Employer University of Arizona | ||
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Born 1975 United States Alma mater Southeast Missouri State University B.A.
Washington University in St. Louis Ph.D.
Harvard Law School J.D. Occupation Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Innovation
Founder, Regulatory Science Program Known for Bioethics & Law; Health Law; Website Christopher Robertson University of Arizona Faculty Page People also search for I. Glenn Cohen, Holly Fernandez Lynch, Aaron S. Kesselheim | ||
Christopher Tarver Robertson is a leading expert in health law at the intersection of law, philosophy and science. His solutions-oriented research explores how the law affects decision making in domains of scientific uncertainty and misaligned incentives, which he calls "institutional epistemology." Robertson is Associate Dean of Research and Innovation and Professor of Law at the University of Arizona, where he is also the founder of its Regulatory Science Program. He is affiliated faculty with the Petrie Flom Center for Health Care Policy, Bioethics and Biotechnology at Harvard Law School. For the academic year of 2016-17 Robertson is teaching at New York University School of Law and on sabbatical. His work includes tort law, bioethics, the First Amendment, and corruption in healthcare and politics. His legal practice has focused on complex litigation involving medical and scientific disputes.
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Research and Publications
Robertson has co-edited two books: Nudging Health: Behavioral Economics and Health Law (2016, with Holly Fernandez Lynch and Glenn Cohen) and Blinding as a Solution to Bias: Strengthening Biomedical Science, Forensic Science and Law (2016, with Aaron Kesselheim). In 2017, Harvard University Press will publish his monograph titled Paying for Ourselves: The Ethics, Economics and Law of Cost-Sharing in Health Insurance. In addition to his books, Robertson is a prolific writer with articles appearing in both legal and healthcare journals including the New England Journal of Medicine; Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law and Ethics, Journal of Legal Analysis, Journal of Law and Bioscience, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, New York University Law Review, Cornell Law Review, and Journal of the American College of Radiology. He has given interviews, been published and cited in a host of media outlets including the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and National Public Radio's Marketplace.
Background and Education
In 1997, Robertson attended Southeast Missouri State University on a Governor’s scholarship where he graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Philosophy. During his senior year he interned for the White House Chief of Staff, Erskine Bowles. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in Philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis and taught Bio-Medical Ethics before going on to Harvard Law School earning his J.D., magna cum laude in 2007. In 2008, Robertson returned to Harvard Law School as an Academic Fellow & Lecturer On Law at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics. Upon completing his fellowship, in 2010, Robertson became a tenure-track professor at the University of Arizona and was tenured as a full professor in 2015.
Robertson has received research support from the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, the Greenwall Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. For the past five years he has served on the clinical ethics committee for an academic medical center and he has served as a peer review for leading presses and journals including Oxford University Press and the New England Journal of Medicine.