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Richard
Boswell

Professor of Law

  • Office 334-200
  • Email Address boswellr@uchastings.edu
  • Telephone (415) 565-4633
  • Follow Me on LinkedIn
  • Follow Me on Twitter

Biography

Professor Boswell joined the full-time faculty at UC Hastings after teaching as a visiting professor in 1990. He received his B.A. in Urban Economics from Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles and his J.D. from the George Washington University National Law Center where he was a member of the Journal of International Law & Economics. He was in private practice and later joined the faculty of the George Washington University National Law Center where he founded the law school’s immigration clinic and directed their Trial Practice Program. Working his way west, he joined the law faculty at the Notre Dame in 1986.

Professor Boswell has written extensively in the field of immigration law and is the author of 10 books and more than 15 articles. His books include Immigration Law & Procedure: Cases and Materials (4th ed. 2010), Refugee Law & Policy: a Comparative and International Approach (4th Ed. 2011) (coauthored with Karen Musalo and Jennifer Moore) and Essentials of Immigration Law (3rd ed. 2012). He has testified on numerous occasions before congressional committees and is a frequent lecturer on immigration law both nationally and internationally. Most recently he has served as Special Master for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Catholic Social Services, et al. v. Napolitano, a class action involving the 1986 immigration amnesty.

As one of the founders of the Clinical Education Association, he served as its President in 1994. He served as coeditor-in-chief of the Clinical Law Review (1997-2002) and remains as an ex-officio member of its Board of Editors. The Clinical Law Review is a peer reviewed law journal of the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA), the New York University Law School and the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). In addition to his work in clinical legal education, Professor Boswell has worked on rule of law/justice projects in Central Asia, Colombia, Guatemala, Palestine, Venezuela and most recently in Haiti. His current scholarly work involves a comparative study of the immigration laws of more than seven countries covering a broad range of legal systems.

Expertise

  • Immigration Law
  • International Law

Education

  1. The George Washington University Law School 1979

    J.D., Law

  2. Loyola Marymount University 1975

    B.A., Urban Economics

Selected Scholarship

  1. Crafting an Amnesty with Traditional Tools: Registration and Cancellation 2010

    Harvard Journal of Legislation

  2. Crafting True Immigration Reform 2008

    William Mitchell Law Review

  3. Racism and US Immigration Law: Prospects for Reform after 9/11 2003

    Immigration and Nationality Law Review

  4. Restrictions on Non-Citizens Access to Public Benefits: Flawed Premise, Unnecessary Response 1995

    UCLA Law Review

  5. Rethinking Exclusion - The Rights of Cuban Refugees Facing Indefinite Detention in the United States 1984

    Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Courses

  1. Advanced Immigration Seminar
  2. Immigration Law
  3. Immigrants' Rights Clinic
  4. Immigrants' Rights Fieldwork

Links

  1. Publications

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