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Owen D. Jones

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Photo of Owen D. Jones

Professor of Law .Professor of Biological Sciences

Voice: (615) 322-7191
Fax: (615) 322-6631
Email: owen.jones@vanderbilt.edu
Office: Room 237
View curriculum vitae (.pdf)


Links

Media Links

  1. Selected Media Coverage of Scholarship

Area(s) of Expertise

Law and behavioral biology; law and neuroscience; evolutionary analysis in law

Research Interest(s)

Law and behavioral biology; law and neuroscience; evolutionary analysis in law

Education

J.D. Yale University
B.A. Amherst College

Biography

Owen D. Jones is a leading scholar on issues at the intersection of law and behavioral biology. Published in scientific as well as legal venues, he is the author of several dozen articles and book chapters. His current empirical research uses brain-imaging (fMRI), primatology and behavioral economics to learn more about how the brain’s varied operations affect behaviors relevant to law. Most recently, he co-discovered with colleagues at Vanderbilt the brain activity underlying decisions of whether to punish someone and, if so, how much. Professor Jones holds a joint appointment in the Department of Biological Sciences. He is director and former president of the Society for Evolutionary Analysis in Law (S.E.A.L.), an international interdisciplinary scholarly organization, whose members focus on issues at the intersection of law, biology and behavior. Before joining the legal academy, Professor Jones clerked for Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and practiced law with the D.C. law firm Covington & Burling. He came to Vanderbilt from Arizona State University, where he was Willard H. Pedrick Distinguished Research Scholar, Professor of Law, Professor of Biology and Faculty Fellow of the Center for the Study of Law, Science, and Technology. In 2007, Professor Jones was appointed co-director of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Decision Making, which is exploring the relevance of neuroscience to criminal law.

 

Representative Publications

Articles

Presentations

  • "The Neural Bases of Third-Party Punishment: An fMRI Experiment," Conference on Empirical Legal Studies, Cornell Law School (September 2008)

  • "Evolution, Behavior, and Legal Systems," Human Behavior and Evolution Society Annual Conference, Williamsburg, Virginia (June 2007) (Plenary Lecture)

  • "Evolution, Primates, Neurons, and Law," Association for Politics and the Life Sciences Annual Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio (October 2007) (Keynote address)

  • "Law and the Biology of Family," Symposium on Family Relationships, Biology, and the Law, DePaul University College of Law (March 2006) (Keynote address)



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