News and Events

Join us in a co-sponsored event with the Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies:

Proposition 40, the California Billionaire Tax Act, is on the ballot this November. Join us as we learn about the proposals on the ballot, including Prop. 40 and related Propositions 41 and 42. Professor Darien Shanske will provide insight into the initiative drafting process. Professor Vik Amar will discuss the initiative process, its challenges, and the opportunities it provides for California voters. 

Darien Shanske is Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at King Hall. An expert on taxation, local government law, public finance, and political theory, he takes an exceptionally long view of jurisprudence, informed by his scholarship on ancient Athens. Prior to becoming a professor, he worked as a financial consultant to California local governments and as an attorney in the public finance department of Sidley Austin in San Francisco before clerking for Judge Pierre N. Leval of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Some of his current projects are on the local property tax, the state and local fiscal relationship, the fiscal constitution of California, and the role of reciprocity in Aristotle.

Vikram D. Amar is Daniel J. Dykstra Distinguished Professor of Law at King Hall. He is one of the most respected, and most frequently cited, authorities on constitutional law, federal courts, and civil procedure. In addition to co-authoring leading textbooks on constitutional law, federal practice and procedure, and civil procedure, he has published more than 60 articles in leading law reviews and frequently comments for the media. He served as Dean and Iwan Foundation Professor of Law at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign College of Law for eight years. Before that, he was a King Hall professor and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. He clerked for Judge William A. Norris of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court.

Lunch provided. Co-sponsored by the UC Davis Labor and Community Center and the Aoki Center on Race and Nation Studies.

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