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)

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 intersections of law and human behavioral biology, subjects on which he has offered courses in law and biology curricula. His current empirical research spans brain-imaging (fMRI), primatology, and behavioral economics. Before joining the 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. Professor Jones holds a joint appointment in the Department of Biological Sciences. 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. Jones 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. In 2007, Jones was appointed co-director of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Decision Making, which will help to explore the potential relevance of neuroscience to criminal law.

Representative Publications

Articles

"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, 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.]
"The Origins of Shared Intuitions of Justice," 60 Vanderbilt Law Review 1633 (with Paul Robinson & Robert Kurzban) (2007)
"Law, Responsibility, and the Brain," 5 PLOS Biology 693 (April 2007) (with Dean Mobbs, Hakwan C. Lau and Christopher D. Frith)
"Behavioral Genetics and Criminal Law, In Context," 69 Law & Contemporary Problems 81 (2006) (Special Issue: Behavioral Genetics and Criminal Law)
"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)

Working Papers

"The Neural Basis of Legal Decision-Making" (with J. Buckholtz, C. Asplund, P. Dux, D. Zald, J. Gore, R. Marois) (submitted)

Presentations

Keynote: "The Next Evolution: From Behavior to Law and Back," 10th Anniversary Darwin Day address at the University of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana, delivered February 22, 2007
Keynote: "Evolution, Primates, Neurons, and Law," Association for Politics and the Life Sciences (APLS), Annual Conference, Cincinnati, OH - October 2007
Keynote: "Law and the Biology of Family," Symposium on Family Relationships, Biology, and the Law, DePaul University College of Law, Chicago, IL - March 2006
Plenary Lecture: "Evolution, Behavior, and Legal Systems," Human Behavior and Evolution Society (HBES) Annual Conference, Williamsburg, VA - June 2007

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