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Brain Science for Judges

FREE
  • Instructor(s):  BJI

Program occurred August 9. 2024 Event Information Are you seeing more issues involving neuroscience coming into court?  It’s not just your imagination! Want help in better understanding neuroscience evidence?  Please join Berkeley Judicial Institute, moderator Professor Emily Murphy and authors Professors Owen Jones , Jeffrey Schall, Francis Shen, Morris Hoffman, and Anthony Wagner for a discussion of BRAIN SCIENCE for Lawyers, Judges and Policymakers. From the publisher's page:Brain Science for Lawyers, Judges, and Policymakers Owen D. Jones, Jeffrey D. Schall, Francis X. Shen, Morris B. Hoffman, and Anthony D. Wagner Provides a user-friendly introduction to brain science; no prior knowledge of brain science is required  Offers comprehensive and clear overviews of brain anatomy, brain function, and brain-imaging technologies  Written by a team of leading neurolaw scholars and scientists, who among them work in law, psychology, evolutionary biology, and neuroscience  Includes more than 20 detailed illustrations and an extensive glossary of terms  For more, see: Excerpt from the book: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4757769   Law and Neuroscience: Progress, Promise, and Pitfalls https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3178272

  • On-Demand
    Format
  • 76
    Min.
  • 12/31/30
    Avail. to
  • DETAILS
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Collaborative Courts—the experience in Northern District of California

FREE
  • Instructor(s):  BJI

Join Berkeley Judicial Institute’s Director of Research Katherine Hood as she interviews Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler and A Curiae’s Wyatt Lim-Tepper as they talk about the experience of building and maintaining collaborative courts in the Northern District of California.

  • On-Demand
    Format
  • 71
    Min.
  • 12/31/30
    Avail. to
  • DETAILS
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Judging AI: How to Use It, When to Doubt It, and How to Catch It Hallucinating

FREE
  • Instructor(s):  BJI

Monday, October 20, 2025 | 12:00 P.M. (PT) | 75 minutes | Zoom 1.25 Technology CA CLE Credit Available Program Information | Resources Please join BJI, Judge Frank Volk and Professor Amy Cyphert for a session you don’t want to miss! Generative AI is rapidly transforming the legal landscape, and judges are increasingly confronted with both its promise and its perils. This compact program will describe what Generative AI is, the emerging law and ethical considerations, and provide practical demonstrations of how the major AI platforms actually work—and how judges can responsibly and ethically use them. Through multimedia and conventional illustrations, the presenters will show where these tools can add value in chambers and where caution is warranted. Special emphasis will be placed on strategies to identify and prevent “hallucinations” from finding their way into judicial opinions. The session will balance a candid discussion of risks with a clear-eyed look at the benefits, giving judges the insight they need to evaluate generative AI in their own work. Special thanks to colleagues at the Federal Judicial Center, who worked with faculty to develop earlier iterations of this program. Those programs earned rave reviews!

  • On-Demand
    Format
  • 75
    Min.
  • 12/2/30
    Avail. to
  • DETAILS
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Promoting Hope and Opportunity in the Justice System: Mama Love and the Gemma Project

FREE
  • Instructor(s):  BJI

Occurred on June 28, 2024 Event Information Interested in providing more hope and opportunity in the justice system? Please join Berkeley Judicial Institute and Moderator Judge Laurel Beeler for what promises to be an uplifting discussion.  Lara Love Hardin will talk about her compelling and best-selling memoir, The Many Lives of Mama Love.  Ms. Hardin and Cynthia Chase will talk about The Gemma Project.

  • On-Demand
    Format
  • 72
    Min.
  • 12/31/30
    Avail. to
  • DETAILS
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Seating Juries

FREE
  • Instructor(s):  BJI

Program recorded on September 1, 2023 Please join Judge Beth Freeman and Judge Trina Thompson as they consider and discuss ways to seat a jury.     They will talk about: Advantages and disadvantages of different practices Their experience of what works best for potential jurors, for the parties, the lawyers and the judges Northern District of California’s experience Learn more about the Northern District of California jury practice.

  • On-Demand
    Format
  • 67
    Min.
  • 12/31/30
    Avail. to
  • DETAILS
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UNFORGIVING PLACES

FREE
  • Instructor(s):  BJI

Monday, July 28, 202512:00 p.m. (PT) | Virtual: Zoom 1.25 General CLE Credit Available Program Information Please join Berkeley Judicial Institute as Judge Brett Alldredge (ret.) is in conversation with Dr. Jens Ludwig about Dr. Ludwig’s book UNFORGIVING PLACES. From the publisher’s page: What if everything we understood about gun violence was wrong? In 2007, economist Jens Ludwig moved to the South Side of Chicago to research two big questions: Why does gun violence happen, and is there anything we can do about it? Almost two decades later, the answers aren’t what he expected. Unforgiving Places is Ludwig’s revelatory portrait of gun violence in America’s most famously maligned city. Disproving the popular narrative that shootings are the calculated acts of malicious or desperate people, Ludwig shows how most shootings actually grow out of a more fleeting source: interpersonal conflict, especially arguments. By examining why some arguments turn tragic while others don’t, Ludwig shows gun violence to be more circumstantial—and more solvable—than our traditional approaches lead us to believe. Read this Malcolm Gladwell New Yorker article about the book.   The session will be recorded, and the recording will be posted on our website.

  • On-Demand
    Format
  • 70
    Min.
  • 12/31/30
    Avail. to
  • DETAILS
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Unjust Debts

FREE
  • Instructor(s):  BJI

Program occurred August 16, 2024 co-sponsored by Civil Justice Research Initiative Event Information Join Berkeley Judicial Institute and Berkeley Law bankruptcy guru Professor Abbye Atkinson as we talk to University of North Carolina School of Law's Professor Melissa Jacoby about her book, UNJUST DEBTS. From the publisher's page: UNJUST DEBTS:How Our Bankruptcy System Makes America More Unequal A groundbreaking look at the hidden role of bankruptcy in perpetuating inequality in America, from an expert in the field Bankruptcy is the busiest federal court in America. In theory, bankruptcy in America exists to cancel or restructure debts for people and companies that have way too many—a safety valve designed to provide a mechanism for restarting lives and businesses when things go wrong financially. In this brilliant and paradigm-shifting book, legal scholar Melissa B. Jacoby shows how bankruptcy has also become an escape hatch for powerful individuals, corporations, and governments, contributing in unseen and poorly understood ways to race, gender, and class inequality in America. When cities go bankrupt, for example, police unions enjoy added leverage while police brutality victims are denied a seat at the negotiatingtable; the system is more forgiving of civil rights abuses than of the parking tickets disproportionately distributed in African American neighborhoods. Across a broad range of crucial issues, Unjust Debts reveals the hidden mechanisms by which bankruptcy impacts everything from sexual harassment to health care, police violence to employment discrimination, and the opioid crisis to gun violence. In the tradition of Matthew Desmond’s groundbreaking EVICTED is a riveting and original work of accessible scholarship with huge implications for ordinary people and will set the terms of debate for this vital subject. For more: Fake and Real People in Bankruptcy, Melissa B. Jacoby   https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4228047

  • On-Demand
    Format
  • 60
    Min.
  • 12/31/30
    Avail. to
  • DETAILS
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Virtually As Good? Psychological and Practical Issues in Online Communication and Mediation

FREE
  • Instructor(s):  BJI

Friday, July 18, 2025 | 12:00 p.m. (PT) | Zoom General CLE Credit Available Program Information | Resources How do our brains work differently in the online environment?  What implications does that have for trust formation in a settlement context? Which parties gain an upper hand by bargaining remotely? Please join the Berkeley Judicial Institute as Moderator Judge Anuradha Vaitheswaran (ret.) talks to mediator and adjunct law professor L. Craig Nierman about what the empirical evidence shows and how we can apply practical solutions.

  • On-Demand
    Format
  • 70
    Min.
  • 12/31/30
    Avail. to
  • DETAILS