Regarding the “Litigating Palestine” Conference

Friday, March 25, 2011

Frank H. Wu, Chancellor & Dean, today announced the following:

UC Hastings is pleased to serve as the venue for the "Litigating Palestine" conference today. While UC Hastings understands that the subject of today's conference is controversial and prompts strong feelings on all sides, among our responsibilities as an academic institution is to convene conferences that bring together our own professors with their peers from around the nation and throughout the world. Our success in doing so promotes not only ideas, but also the institution. At the same time, it is a fundamental principle of academic freedom that by hosting such a conference, the institution is not endorsing the views of any speaker or taking sides on the issues addressed at the conference.

Those principles are expressed in a resolution enacted by the UC Hastings Board of Directors in an emergency session held last night, which reads as follows:

BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Directors of the University of California Hastings College of the Law in its EMERGENCY CLOSED SESSION that it is in agreement that the College should take all steps necessary to remove the UC Hastings name and brand from the "Litigating Palestine" conference. By taking this action, the Board strongly endorses the principles of academic freedom and the process used to determine which conferences to present. It is the Board's position that a decision by the College to host or financially support an academic conference does not constitute endorsement of any viewpoints expressed at a conference, or the academic goals of the conference.

Adopted this 24th day of March, 2011 by majority vote of the Board of Directors.

Consistent with this resolution, today's conference is being held at UC Hastings and is being webcast per prior agreement with registrants unable to attend in person. In addition, the administration at UC Hastings has either removed or revised all print and digital materials associated with the conference to clarify that UC Hastings is not sponsoring it.