This is a year of many milestones for California Western School of Law including the 10th anniversary of Proyecto ACCESO, a rule of law training program which works with lawyers, judges, and government officials in Latin America. The project is fueled by the work of California Western professors, students, and members of the local bench and bar [...]

This month, California Western and UC San Diego announced the creation of a joint committee to explore an affiliation which could lead to a law school at UC San Diego. It’s not a new idea-officials from both schools explored the idea in the early 1980s-but the proposal holds enormous potential for the future of both [...]

As San Diego is faced with the reality of chronic budget shortfalls and a multi-billion dollar pension defict, one has to wonder – why doesn’t San Diego just declare bankruptcy and fix its financial woes? Professor Scott Ehrlich, co-author of Business Planning, discusses the benefits of declaring bankruptcy and the politics of such a move.
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Law schools are traditionally known for preparing graduates well-versed in cases and concepts taught in the classroom. However, widely respected reports encourage greater emphasis on skills training and problem solving. 
California Western is on the leading edge of an emerging trend in American legal education with STEPPS, a two-course program aimed at preparing students for the ethical and [...]

Earlier this month, the California Supreme Court heard arguments in a case regarding whether Sexually Violent Predators can be civilly committed in California for an indefinite period of time. A ruling by the state high court will determine the constitutionality of Proposition 83, better known as Jessica’s Law, passed by state voters in 2006.
This episode [...]

Nearly 15 years after the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, one of the campaign’s alleged chief architects is on trial in The Hague. Radovan Karadzic, leader of the Serb Republic, faces 11 war crimes charges stemming from the Bosnian War of the early and mid [...]

Last week, the Senate Finance Committee voted in favor of a health care reform package, a key vote in the push to overhaul the nation’s health care system. While the bill’s passage was a major victory, considering that the committee killed a similar reform effort 15 years ago, this legislation is not out of the [...]

Advances in DNA testing have revolutionized the criminal justice system, exonerating the wrongly convicted and identifying suspects in cases stalled for years due to insufficient evidence.
Of course, those revelations only happen if the DNA is actually tested. Last year, police and sheriff officials in Los Angeles acknowledged a backlog of nearly [...]

Since the launch of Operation Gatekeeper in 1994, the number of people caught illegally entering the United States from Mexico has dropped by 50%.  Increased enforcement at the western end of the border pushed determined border crossers east into the desert. Between 300 and 500 men and women die each year while [...]

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the California Innocence Project, located at California Western School of Law. In that time, thousands of inmates claiming innocence and their families have contacted the project seeking assistance. Innocence Project staff and students spend many more thousands of hours investigating those claims, taking on cases where innocence is [...]