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UC Hastings is now UC College of the Law, San Francisco

Learn more here

Richard
Boswell

Professor of Law

  • Office 350-200
  • Email Address boswellr@uchastings.edu
  • Telephone (415) 565-4633
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  • Follow Me on LinkedIn
  • Follow Me on Twitter

Biography

Professor Boswell joined the full-time faculty at UC Law SF 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 more than 11 books and more than 17 articles. His major books include Immigration Law & Procedure: Cases and Materials (5th ed. 2018), Refugee Law & Policy: a Comparative and International Approach (5th Ed. 2018) (coauthored with Karen Musalo and Jennifer Moore) and Essentials of Immigration Law (5th ed. 2020). 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 for 5 years (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, Honduras, Palestine, Panama and 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. ESSENTIALS OF IMMIGRATION LAW 5th Ed. 2020

  2. IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS 5th Ed. 2018

  3. REFUGEE LAW AND POLICY: CASES AND MATERIALS 5th Ed. 2018

    (with Karen Musalo and Jennifer Moore)

  4. Advancing a Broader View of Clinical Scholarship 2019

    26 CLINICAL L. REV. 117

  5. Book Review of THE GLOBAL EVOLUTION OF CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION: MORE THAN A METHOD 2018

    67 J. of Legal Education 1081

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

    Harvard Journal of Legislation

  7. Crafting True Immigration Reform 2008

    William Mitchell Law Review

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

    Immigration and Nationality Law Review

  9. Throwing Away the Key: Limitations on the Plenary Power Doctrine? A Review of FELIX MASUD-PILOTO, FROM WELCOMED EXILES TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: CUBAN MIGRATION TO THE U.S. 1959-1995 1997

    18 MICH. J. INT’L L. 689

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

    UCLA Law Review

  11. 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

Related News

Anna Law, Associate Professor and Herb Kurz Chair in Constitutional Rights at CUNY presents “Race Reconstruction, and Black Citizenship” with Faculty discussants Richard Boswell and Jack Chin.

Race, Citizenship, and Equality Colloquium – Anna Law

01/24/23

Faculty Achievements: Fall 2021

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In Brief and On Point

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Black Lives Matter @ UC Law SF Clinical Programs

06/12/20
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