Bio
Gordon Van Kessel hails from Sonora, California, and received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from UC Berkeley. While a student at Boalt Hall (1962-65), he was a member of the California Law Review and the Assistant Varsity Boxing Coach.
He began his career by clerking with Justice Raymond Peters of the California Supreme Court and subsequently held positions both in civil and criminal practice. In the criminal area, he has worked both as a criminal defense lawyer and as a prosecutor. He joined the Hastings faculty in 1971.
Scholarship
Books
Criminal Justice Advocates Manual (Hastings Center for Trial and Appellate Advocacy 1977) (with Forrest B. Smith & Carlyn Christianson) (editor).
Journal Articles
Effective Client Selection in Transactional Clinics,, 16 Tenn. J. Bus. L. 389 (2014). FULLTEXT
Quieting the Guilty and Acquitting the Innocent: A Close Look at a New Twist on the Right to Silence, 35 Ind. L. Rev. 925 (2002). FULLTEXT
European Perspectives on the Accused as a Source of Testimonial Evidence, 100 W. Va. L. Rev. 799 (1999). FULLTEXT
A Summary of Mirjan R. Damaška’s Evidence Law Adrift, 49 Hastings L.J. 359 (1998). FULLTEXT
Hearsay Hazards in the American Criminal Trial: An Adversary-Oriented Approach, 49 Hastings L.J. 477 (1998). FULLTEXT
Chief Justice Roger Traynor and the United States Supreme Court: Contrasting Approaches to Search and Seizure, 25 Pac. L.J. 1235 (1994). FULLTEXT
Adversary Excesses in the American Criminal Trial, 67 Notre Dame L. Rev. 403 (1992). FULLTEXT
The Suspect as a Source of Testimonial Evidence: A Comparison with the English Approach, 38 Hastings L.J. 1 (1986). FULLTEXT
Prosecutorial Discovery and the Privilege Against Self-Incrimination: Accommodation or Capitulation, 4 Hastings Const. L.Q. 855 (1977). FULLTEXT
San Francisco Criminal Justice Project, 58 A.B.A. J. 263 (1972) (with Richard B. Morris). FULLTEXT
San Francisco Committee on Crime Reports on the Public Defender’s Office, Barristers’ Bailiwick (Dec. 1970-Jan. 1971).
Right to Counsel in Criminal Post-Conviction Review Proceedings, 51 Cal. L. Rev. 970 (1963). FULLTEXT
Chapters In Books
European Trends Towards Adversary Styles in Criminal Procedure and Evidence, in The Japanese Adversary System in Context: Controversies and Comparisons 225 (Malcolm M. Feeley & Setsuo Miyazawa eds., Palgrave Macmillian 2002). CATALOG
The Expanding Right to Silence in Europe and America: Is it a Good Thing and Where Should it End?, in New Trends in Criminal Investigation and Evidence 393 (C.M. Breur ed., 2000). CATALOG
Book Reviews
Book Review, 8 Eur. J. Crime Crim. L. & Crim. Just. 390 (2000) (reviewing Honorable Russell Fox, Justice in the Twenty–First Century (2000)).