Getting a Different Perspective on Courts

• Jurisdiction: California,United States
• Citation: Vol. 12 No. 2008 Pg. 03
• Publication year: 2008
• Pages: 03
• Year: 2008
• topic: Business of Law,Constitutional Law,Family Law

California Bar Journal 2008.

CBJ - December 2008 #03. Getting a different perspective on courts

California Bar Journal
December 2008

Getting a different perspective on courts

By Diane Curtis
Staff Writer

Former Gov. Pete Wilson made a plea for renewed adherence to the separation of powers. Three state chief justices lamented the politicizing of judicial campaigns. And luminaries from throughout the legal profession tackled such topics as same-sex marriage, the death penalty, family law, mandatory arbitration and application of freedom of speech.

The setting was the University of California Clark Kerr campus for what was billed as the first conference on the California Supreme Court sponsored by the court and UC-Berkeley School of Law.

"I think the conference went very well," said Chief Justice Ronald George. "Ninety-eight percent of all cases are decided in the state courts, and it was worthwhile and illuminating to focus on the work of the California Supreme Court, whose decisions are the most followed by other courts of all the state high courts in the nation," George said. "The conference provided an opportunity for the justices and other judges and lawyers to hear different perspectives on the work of the courts."

Wilson, keynote speaker for the daylong event, took a jocular jibe at the court even as he talked of judicial appointments as being a governor's most important legacy...