
Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology,
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Cathy Hu 
Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology, UC Berkeley

Catherine Albiston
Jackson H. Ralston Professor of Law and Professor of Sociology, Faculty Director of CSLS,
Berkeley Law

For the event flyer, click here. 
Philip Selznick Seminar Room
2240 Piedmont Avenue
Time:
 Reception: Lunch 12:15-12:45 p.m. 
Program: 12:45 p.m.-2:00 p.m.

CSLS former and current Faculty and Executive Directors

Please consider making a donation to support CSLS.  

Donate $100 dollars or more and you will receive a CSLS t-shirt!  

Funds will support BELS Fellows, JSP Students, 60th anniversary conference, and crucial and timely programming focused on our three pillars of Criminal Justice, Inequality, and Democracy and Civil Society.