Douglas A. Kysar 

EXPERIENCE

Professor of Law, Yale University, 2008-present

Professor of Law, Cornell University, 2005-2008
Associate Professor of Law, Cornell University, 2004-2005
Assistant Professor of Law, Cornell University, 2001-2003
- Courses Taught: Torts; International Environmental Law; Risk Regulation; Law, Science, and Sustainability; Consumer Law; and Professional Responsibility

Visiting Professor, UCLA School of Law, Fall 2007

Visiting Professor, Yale Law School, Fall 2005

Visiting Associate Professor, Harvard Law School, Spring 2005

Visiting Scholar, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain, May 2004

Associate, Foley, Hoag & Eliot LLP, 2000

Law Clerk, Chief Judge William G. Young, United States District Court, MA, 1999

EDUCATION

Harvard Law School, J.D., magna cum laude, 1998
- Recipient, Sears Prize, 1996-97
- Member, Board of Student Advisors, 1996-98
- Teaching Assistant, Professor Jon Hanson, 1996-98

Indiana University, B.A. in Philosophy, summa cum laude, 1995
- Recipient, Herman B. Wells Scholarship, 1991-95 

PUBLICATIONS

Books

The Torts Process (7th ed., Aspen Publishers, 2007) (with James A. Henderson, Jr., Richard N. Pearson, & John A. Siliciano)

Environmental Policy and Law (forthcoming Island Press, Foundations of Contemporary Environmental Studies series) (with Daniel Esty)
Economics of Environmental Law (forthcoming Edward Elgar Publishing) (with Richard Brooks & Nathaniel Keohane, eds.)

Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental Law and the Search for Objectivity (under contract, Yale University Press)

Articles

The Jurisprudence of Experimental Law and Economics, 163 J. Institutional & Theoretical Econ. 187 (2007)

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, 22 J. Land Use & Envtl. L. 1 (2007)

Discounting…On Stilts, 74 U. Chi. L. Rev. 119 (2007, Symposium Issue: Intergenerational Equity and Intergenerational Discounting)

Did NEPA Drown New Orleans? The Levees, the Blame Game, and the Hazards of Hindsight, 56 Duke L. J. 179 (2006) (with Thomas O. McGarity) (36th Annual Administrative Law Symposium)

Medical Malpractice Myths and Realities: Why an Insurance Crisis Is Not a Lawsuit Crisis, 39 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 785 (with Thomas O. McGarity & Karen Sokol) (2006, Symposium Issue: Economics of Civil Justice)

Sustainable Development and Private Global Governance, 83 Texas L. Rev. 2109 (2005, Symposium Issue: Of Waterbanks, Piggybanks, and Bankruptcy: Changing Directions in Water Law)

Preferences for Processes: The Process/Product Distinction and the Regulation of Consumer Choice, 118 Harv. L. Rev. 525 (2004)

Climate Change, Cultural Transformation, and Comprehensive Rationality, 31 Boston College Envtl. Affairs L. Rev. 555 (2004, Symposium Issue: Economic Dynamics of Environmental Law and Static Efficiency)

The Expectations of Consumers, 103 Columbia L. Rev. 1700 (2003)

The Design of Products Liability: A Reply to Professors Henderson and Twerski, 103 Columbia L. Rev. 1803 (2003)

Some Realism About Environmental Skepticism, 30 Ecol. L. Q. 223 (2003)

Law, Environment, and Vision, 97 Northwestern Univ. L. Rev. 675 (2003), reprinted in 35 Land Use & Envtl. L. Rev. (2004)

Environmental Tribalism, 87 Minn. L. Rev. 1099 (2003, Symposium Issue: The Pragmatic Ecologist: Environmental Protection As A Jurisdynamic Experience) (with James Salzman), reprinted in The Jurisdynamics of Environmental Protection: Change and the Pragmatic Voice in Environmental Law (Jim Chen ed., 2003)

Sustainability, Distribution, and the Macroeconomic Analysis of Law, 43 Boston College L. Rev. 1 (2001)

Taking Behavioralism Seriously: A Response to Market Manipulation, 6 Roger Williams U. L. Rev. 259 (Fall 2000, Symposium Issue: Rational Actors or Rational Fools? The Implications of Psychology for Products Liability) (with Jon Hanson)

Taking Behavioralism Seriously: Some Evidence of Market Manipulation, 112 Harv. L. Rev. 1420 (1999) (with Jon Hanson), partially reprinted in Law & Ethics in the Business Environment (Terry Halbert & Elaine Ingulli eds., 3rd ed. 2000) and reprinted in The Legacy of Herbert Simon in Economic Analysis (Peter E. Earl ed., 2001)

Taking Behavioralism Seriously: The Problem of Market Manipulation, 74 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 630 (1999) (with Jon Hanson)
publications: chapters and other contributions to books

Are Heuristics a Problem or a Solution?, in Heuristics and the Law (Christoph Engel & Gerd Gigerenzer eds., 2005) (rapporteur’s report)

A New Progressive Agenda for Public Health and the Environment (Christopher H. Schroeder & Rena Steinzor eds., 2005) (contributing author)

Feminism and Eutrophic Methodologies, in Feminism Confronts Homo Economicus (Martha A. Fineman & Terence Dougherty eds., 2005)

The Joint Failure of Economic Theory and Legal Regulation, in Smoking: Risk, Perception, & Policy (Paul Slovic, ed. 2001) (with Jon Hanson)

Book Reviews

The Consultants’ Republic, __ Harv. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2008) (reviewing Ted Nordhaus & Michael Shellenberger, Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility (2007))

121 Pol. Sci. Q. 364 (Spring 2006) (reviewing Jennifer Clapp & Peter Dauvergne, Paths to a Green World (2005))

120 Pol. Sci. Q. 552 (Spring 2005) (reviewing Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law (2004))

Kids & Cul-De-Sacs: Census 2000 and the Reproduction of Consumer Culture, 87 Cornell L. Rev. 853 (2002) (reviewing U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Dep’t Of Commerce, Census 2000: Census Of Population And Housing (2001))

Works in Progress

Regulating from Nowhere: Domestic Environmental Law and the Nation-State Subject (forthcoming in Globalization Comes Home: How the United States is Being Transformed by Globalization, Beverly Crawford & Michelle Bertho, eds.) (with Ya-Wei Li)

PRESENTATIONS

The Point of Precaution: Economics and the Forgetting of Environmental Law, University of Southern California Gould School of Law, Los Angeles, California, November 15, 2007

Strategic Perspectives on Managing Emergent Nanotechnologies, Center for Nanotechnology in Society, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, October 26, 2007

Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental Law and the Search for Objectivity, UCLA Law School, Los Angeles, California, October 15, 2007

The Point of Precaution: Economics and the Forgetting of Environmental Law, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, California, October 11, 2007

Ecologic: Complexity, Cognition, and the Regulation of Nascent Technologies, Cornell Nanoscale Science & Technology Facility 30th Anniversary Conference, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, June 14, 2007

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, Syracuse University College of Law, Syracuse, New York, April 23, 2007

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, Illinois Program in Law and Economics Workshop, University of Illinois College of Law, Champaign, Illinois, April 5, 2007

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, Behavioral Law and Economics Workshop, University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, April 4, 2007

Panelist, The Importance of Alliances: The Place of Men in a 21st Century “Women's Movement”, Legally Female: What Does it Mean to Be “Ms. JD”? Conference, Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut, March 31, 2007

Regulating from Nowhere: Domestic Environmental Law and the Nation-State Subject, Globalization Comes Home Conference, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, California, February 1, 2007

Precautionary Principles, Moral Theories, and Actual Levees: An Analysis of the Hurricane Katrina Disaster, Bovay Colloquium Series, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, November 15, 1006

Regulating from Nowhere: Risk Regulation, the Precautionary Principle, and Collective Responsibility, Environmental Toxicology Seminar, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, November 11, 2006

Participant, Roundtable on Consumption, Law and the Environment, Vanderbilt Law School, Nashville, Tennessee, October 20, 2006

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, University of Arizona Rogers College of Law, Tucson, Arizona, October 12, 2006

Participant, Beyond Environmentalism: Moving Past the ‘Death of Environmentalism’ Debate, University of Colorado at Boulder Legal Workshop, September 15, 2006

Commentator, Experimental Law and Economics Seminar on New Institutional Economics, Bad Meinberg, Germany, June 21-24, 2006
Commentator, Dismantling Discrimination in the WTO System, Peking University Law School, Beijing, China, May 21-25, 2006

Commentator, Conference on Intergenerational Discounting, University of Chicago Law School, Chicago, Illinois, April 21, 2006

Panelist, Legal Scholar’s Perspective on Environmental Law and Catastrophe, Preventing and Responding to Catastrophe: The Role of Environmental Law and Policy, University of California-Los Angeles School of Law, Los Angeles, California, April 7, 2006

Risk, Litigation, and Disaster: Lessons from Katrina, 2006 McGlinchey Lecture, Tulane University Law School, New Orleans, Louisiana March 31, 2006

Did NEPA Drown New Orleans? The Levees, the Blame Game, and the Hazards of Hindsight, Thirty-Sixth Annual Duke Law Journal Administrative Law Conference, March 24, 2006

Ecologic: Complexity, Cognition, and Our Environmental Future, 2006 Distinguished Lecture in Environmental Law, Florida State University College of Law, Tallahassee, Florida, March 20, 2006

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, Florida State University College of Law, Tallahassee, Florida, March 20, 2006

Panelist, Consumerism and Collectivity: Democracy, Religion and Society, The Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities Annual Meeting, Syracuse, New York, March 17-18, 2006

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 13, 2006

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, Notre Dame Law School, Notre Dame, Indiana, March 3, 2006

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, Workshop on Governance, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C., February 16, 2006

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, Legal Theory Workshop, University of California-Los Angeles School of Law, Los Angeles, California, December 1, 2005

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut, November 21, 2005

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, International Law Workshop, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 20, 2005

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, Midwestern Law and Economics Association, Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, October 14-15, 2005

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, Missouri, September 26, 2005

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, University of Minnesota Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences, Where Are Law, Ethics & the Life Sciences Headed? Frontier Issues, Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 20, 2005

Sustainable Development and Private Global Governance, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 25, 2005

Ecological Rationality: Cost-Benefit Analysis, the Precautionary Principle, and Pragmatic Environmentalism, Environmental Law Society, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 5, 2005

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, Law and Economics Workshop, Boston University School of Law, Boston, Massachusetts, February 23, 2005

Sustainable Development and Private Global Governance, University of Texas School of Law, Water Banks, Piggybanks, and Bankruptcy: New Directions in Water Law, Austin, Texas, February 4-5, 2005 

It Might Have Been: Risk, Precaution, and Opportunity Costs, Stanford Law School, Palo Alto, California, November 15, 2004

Preferences for Processes: The Process/Product Distinction and the Regulation of Consumer Choice, Emory University School of Law, Atlanta, Georgia, October 20, 2004

Preferences for Processes: The Process/Product Distinction and the Regulation of Consumer Choice, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, September 14, 2004

Rapporteur, Are Heuristics a Problem or a Solution?, Dahlem Workshop on Heuristics and the Law, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany, June 6-11, 2004

Tort Law and Consumer Information: Unexplored Dimensions, Workshop on Recent Trends in Tort Law Theory, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain, May 6, 2004

Behavioral Economics and Cognitive Psychology: Implications for the Optimal Design of Products Liability Law, Workshop on Recent Trends in Tort Law Theory, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain, May 4, 2004

The Consumer Expectations Standard for Products Liability: Understanding a Maligned Doctrine, Workshop on Recent Trends in Tort Law Theory, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain, May 3, 2004

Preferences for Processes: The Process/Product Distinction and the Regulation of Consumer Choice, 2004 Howard H. Rolapp

Distinguished Scholar Lecture, S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, April 12, 2004

Preferences for Processes: The Process/Product Distinction and the Regulation of Consumer Choice, Stanford Law School

Environmental Workshop Seminar, Palo Alto, California, March 29, 2004

Preferences for Processes: The Process/Product Distinction and the Regulation of Consumer Choice, University of Connecticut School of Law, Hartford, Connecticut, March 8, 2004

Preferences for Processes: The Process/Product Distinction and the Regulation of Consumer Choice, University of Indiana-Bloomington School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana, January 23, 2004

Preferences for Processes: The Process/Product Distinction and the Regulation of Consumer Choice, Science Studies Reading Group
Workshop, Cornell University Department of Science and Technology Studies, Ithaca, New York, November 24, 2003

Preferences for Processes: The Process/Product Distinction and the Regulation of Consumer Choice, University of British Columbia Faculty of Law, Vancouver, British Columbia, November 21, 2003

Preferences for Processes: The Process/Product Distinction and the Regulation of Consumer Choice, Harvard Law School Environmental Law Conference, Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 6, 2003

Preferences for Processes: The Process/Product Distinction and the Regulation of Consumer Choice, University of Illinois College of Law, Champaign, Illinois, October 13, 2003

Panelist, Cost-Benefit Analysis: An Appropriate Basis for Climate Change Policy?, The Economic Dynamics of Environmental Law and Static Efficiency Conference, Syracuse University College of Law, Syracuse, New York, October 10-11, 2003

Preferences for Processes: The Process/Product Distinction and the Regulation of Consumer Choice, Discourses Roundtable, Cornell Law School, Ithaca, New York, September 24, 2003

The Expectations of Consumers, American Law and Economics Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, September 20-21, 2003

Panel Organizer and Presenter, Feminist Theory, Corporations and Capitalism, Feminism and Legal Theory Project—The 20th Summer Workshop, Madison, Wisconsin, June 26-28, 2003

The Expectations of Consumers, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 5-8, 2003

The Expectations of Consumers, Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, April 17, 2003

Moderator, Enron and the Future of U.S. Corporate Law and Policy: The Role of the Lawyer, Cornell Law Review 2003 Symposium, Ithaca, New York, March 1, 2003

Lawyer-Client Privacy in a Post-9/11, Post-Enron World, Cornell Law School Young Alumni Continuing Legal Education Program, New York, New York, January 23, 2003

The Expectations of Consumers, Midwestern Law and Economics Association, Annual Meeting, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois October 11-12, 2002

The Expectations of Consumers, Canadian Law and Economics Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, September 27-28, 2002 

Law, Environment, and Vision, Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, May 30-June 1, 2002

Law, Environment, and Vision, University of California-San Diego and University of San Diego, Public Policy Research/Law and the Behavioral Sciences Programs Workshop Series, San Diego, California May 2, 2002

Law and Ecological Economics, Cornell Law School, Faculty Workshop, Ithaca, New York, November 2, 2001

Law and Ecological Economics, Georgetown University Law Center, Environmental Research Workshop, Washington, D.C., October 11, 2001

Law and Ecological Economics, Canadian Law and Economics Association, Annual Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, September 28-29, 2001

Sustainability, Distribution, and the Macroeconomic Analysis of Law, Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy and the Cornell Law School Feminism and Legal Theory Project, Workshop on Feminism, Corporations, & Capitalism, Buffalo, New York, April 20-21, 2001

Moderator, Getting Beyond Cynicism: New Theories of the Regulatory State, Cornell Law Review 2001 Symposium, Ithaca, New York, March 9-10, 2001

The Joint Failure of Economic Theory and Legal Regulation, Northeastern University School of Law, Tobacco Products Liability Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, June 4, 2000

Taking Behavioralism Seriously: A Response to Market Manipulation, Roger Williams University School of Law, Rational Actors or Rational Fools: The Implications of Psychology for Products Liability, Bristol, Rhode Island, April 21, 2000

MEDIA CONTRIBUTIONS

Radio Appearance, Marketplace, National Public Radio, September 2, 2005

Editorial Column, Tort Law, Texas Style, Center for American Progress, October 20, 2004

Radio Appearance, Marketplace, National Public Radio, August 18, 2004

Guest Editorial, A Weighty Matter? Not This One, Orlando Sentinel, March 17, 2004

UNIVERSITY SERVICE

Appointments Committee, 2006-2007

Co-Chair, Program Review Committee, 2006 

President’s Ad Hoc Faculty Committee on Environmental Sustainability and Transportation and Parking Needs, 2005-2006

Provost’s Task Force on Sustainability in the Age of Development, 2005

Appointments Committee, Fall 2004

Entry Level Appointments Committee, 2003-2004

Admissions Committee, 2001-present (Chair, 2002-2003)

University Assembly, 2003-2005

Public Interest Working Group, 2001

Advisor, Environmental Law Society, 2001-present

Advisor, Latino American Law Students Association, 2001-present

Advisor, Phi Delta Phi, 2001-present

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

Executive Committee, AALS Section on Environmental Law Association of American Law Schools

American Law and Economics Association

Canadian Law and Economics Association

Midwestern Law and Economics Association

Law and Society Association

American Economics Association

American Bar Association

Massachusetts Bar Association

Outside reviewer, Land Use and Environmental Law Review, Journal of Legal Studies

Manuscript referee, MIT Press, NYU Press 

GRANTS, AWARDS, & DISTINCTIONS 

Societal and Ethical Issues Coordinator, National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network, 2006-present

Selected to present at the 2004 Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum

Elected Convocation Speaker by the Cornell Law School Class of 2004

Recipient, 2004 Dean Anne Lukingbeal Award

Co-Principal Investigator, $1,200,000 N.S.F. Nanotechnology Grant NIRT

Selected to present at the 2002 Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum

Elected Convocation Speaker by the Cornell Law School Class of 2002