Flight Path hen Professor Peter Menell first got the idea for the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology in the early 1990s, telephones plugged into hard-wired wall jacks, compact discs stacked up in dens, and Netscape’s Navigator web browser was still several years away. “Tech law” simply meant intellectual property. Battles over software for microcomputers were just starting to make headlines. Berkeley Law did not yet have email, and the dot-com bubble that flooded
16 Berkeley Law Transcript Spring 2020
Silicon Valley with cash hadn’t begun to inflate. In 2020, the digital world’s tentacles reach into nearly every aspect of our everyday lives. The ways we communicate, bank, shop, listen, and watch have been transformed. Intellectual property remains a mainstay of tech law, but the digital revolution has shifted how we think—and worry—about many other law and policy areas, from privacy and security to evidence and social justice. Through all the sweeping changes and shifting paradigms, BCLT—now marking its 25th anniversary—
GIULIO BONASERA
As the digital world expands and COVID-19 shows how technology is a lifeline, Berkeley Law continues to lead in helping our legal and policy spheres keep pace. By Gwyneth K. Shaw
