Michal R. Belknap

Earl Warren Professor of Law
Chair, J.D./Ph.D. Dual Degree Program
in History
Adjunct Professor of History,
University of California, San Diego

J.D. University of Texas
M.A. Ph.D. University of Wisconsin [history]
B.A. University of California, Los Angeles [history]

Courses Taught: Criminal Law, American Legal History II, Constitutional Law I & II, Constitutional Law Seminar

Professor Belknap is an historian-turned-lawyer. After earning his Bachelor of Arts, he studied American Legal History at the University of Wisconsin. While teaching history at the University of Texas, he earned his Juris Doctor at its law school. Before joining the California Western faculty in 1986, Belknap also taught history at the University of Georgia and law at the University of Houston and Seton Hall University, where he was the Richard J. Hughes Distinguished Visiting Professor.

Belknap is an adjunct professor of history at the University of California, San Diego, and taught public law in New Zealand as part of California Western's exchange program with Victoria University. His particular interest is the history of civil rights and civil liberties in 20th century America, an area in which he has written extensively. This includes teaching a seminar commemorating the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, as well as writing an article on the topic. In addition to his regular law school courses, Belknap teaches the special Summer Enrichment Program for newly admitted students.

Selected Publications

• THE SUPREME COURT AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE: THE WARREN COURT REVOLUTION (2011).
• Why Dennis v. United States is a Landmark Case, 34 J. SUPREME COURT HISTORY 289 (2009).
• THE SUPREME COURT UNDER EARL WARREN (2005).
• THE VINSON COURT: Justices, Rulings and Legacy (2004).
• "The Real Significance of Brown v. Board of Education: The Genesis of the Warren Court's Quest for Equality," 50 Wayne Law Review 863 (2004).
• "Alarm Bells from the Past: The Troubling History of American Military Commissions," 28 Journal of Supreme Court History (2003). 
• THE VIETNAM WAR ON TRIAL: The My Lai Massacre and the Court Martial of Lieutenant Calley (2002). 
• "A Putrid Pedigree: The Bush Administration's Military Tribunals in Historical Perspective," 38 California Western Law Review 433 (2002).

Podcasts

The Dormant Commerce Clause Part I
The Dormant Commerce Clause Part II

Class Webpages

• American Legal History II: Civil War to Present Spring 2013 
• Constitutional Law I Spring 2013 
• Constitutional Law II Review Summer 2010
• Second Amendment Seminar Fall 2010
• Constitutional Law II  (updated 3/31/09)
• (UCSD) & HIUS 151 
• Constitution Law I  

mbelknap@cwsl.edu  
619-525-1457
225 Cedar Street
San Diego, CA 92101

Publications

Class Webpages