Criminal Justice Center and Habeas Institute

Mission

The mission of the Criminal Justice Center is to create a center of gravity for criminal law teaching and scholarship on campus, linking the Criminal Law Concentration, student organizations, faculty, and alumni via communications and programming. The Habeas Institute is a key stream of work to advance the Center’s goals. 

The mission of the Habeas Institute is to engage in the litigation, teaching, and study of immigration habeas corpus proceedings. This past year, the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic has litigated fifteen habeas corpus cases in federal court, resulting in the release of fourteen clients from ICE detention. The Habeas Institute, in partnership with the Clinic, is a member of the Bay Area Habeas Network (“BAHN”), which consists of legal non-profits that respond to, and challenge, unlawful ICE detentions in the Bay Area. As part of this network, the Habeas Institute and Clinic engage in direct representation of clients who have been unlawfully detained by ICE, filing habeas petitions and emergency motions on their behalf in the Northern District of California and other federal courts.