Timothy D. Lytton
Regents' Professor & Professor of Law Center for Law, Health & Society- Education
Yale University
J.D., 1991 (Clinic Litigation Prize 1991)
B.A., summa cum laude, 1987 (History Major, Phi Beta Kappa)
- Specializations
Administrative Law
Health Law
Legislation
Torts
- Biography
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.
- Publications
Books
Timothy D. Lytton, Outbreak: Foodborne Illness and the Struggle for Food Safety (2019).
Stephen E. Gottlieb, Brian H. Bix, Timothy D. Lytton, & Robin L. West, Jurisprudence Cases and Materials: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Law and Its Applications (3d ed. Carolina Academic Press 2015).
Timothy D. Lytton, Kosher: Private Regulation in the Age of Industrial Food (2013).
Rachel Anisfeld & Timothy Lytton, A Shabbat Evening Siddur for Young People (2009).
Rachel Anisfeld & Timothy Lytton, A Shabbat Morning Siddur for Young People (2009).
Timothy D. Lytton, Holding Bishops Accountable: How Lawsuits Helped the Catholic Church Confront Clergy Sexual Abuse (2008).
Stephen E. Gottlieb, Brian H. Bix, Timothy D. Lytton, & Robin L. West, Jurisprudence Cases and Materials: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Law and Its Applications (2d ed. 2006).
Suing the Gun Industry: A Battle at the Crossroads of Gun Control and Mass Torts (Timothy D. Lytton, ed. 2005).
Book Chapters
Timothy D. Lytton & Patricia J. Zettler, Regulation of Chemicals in Food, in 12 Elgar Encyclopedia Env't L. 344 (Michael Faure ed., 2023).
Timothy D. Lytton, Private Third-Party Verification of Product Claims: Lessons from Kosher Certification, in Rsch. Handbook on Int'l Food L. 387 (Michael Roberts ed., 2023).
Timothy D. Lytton, Technical Standards in Health and Safety Regulation: Risk Regimes, the New Administrative Law, and Food Safety Governance, in 2 The Cambridge Handbook of Technical Standardization Law: Further Intersections of Public and Private Law 45 (2019).
Timothy D. Lytton & Lesley K. McAllister, Oversight of Private Food Safety Auditing in the United States: A Hybrid Approach to Auditor Conflict of Interest, in Hybridization of Food Governance: Trends, Types and Results 78 (Paul Verbruggen & Tetty Havinga, eds. 2017).
Timothy D. Lytton, Moving Beyond the Battle Over Eco-Kosher: Kosher Certification as a Model (Not a Means) for Ethical Food Labeling, inJust Balances, Just Weights: Essays on Jewish Business Ethics in a Modern World 19 (Joshua Schwartz, ed. 2014).
Articles
Timothy D. Lytton, Known Unknowns: Unmeasurable Hazards and the Limits of Risk Regulation, 76 Okla. L. Rev. 857 (2024)
Timothy D. Lytton, Tort Claims for the Coverup of Child Sexual Abuse: Private Litigation, Corporate Accountability, and Institutional Reform, 72 DePaul L. Rev. 289 (2022-2023).
N.M. L. Rev. 282 (2022).
Yaniv Heled, et al., Righting a Reproductive Wrong: A Statutory Tort Solution to Misrepresentation by Reproductive Tissue Providers, 60 Hous. L. Rev. 1 (2022).
Yaniv Heled, Timothy Lytton & Liza Vertinsky, A Wrong Without a Remedy: Leaving Parents and
Children With a Hollow Victory in Lawsuits Against Unscrupulous Sperm Banks, 96 Chi.-Kent L. Rev. 115 (2021)
Timothy D. Lytton, Exposing Private Third-Party Food Safety Auditors to Civil Liability for Negligence: Harnessing Private Law Norms to Regulate Private Governance, 27 Eur. Rev. Priv. L. 353 (2019).
Timothy D. Lytton, The Taming of the Stew: Regulatory Intermediaries in Food Safety Governance, 670 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 78 (2017).
Timothy D. Lytton, Sandy Hook Decision Puts Crack in Gun Makers' Armor, Nat'l. L. J., Apr. 25, 2016, at 50.
Timothy D. Lytton, Competitive Third-Party Regulation: How Private Certification Can Overcome Constraints that Frustrate Government Regulation, 15 Theoretical Inquiries L. 539 (2014).
Timothy D. Lytton, Jewish Foodways and Religious Self-Governance: The Failure of Communal Kashrut Regulation and the Rise of Private Kosher Certification, 104 Jewish Q. Rev. 39 (2014).
Timothy D. Lytton, Markets and Morality: Kosher Certification as a Model for Eco-Labeling, 1 Looking Forward, 2014, at 3 (reprinted in Kosher India J., Fall 2014, at 8).
Timothy D. Lytton, Barbara A. Dennison, Trang Q. Nguyen, & Janine M. Jurkowski, There is More to Transparency Than Meets the Eye: The Impact of Mandatory Disclosure Laws Aimed at Promoting Breastfeeding, 40 Am. J.L. & Med. 393 (2014).
Timothy D. Lytton & Lesley K. McAllister, Oversight in Private Food Safety Auditing: Addressing Auditor Conflict of Interest, 2014 Wis. L. Rev. 289.
Timothy Lytton, Is That Kosher?, The American Interest, Sept./Oct. 2013, at 64.
Tom Baker & Timothy D. Lytton, Allowing Patients to Waive the Right to Sue for Medical Malpractice: A Response to Thaler and Sunstein, 104 Nw. U. L. Rev. 233 (2010).
Timothy D. Lytton, Banning Front-of-Package Food Labels: First Amendment Constraints on Public Health Policy, 14 Pub. Health Nutrition 1123 (2010).
Timothy D. Lytton, Signs of Change or Clash of Symbols? FDA Regulation of Nutrient Profile Labeling, 20 Health Matrix 93 (2010).
Timothy D. Lytton, Using Tort Litigation to Enhance Regulatory Policymaking: Evaluating Climate-Change Litigation in Light of Lessons from Gun-Industry and Clergy-Sexual-Abuse Lawsuits, 86 Tex. L. Rev. 1837 (2008).
Timothy D. Lytton, Book Review, 22 J.L. & Religion 615 (2007) (reviewing Thomas P. Doyle, et al., Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes: The Catholic Church's 2,000-Year Paper Trail of Sexual Abuse (2006)).
Timothy D. Lytton, Due Process and Legal Authority in the Garden of Eden: Jurisprudence in Aggadic Midrash, 16 Jewish L. Ann. 185 (2006).
Timothy D. Lytton, Assessing Peter Schuck's Diversity in America: Keeping Government at a Safe Distance, 23 Yale L. & Pol'y Rev. 1 (2005).
Timothy D. Lytton, Using Litigation to Make Public Health Policy: Theoretical and Empirical Challenges in Assessing Product Liability, Tobacco, and Gun Litigation, 32 J.L. Med. & Ethics 556 (2004). (reprinted in 1 The Ethics of Public Health (Michael Freeman, ed. 2010).
Gihan Barsoum, Timothy D. Lytton, Jon Vernick, & Carol Isaacs, The Pros and Cons of Litigation in Public Health, 32 J.L. Med. & Ethics no. 4 supp., 2004, at 42.
Timothy D. Lytton, Op-Ed, Neither Side Right on Grunow Suit's Impact, Palm Beach Post, Nov. 24, 2002.
Timothy D. Lytton, "Shall Not the Judge of the World Do Justly?": Accountability, Compassion, and Judicial Authority in the Biblical Story of Sodom and Gomorrah, 18 J.L. & Relig. 31 (2002) (reprinted in Howard Lesnick, Religion in Legal Thought and Practice 67 (2010)).
David Kairys, Andrew J. McClurg, Timothy D. Lytton, John R. Lott, Anne Giddings Kimball, Robert R. Simpson, Jerry J. Phillips, Carl T. Bogus, Anthony J. Sebok, & Jeremy G. Zimmermann, Symposium Dialogue: Guns and Liability in America, 32 Conn. L. Rev. 1175 (2000).
Timothy D. Lytton, Promoviendo el estado de derecho y la cultura de paz en Guatemala y Nicaragua, Cultura de Paz, Jul.-Sep. 1999, at 52.
Timothy D. Lytton, Building Peace by Teaching Mediation: A New Model of Law and Development, 17 In Brief, 13 (1999).
Timothy D. Lytton, Halberstam v. Daniel and the Uncertain Future of Negligent Marketing Claims Against Firearms Manufacturers, 64 Brook. L. Rev. 681 (1998).
Timothy D. Lytton, Various Methods of Resolving Conflict, 13 De Lo Jurídico 33 (1997).
Timothy D. Lytton, Rules and Relationships: The Varieties of Wrongdoing in Tort Law, 28 Seton Hall L. Rev. 359 (1997).
Timothy D. Lytton, Human Rights and Conflict Resolution, 5 Justicia 37 (1996).
Timothy D. Lytton, Mediation: On the Road to Peace and Justice in Nicaragua, 11 De Lo Jurídico 5 (1995).
Timothy D. Lytton, Mediation in Nicaragua: Putting the Law to Work for People, 6 De Lo Jurídico 31 (1994).
Timothy D. Lytton, Foreword: Revolution, Participatory Democracy and Property: The Nicaraguan Property Regime After Sandinista Land Reform, 22 Cap. U. L. Rev. 833 (1993).
Timothy D. Lytton, Smashing the Idols of Efficiency, 79 Va. L. Rev. 275 (1993) (reviewing Jules L. Coleman, Risks and Wrongs (1992)).
Timothy Lytton, Exodus and the Struggle for Deliverance: Guatemalan Refugees in Mexico, 1990 Int'l J. Refugee L. (Special Issue) 173.
Popular Press
Timothy D. Lytton, Chopped Herring and the Making of the American Kosher Certification System, Jewish Rev. Books, Spr. 2013, at 5.
Timothy Lytton, Exposing Secrets of the Catholic Church: How Civil Lawsuits Brought the Sex Abuse Scandal to Light, American Sexuality, July 31, 2008.
Timothy D. Lytton, Legal Legacy, Boston Globe, Feb. 4, 2007, at E1.
Timothy D. Lytton, The Sting: New York Has Devised an Ingenious Approach to Stopping the Flow of Guns Into the City. Could It Work for Boston?, Boston Globe, Aug. 27, 2006, at D1.
Timothy D. Lytton, Op-Ed, Gun Bill a Messy Mix of Law, Politics, Albany Times Union, Oct. 27, 2005, at A13.
Anthony J. Sebok & Timothy Lytton, New York City's Gun Industry Responsibility Act: Why It May Do More Harm than Good, Findlaw's Writ, Mar. 7, 2005, http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20050307_lytton.html.
Anthony J. Sebok & Timothy D. Lytton, The New Bill to Protect the Gun Industry From Lawsuits: How It Strikes at the Heart of Age-Old Tort Law Principles, Findlaw's Writ, Feb. 23, 2004, http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20040223_lytton.html.