Founded in 2000, the Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law is the premier criminal law review in the western United States. BJCL is at the core of Berkeley's vibrant criminal law community, which also includes the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice, the Death Penalty Clinic, Advocates for Youth Justice, and students who are ideologically diverse but uniformly dedicated to excellence in criminal law.

BJCL provides a vital forum for the discussion of regional, national, and international criminal law issues. Since its inception, the journal has published cutting-edge scholarship by professors, judges, research fellows, clerks, and law students from throughout the country. Submissions from practitioners are also welcomed. BJCL operates under the advisement of Berkeley Law faculty and is available in print (through Vol. 15.1, Spring 2010) and on LexisNexis, Westlaw, and HeinOnline. In addition to its fall and spring issues, BJCL publishes the California Annual Review, a yearly review of the most pressing issues in California criminal law.

If you are interested in submitting your article for BJCL to publish, contact the submissions editors at: bjclsubmissions@law.berkeley.edu

Contact the Editor in Chief at: bjcl@law.berkeley.edu

Current Issue All articles are in PDF format and will open in Adobe Reader. To download this program, visit the Adobe Reader website by clicking here: Exclusion and Control in the Carceral State      Sharon Dolovich - Read Article Reinvigorating Actus Reus: The Case for Involuntary Actions by Veterans with Post-­Traumatic Stress Disorder      Melissa Hamilton - Read Article Hard Lessons: The Role of Law Schools in Addressing Prosecutorial Misconduct      Lara A. Bazelon - Read Article Where We Are with Location Tracking: A Look at the Current Technology and the Implications on Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence      Ian Herbert - Read Article

All of our articles are also available on Lexis and Westlaw.

Volume |1|2|3||5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15


Volume 15
Issue |1|

Issue 2
Fall 2010
Justice John Paul Stevens and Capital Punishment
    Christopher E. Smith

Improbable Cause: A Case for Judging Police by a More Majestic Standard
    Melanie D. Wilson

Independent Appellate Review of Knowledge of Falsity in Defamation and False Statements Cases
    Tung Yin

The Natural and Probable Consequences Doctrine: A Case Study in Failed Law Reform
    Michael G. Heyman


Issue 1
Spring 2010

The Legalization of Marijuana: A Dead-end or the High Road to Fiscal Solvency?
    Michele Patton

Coleman/Plata: Highlighting the Need to Establish an Independent Corrections Commission in California
     Amanda Lopez

Calling Strikes Before He Stepped to the Plate
    Joseph Goldstein-Breyer

Racializing Disability, Disabling Race: Policing Race and Mental Status
    Camille Nelson

People v. Sarun Chun
    David Mishook

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Volume 14
Issue |1|2|

Issue 2
Fall 2009

Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts: Raising the Confrontation Requirements for Forensic Evidence in California
    Justin Chou

Imputed Liability for Supervising Prosecutors: Applying the Military Doctrine of Command Responsibility to Reduce Prosecutorial Misconduct
    Geoffrey S. Corn & Adam M. Gershowitz

Ad Law Incarcerated
    Giovanna Shay

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Issue 1

26 Years of “Truth-in-Evidence:” The Expectations and Consequences of Proposition 8’s Most Controversial Provision
    Diana Friedland

Clemency in California Capital Cases
    Mary-Beth Moylan & Linda E. Carter

Watching Ghosts: Supervised Release of Deportable Defendants
    Thomas Nosewicz

2008 Developments in Juvenile Justice: Realignment, Proposition 6, and Changes to Competency Decisions
    Megan Bordonaro

An Update on the California Prison Crisis and Other Developments in State Corrections Policy
    Greta Bradlee

2008 California Criminal Law Ballot Initiatives
    Ryan Davis

Developments in White Collar Criminal Law and the “Culture of Waiver"
    Lizzy Levin

People v. Chance: Analyzing the Assault Statute’s “Present Ability”
    Stuart Robinson

In re Lawrence and Hayward v. Marshall: Reexamining the Due Process Protections of California Lifers Seeking Parole
    Blaire Russell

Mental Illness in prison: A Growing Threat to Inmate Rehabilitation
    SpearIt

The Potential and Limits of Death Penalty Commissions as Tools for Reform: applying Lessons from Illinois and New Jersey to Understand the California Experience
    Sarah Rose Weinman

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Volume 13

Available at this link using HeinOnline (requires login).

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Volume 12

Available at this link using HeinOnline (requires login).

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Volume 11

Available at this link using HeinOnline (requires login).

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Volume 10

They Can Take Your Body But Not Your Soul-- Or So You Thought--The Third Circuit's Application of the Turner Standard in Prisoners' Free Exercise Cases
    Tara Kao

Protecting the Waterfront: Prosecuting Mob-Tied Union Officials Under the Hobbs Act and RICO after Scheidler
    Ehren Park Reynolds

Fourth Amendment Reasonableness: Why Utah Courts Should Embrace the Community Caretaking Exception to the Warrant Requirement
    Matthew Bell

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Volume 9

Fidos and Fi-don’ts: Why the Supreme Court Should Have Found a Search in Illinois v. Caballes
    Nina Paul* & Will Trachman**

More Questions than Answers: The Indeterminacy Surrounding Enemy Combatants Following Hamdi v. Rumsfeld
    Vijay Sekhon

California's Proposition 36 and the War on Drugs
    Christine Watson

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Volume 8

The Jurisprudence of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
    Christopher Slobogin

Irreconcilable Differences: The Ninth CIrcuit's Conflicting Case Law Regarding Mutually Exclusive Defenses of Criminal CoDefendants
    Scott Hamilton Dewey

Is the Constitution in Harm’s Way?
Substantive Due Process and Criminal Law
    Eric Tennen

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Volume 7

Post-War Iraq: Prosecuting Saddam Hussein
    L. Elizabeth Chamblee

Adnan Award: The Forgotten Informant
    Brian H. Potts

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Volume 6

Giving Ex-Felons the Right to Vote
    Scott M. Bennett

Justice Department's Policy Of Opposing Nolo Contendere Pleas: A Justification
    Mark Gurevich

Ten Years Of Court-Supervised Reform: A Chronicle And Assessment
    James B. Jacobs* & Kristin Stohner**

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Volume 5

Watching Legislatures for Apprendi’s Effects on Plea Bargaining
    Darryl K. Brown

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Volume 4

Is There Such a Thing as "Virtual Crime"?
    Susan W. Brenner

Toiling of the AEDPA Statute of Limitations: Bennett, Walker and the Equitable Last Resort
    Virginia E. Harper-Ho

Fetal Endangerment: A Challenge For Criminal Law
    Robert G. Costello

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Volume 3

Sanctum for the War Criminal: Extradition Law and the International Criminal Court
    Sunil Kumar Gupta

The Dutch Approach to Stalking Laws
    Lambèr Royakkers

Stigma: A More Efficient Alternative to Fines In Deterring Corporate Misconduct
    Darlene. R. Wong

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Volume 2

Consistency and Fairness in Sentencing - The Splendor of Fixed Penalties
    Mirko Bagaric

Resisting Unlawful Arrest in Mississippi: Resisting the Modern Trend
    Craig Hemmens

Victim Impact Statements Considered in Sentencing: Constitutional Concerns
    Mark Stevens

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Volume 1

Using International Law to Defend the Accused
    Diane Marie Amann,* Cynthia R.L. Fairweather,** & Vivian     Rhoe***

Like Oil and Water: Medical and Legal Competency in Capital Appeal Waivers
    Michelle C. Goldbach

Mental Illness and the Death Penalty
    Christopher Slobogin

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The Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law publishes on an ongoing basis and is completely digital (though authors can get hard-copy prints). Our Fall edition is published in January and our Spring Edition is published in June. Authors who would like to submit articles for consideration should follow the instructions below.

We seek submissions from scholars, students, and practitioners in both the private and public sectors. In addition to traditional scholarly articles, BJCL will consider book reviews, practice-oriented pieces, and student notes. While the journal publishes work covering a broad range of traditional topics in both substantive and procedural criminal law, we are also interested in articles that discuss issues unique to California and other western states.

The Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law is currently accepting submissions for publication in our 15th edition (to be published in January 2011). 

BJCL welcomes submissions from professors, practitioners, research fellows, clerks, and judges.

BJCL is one of the first legal journals to have instituted a Faculty Advisory Committee, which reviews articles we accept for publication. If you publish with our journal, you will have the benefit of peer review of your scholarship by leading criminal law faculty at Boalt Hall.

Please e-mail submissions to our Submissions Editor at: bjclsubmissions@law.berkeley.edu.

Thank you for your interest in publishing with BJCL.

Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice

The intellectual hub of the law school's vibrant social justice community, the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice is a training and research center that prepares the next generation of lawyers to represent underserved communities and produces innovative and accessible scholarship on issues of race, sex and poverty.

Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice

The mission of the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice is to enhance public safety and foster a fair and accountable justice system through research, analysis, and collaboration.

Berkeley Law Homepage

Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law
West Wing Suite #39
Berkeley Law School
Berkeley, CA 94720
Phone: (510) 642-3652
E-mail: bjcl@law.berkeley.edu

Thank you for your interest in the Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law. If you are a Berkeley Law student interested in joining our team, contact the EIC at bjcl@law.berkeley.edu for more information.

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