Ruth L. Hulston Professor of Law
BA (1972), Harvard University
JD (1976), University of California at Berkley
Phone Number: (573) 882-8274
Room Number: 314 Hulston Hall
E-Mail Address:
Professor Peters is the Ruth L. Hulston Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law. His specialty is health law. Throughout his career, he has made important contributions to the field with his scholarship on topics such as the medical malpractice standard of care, the withholding of life support, the tension between cost control and disability rights, and the regulation of reproductive technology.
In 2001 he was a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University, where he worked on a book about the regulation of risky reproductive technologies. It was published in the spring of 2004 by Oxford University Press.
At the School of Law, Professor Peters regularly teaches Health Care Law & Policy, Genetics Law & Policy, and Torts. In addition, he is often a guest speaker at the Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, the Molecular Biology program, and other departments across the campus.
Professor Peters graduated with honors from Harvard College in 1972, received a one year fellowship for advanced study at the University of Edinburgh, and completed his academic training at the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his J.D., Order of the Coif, in 1976.
He began his career as a civil rights lawyer in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and then spent several years in private practice specializing in medical malpractice and product liability defense. After joining the MU faculty in 1986, he was elected to membership of the American Law Institute, a highly respected academy of lawyers, judges and scholars.
Professor Peters believes in bringing theory to practice and, therefore, is also active across the campus and in the community. On campus, he was the founding Director of the UMC Biotechnology & Society Program, an interdisciplinary initiative assembled to study the social and legal implications of modern genetic technology.
In the community, he recently served as the President of the Board of Directors of the Family Health Center, a community health center whose doors are open to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. He is also now the President of the Board of First Chance for Children, an organization dedicated to expanding the odds that low income children will receive quality pre-school education.
Recent Publications
Book Chapters/Collected Works
Regulatory Barriers to Consumer Information, with Thomas A. Lambert in LABELING GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD: THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND LEGAL DEBATE, (ed. Paul Weirich, Oxford University Press 2007).
