The twin impacts of the 2022 elections and the work of the Jan. 6 committee in Congress continue to develop as the new year begins. In this dynamic atmosphere, UCLA School of Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project has assembled a slate of events for the spring semester, kicked off by a conversation with celebrated journalist Rachel Maddow on Jan. 26.

For more than two decades, UCLA School of Law professor Joanna Schwartz has been a leading authority on civil rights, with a focus on police misconduct. In 2020, with the murder of George Floyd and the national reckoning that followed, her work was thrust into the national spotlight.

Key takeaways

On January 20, 2023, faculty at the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit supporting the right of the Environmental Protection Agency to grant a long-held waiver to California to regulate vehicle emissions more stringently than the federal government.

Professor emeritus Herbert Morris, a globally renowned scholar and teacher of law and philosophy and a foundational member of UCLA School of Law’s faculty, died on Dec. 14. He was 94.

An instrumental leader at UCLA for seven decades, Morris earned his bachelor’s degree at UCLA, law degree from Yale Law School and doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University. He joined the faculty of UCLA’s philosophy department in 1956 and the law school in 1962.

For more than half a century, experiential learning has been a cornerstone of the UCLA Law education. Live-client clinics, for example, provide opportunities for students to get real-world legal experience and help underserved communities. Trial advocacy competitions—mock trials—present another way for law students to get experience, essential experience for litigators and trial lawyers and enormously valuable experience for any kind of lawyer.

UCLA School of Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, the leading environmental law and policy program in the country, has received a new $5 million commitment from the Emmett Foundation. The contribution includes a matching opportunity and is the latest of several transformative gifts that the foundation, which is led by Dan and Rae Emmett, has made during nearly 15 years of dedicated engagement with UCLA Law.

Whether you're looking for good reads to add to your winter reading list, or for gifts for the most curious and discerning on your holiday list, consider these recent monographs authored by members of the UCLA Law faculty. Here, you'll find books that span the most important legal issues of our time.

Khaled M. Abou El Fadl