Expertise
Gun Control, Clergy Sexual Abuse, Food Safety Regulation, Opioid Litigation, Products Liability, Kosher Certification
Bio
Timothy D. Lytton’s research examines health and safety regulation, with a focus on gun violence, clergy sexual abuse, and food policy. His most recent book, Outbreak: Foodborne Illness and the Struggle for Food Safety (University of Chicago Press 2019) analyzes the complex interaction of government regulation, industry supply-chain management, and civil liability in the U.S. food safety system. His previous book, Kosher: Private Regulation in the Age of Industrial Food (Harvard University Press 2013), examines kosher food certification as a model of private regulation in the food industry, and the book explores the implications of this model for consumer protection more generally. His food policy research also covers obesity, nutrition labeling, and school food. Lytton has a longstanding interest in the public policy implications of tort litigation. He has explored this subject through case studies of contemporary issues such as clergy sexual abuse and gun violence. His book Holding Bishops Accountable: How Lawsuits Helped the Catholic Church Confront Clergy Sexual Abuse (Harvard University Press 2008) examines how private lawsuits shape public policy. An earlier edited volume, Suing the Gun Industry: A Battle at the Crossroads of Gun Control and Mass Torts (University of Michigan Press 2005), analyzes tort litigation aimed at reducing gun violence. He has also published articles on the impact of civil lawsuits on climate change. Lytton has published several articles and book chapters on rabbinic law and jurisprudence, and is co-author of Jurisprudence, Cases and Materials: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Law and Its Applications (Lexis Publishing 3d ed. 2015). His work has appeared in the Texas, Virginia, Cornell, Northwestern, and Wisconsin law reviews; the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, the American Journal of Law & Medicine, and Public Health Nutrition; popular magazines such as Newsweek, The New Republic, and US News and World Report; and online publications including the Huffington Post and Salon. Lytton joined Georgia State University College of Law in 2015. He taught previously for 15 years at Albany Law School, where he was the Albert & Angela Farone Distinguished Professor of Law. He has been a fellow in the Harvard Program on Ethics and the Professions as well as the Hartman Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. He has done conflict resolution work in Central America and the Middle East. In 2018, Lytton was elected to membership in the American Law Institute.