David Sklansky Explains Shortcomings of Justice Department’s Public Integrity Unit

The New York Times, May 8, 2009 by Charlie Savage
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/us/politics/08justice.html?_r=1&ref=us&pagewanted=print\

“What you are having is a kind of organizational failure,” said David A. Sklansky, a Berkeley law professor and former federal prosecutor. Mr. Sklansky said the pressure to bring cases coupled with the erosion of “the institutional memory of the unit and the availability of prosecutors with seasoned, detached judgment” had created an ideal environment for mistakes like the disclosure violations.

Robert Cole Supports Campus Inquiry into Ethics of Legal Memos

Associated Press, May 7, 2009 by Terence Chea
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ca_interrogation_memos;_ylt=AmVhlsSSV22c8A8hUodFphHZn414

Robert Cole, a professor emeritus at Berkeley’s law school, said he believes the university should conduct its own investigation to determine if Yoo’s work for the Bush administration violated the campus’ faculty code of conduct.
“The university has got to protect its integrity,” Cole said. “Every professor we put in the classroom has to have professional competence and ethical integrity.”

Jonathan Simon Deplores Failings of “Tough on Crime” Rhetoric

UC Berkeley NewsCenter, May 7, 2009 by Cathy Cockrell
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/05/07_crime2.shtml

“When we say that we want government to be tough on crime, we mean that we want prison sentences to be long and the rhetoric to be sharp. But we don’t actually hold government accountable for reducing crime. If we did, we wouldn’t put up with prisons that produce 70 percent recidivism rates. We would long ago have said ‘Why are we building and supporting these prisons if they’re failing most of the time?’ Instead we’ve been satisfied with the rhetoric of toughness, and an emotional appeal to solidarity with the victim and disparaging disdain for the offender. We’ve taken government off the hook.”

Chris Kutz Notes Problems with Privately Funded University Research

The Daily Californian, May 6, 2009 by Carol Yur
http://www.dailycal.org/article/105588/increased_role_of_private_funding_concerns_some_ca

One concern with privately funded research is that companies want immediate gains, which may conflict with the university’s interests, said Christopher Kutz, a Boalt Hall School of Law professor and vice chairman of the campus’s Academic Senate. “There are some special concerns about private corporate funding having to do with short-term profit interest,” he said. “Finding an intersection with short-term interests with the university’s interest can be challenging, but I think it’s also possible.”

Alan Auerbach Explains Why Big Business Opposes International Tax Reform

Forum with Michael Krasny, May 6, 2009 Host Michael Krasny
http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R905060900

“We have this way of thinking of corporations as having a national identity: American corporations, German corporations, and so forth. But corporations can move or new corporations can chose where to locate, and what we are talking about here is raising the taxes on certain American corporations. And there are corporations that are based in other countries that will not be affected by this. So the corporations that have been expressing concern are thinking not only perhaps about moving themselves but also about losing their competitive edge to their competitors in other countries.”

Robert Infelise Believes High Court Ruling Ignored Intent of Superfund Law

San Francisco Daily Journal, May 5, 2009 by Lawrence Hurley
http://www.dailyjournal.com (requires registration; go to G:\Law School in the News\News Clips for article)

For Robert D. Infelise, who teaches environmental law at UC Berkeley School of Law, the decision marks “a dramatic change in the law.” For the first time, the court has held that a company has to show intent to pollute in order to be found liable as an arranger, he said. That is contrary to the intent of the Superfund statute, which was designed as a “very large dragnet,” Infelise added.

Jesse Fried Points Out Potential Impact of Auto Bankruptcies on Ford

San Francisco Chronicle, May 3, 2009 by Kathleen Pender
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/03/BURT17CSR8.DTL&type=printable

Normally, when a company files for bankruptcy, others in the industry benefit “because it takes out a competitor,” says Jesse Fried, a bankruptcy-law professor at UC Berkeley. Even if the failed company attempts to reorganize, “it usually shrinks and becomes a less potent competitor,” Fried says.