Owen D. Jones
New York Alumni Chancellor's Chair in Law Professor of Biological Sciences Director, MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience
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)
- Research Network on Law and Neuroscience
- Law and Neuroscience at Vanderbilt
- Web Page in Department of Biological Sciences
- Society for Evolutionary Analysis in Law (S.E.A.L.)
- Law & Behavioral Biology Speaker Series
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 Jones’ work bridges law, biology and behavior. His scholarship deepens understandings of behaviors that law aims to regulate by integrating social science and life science perspectives. Professor Jones’ work, both empirical and theoretical, is published in scientific as well as legal venues. Holding joint academic appointments, he uses brain-imaging (fMRI), behavioral biology 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 recently secured three grants from the MacArthur Foundation, totaling over five million dollars, to design, create and direct a new national Research Network on Law and Neuroscience. Before joining the legal academy, he clerked for Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson of the U.S. 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.
Representative Publications
Books
Law and Neuroscience (Aspen Publishers, forthcoming 2013) (with Jeffrey Schall and Francis Shen)
Book Chapter: “Law and Neuroscience in the United States," in International Neurolaw: A Comparative Analysis (Spranger, ed., 2012) (with F. Shen)
Articles
“Sorting Guilty Minds” 86 New York University Law Review 1306 (2011) (with F. Shen, M. Hoffman, J. Greene, R. Marois)
"Intuitions of Punishment," 77 Chicago Law Review 1633 (2010) (with Robert Kurzban)
"Realism, Punishment & Reform," 77 Chicago Law Review 1611 (2010) (with Paul H. Robinson & Robert Kurzban)
“Brain Imaging for Legal Thinkers: A Guide for the Perplexed,” 5 Stanford Technology Law Review (2009) (with Buckholtz, Schall, and Marois)
"Economics, Behavioral Biology, and Law," 19 Supreme Court Economic Review 103 (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.]
"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)
"Time-Shifted Rationality and the Law of Law's Leverage: Behavioral Economics Meets Behavioral Biology," 95 Northwestern University Law Review 1141 (2001)
Working Papers
“Evolution and the Expression of Biases: Situational Value Changes the Endowment Effect in Chimpanzees” Evolution & Human Behavior (forthcoming 2012) (with S. Brosnan, M. Gardner, S. Lambeth, and S. Schapiro)
"Variables Influencing the Neural Correlates of Perceived Risk of Physical Harm," (with M. Coaster, B. Rogers, K. Viscusi, K. Merkle, D. Zald, and J. Gore) (forthcoming, Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience)
Presentations
"Law and Neuroscience," Cornell Law School, Ithaca, New York, October 18, 2012
"Law and Brain Sciences," keynote speaker Brocher Neurolaw Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, November 6, 2012
"Law, Neuroscience, and Human Values," Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Vatican City, November 9, 2012
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