Discussion Leader Teams and Topics Assignments [posted on Canvas]

(2 hours) This seminar course will explore the interaction of science and scientists with law and lawyers. Among the topics we will explore are:

• the role of DNA evidence in criminal trials and exonerations
• questions of uncertain risk in the conduct of scientific research (such as experiments with lethal viruses, nanotech, and artificial intelligence)
• the effect of scientific consensus on such diverse issues as climate change and the planetary status of Pluto

Note that this is a course about law and policy. It is not a science course as such, and no science or math background is required or preferred. The grade will be based on class participation and, primarily, a paper, which can fulfill the J.D. degree’s graduation writing requirement.

Eric E. Johnson will join the OU College of Law in Fall 2018, having previously taught at the University of North Dakota School of Law. His primary scholarly interests are intellectual property and the intersection of science and law. His work on particle physics and end-of-the-world black-hole disaster scenarios was the focus of a two-page article in Physics World magazine and an invited commentary in New Scientist magazine.

His prior writing in the science-and-law area includes Judicial Review of Uncertain Risks in Scientific Research (Chapter 6 in The Illusion of Risk Control: What Does it Take to Live with Uncertainty? (Gilles Motet & Corinne Bieder eds., SpringerOpen 2017), Agencies and Science-Experiment Risk, 2016 University of Illinois Law Review 527 (2016), and The Black-Hole Case: The Injunction Against the End of the World, 76 Tennessee Law Review 819 (2009).

Prof. Johnson received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, and he practiced with the Los Angeles firm of Irell & Manella, where his clients included Paramount, MTV, CBS, Touchstone, and Immersion Corporation. He later worked as in-house counsel to Fox Cable Networks. Before going to law school, he was a top-40 radio disc jockey and a stand-up comic.

Other classes Prof. Johnson teaches include Torts, Intellectual Property, and Antitrust. He is the author of a free-access/open-source casebook on tort law, Torts: Cases and Context, which emphasizes a plain-spoken, straightforward approach alongside a highly varied set of readings.

Curriculum Vitae