Vanderbilt University Law School
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
- Downloadable Publications (on SSRN)
- MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Decision Making
- MacArthur Foundation Law & Neuroscience Project
- Society for Evolutionary Analysis in Law (S.E.A.L.)
- Law & Human Behavior Program
- Web Page in Department of Biological Science
- Research Assistant Openings
Media Links
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
"Economics, Behavioral Biology, and Law," 19 Supreme Court Economic Review (forthcoming 2011) (with Erin O'Hara & Jeff Stake)
"The Neural Correlates of Third-Party Punishment," 60 Neuron 930 (Dec. 10, 2008) (with Buckholtz, Asplund, Dux, Zald, Gore, and Marois) (Supplementary Data) [Read coverage of this article in the Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, and the New York Times Sunday Magazine]
Law, Biology, and Property: A New Theory of the Endowment Effect , 49 William & Mary Law Review 1935 (2008) (with S.F. Brosnan) [Read coverage of this article in The Economist, June 19, 2008.]
"Endowment Effects in Chimpanzees," 17 Current Biology 1704 (2007) (with S.F. Brosnan, S. Lambeth, M.C. Mareno, A.S. Richardson & S.J. Schapiro) [Read coverage of this article in The Economist, June 19, 2008.]
"Law, Responsibility, and the Brain," 5 PLOS Biology 693 (April 2007) (with Dean Mobbs, Hakwan C. Lau and Christopher D. Frith)
"The Origins of Shared Intuitions of Justice," 60 Vanderbilt Law Review 1633 (with Paul Robinson & Robert Kurzban) (2007)
"Law and Behavioral Biology," 105 Columbia Law Review 405 (2005) (with Timothy H. Goldsmith)
“Law, Evolution, and the Brain: Applications and Open Questions," 359 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 1697 (2004) (Special Issue: Law and the Brain; Republished in Law and the Brain, Zeki & Goodenough eds., Oxford 2006)
"Time-Shifted Rationality and the Law of Law's Leverage: Behavioral Economics Meets Behavioral Biology," 95 Northwestern University Law Review 1141 (2001)
"Sex, Culture, and the Biology of Rape: Toward Explanation and Prevention," 87 California Law Review 827 (1999)
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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