Kate Bloch

Bio

Kate Bloch is a Professor of Law and holds a Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair.  Her scholarly interests include criminal law, procedure, and practice, the intersection of virtual reality and criminal justice, as well as legal ethics and education. She is a recipient of the Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching and the UC Law SF 1066 Foundation Faculty Award for scholarship. In 1997, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald M. George appointed Professor Bloch to the Judicial Council Task Force on Jury Instructions. As a member of its Criminal Instructions Subcommittee, she helped draft the CALCRIM instructions, which now serve as the official instructions for use in criminal trials throughout California. For over a decade, Professor Bloch has been working with colleagues in the U.S. and at UC Law SF’s partner law school, L’École Supérieure Catholique de Droit de Jérémie (ESCDROJ), to help ESCDROJ establish what is believed to be the only operating in-house law school legal aid clinic in Haiti. In 2018, the U.S. Embassy in Haiti awarded paired grants to UC Law SF and ESCDROJ. These grants are designed to advance clinical legal education in Haiti, and Professor Bloch directs substantive implementation of the UC Law SF grant.

Professor Bloch received her undergraduate education at Washington University in St. Louis as an Arnold J. Lien merit scholar. Before departing Washington University, she completed an M.A. in French. During her student days in St. Louis, she was invited to join Phi Beta Kappa and played on an intramural inner tube water polo team. Once in California, Professor Bloch attended Stanford Law School, where she was a Senior Note Editor on the Stanford Law Review. Following graduation and the California Bar, Professor Bloch clerked as a Court Law Clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In that role, she had the privilege of working with a number of judges, including The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Prior to joining the UC Law SF faculty, she represented the People of the State of California as a Deputy District Attorney for the County of Santa Clara.

Selected Scholarship

Books

Criminal Law: A Contemporary Approach: Cases, Statutes, and Problems (Aspen Publishers 2005) (with Kevin C. McMunigal). AMAZON

Journal Articles

Untangling Right from Wrong in Insanity Law: of Dogs, Wolves, & God, 73 Hastings L.J. 4 (2022). FULLTEXT

Virtual Reality: Prospective Catalyst for Restorative Justice, 58 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 285 (2021). FULLTEXT SSRN

Harnessing Virtual Reality to Prevent Prosecutorial Misconduct, 32 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 1 (2019). FULLTEXT SSRN

Human Rights from the Ground Up: Building the First Law School Legal Aid Clinic in Haiti, 20 U. Pa. J.L. & Soc. Change 217 (2017) (with Roxane Edmond-Dimanche). FULLTEXT

Bridging Rule of Law Theory and Implementation: The Role of Professional Ethical Integrity, 39 Hastings Int’l & Comp. L. Rev. 81 (2016). FULLTEXT

Legal Indeterminacy in Insanity Cases: Clarifying Wrongfulness and Applying a Triadic Approach to Forensic Evaluations, 67 Hastings L.J. 913 (2016) (with Jeffrey Gould). FULLTEXT

The Rule of Law and Ethical Integrity: Does Haiti Need a Code of Legal Ethics?, 37 U. Haw. L. Rev. 1 (2015) (with Roxane Edmond-Dimanche). FULLTEXT

Representation for the Accused: Haiti’s Thirst and a Role for Clinical Legal Education, 14 Or. Rev. Int’l L. 430 (2013). FULLTEXT

Creating a Clearinghouse to Evaluate Environmental Risks to Fetal Development, 63 Hastings L.J. 1571 (2012). FULLTEXT URL

Changing the Topography of Sentencing, 7 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 185 (2010). FULLTEXT

Mr. Pendleton’s Rainbows: On the Value of Teaching Abroad, 29 Penn St. Int’l L. Rev. 275 (2010). FULLTEXT

Reconceptualizing Restorative Justice, 7 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 201 (2010). FULLTEXT

Cognition and Star Trek: Learning and Legal Education, 42 J. Marshall L. Rev. 959 (2009). FULLTEXT

Subjunctive Lawyering and Other Clinical Extern Paradigms, 3 Clinical L. Rev. 259 (1997). FULLTEXT

A Rape Law Pedagogy, 7 Yale J.L. & Feminism 307 (1995). FULLTEXT

Fifth Amendment Compelled Statements: Modeling the Contours of Their Protected Scope, 72 Wash. U. L.Q. 1603 (1994). FULLTEXT

Police Officers Accused of Crime: Prosecutorial and Fifth Amendment Risks Posed by Police-Elicited “Use Immunized” Statements, 1992 U. Ill. L. Rev. 625 (1992). FULLTEXT

Chapters In Books

Intellectual Treasure Hunts, in Teaching the Law School Curriculum 163 (Steven I. Friedland & Gerald F. Hess eds., Carolina Academic Press 2004). CATALOG

The Challenging Student, in Teaching the Law School Curriculum 159 (Steven I. Friedland & Gerald F. Hess eds., Carolina Academic Press 2004). CATALOG

Three Pillars of the Classroom Community: Demystification, Rapport, and Engagement, in Teaching the Law School Curriculum 159 (Steven I. Friedland & Gerald F. Hess eds., Carolina Academic Press 2004). CATALOG

Student Notes/Comments

Note, The Role of Law in Suicide Prevention: Beyond Civil Commitment—A Bystander Duty to Report Suicide Threats, 39 Stan. L. Rev. 929 (1987). HEIN WL

Education

• Stanford Law School
  J.D., Law

• Washington University in St. Louis
  M.A., French

• Washington University in St. Louis
  B.A., Undergraduate Studies