Areas of Expertise
- Bioethics
- Death Penalty Law
- Legal Theory
About Paul Litton
Paul Litton joined the faculty in 2006. He received a J.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied through the University’s Joint Program in Law and Philosophy and was awarded the Lynn Lukens Moore Prize in Jurisprudence by the Law School. He was law clerk to Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz of the New Jersey Supreme Court, serving a second term as the Court’s death penalty law clerk. From 2004 to 2006 he was a fellow in the Department of Clinical Bioethics within the National Institutes of Health.
Professor Litton’s research primarily focuses on moral philosophy and criminal law theory (especially free will and responsibility theory), and bioethics. In 2009 he received the Shook Hardy & Bacon Excellence in Research Award at the Law School. From 2010-12, Professor Litton co-chaired the Missouri Death Penalty Assessment Team, assembled by the American Bar Association to study and make recommendations regarding the laws and practices of Missouri’s capital system.
Professor Litton teaches Criminal Law, Death Penalty Law, Jurisprudence, and Bioethics.
Latest News Featuring Paul Litton
- Paul Litton co-authors research study on how past suffering can result in future praise
- Associate Dean Litton and Colleagues Publish Work on Moral Judgment
- Student Perspectives: Practice Trial by Zoom
- MU Faculty Publish Study that Shows Criminal Offenders with Genetic Mental Disorders are Judged More Negatively
- Mizzou Law Faculty Present to Missouri Middle and High School Teachers
Latest Publications from Paul Litton
- Symposium: A New Hope? An Interdisciplinary Reflection on the Constitution, Politics, and Polarization in Jack Balkin’s “The Cycles of Constitutional Time”
- Good Deeds and Hard Knocks: The Effect of Past Suffering on Praise for Moral Behavior
- Traumatic Brain Injury and a Divergence Between Moral and Criminal Responsibility
- Crime, Punishment, and Causation: The Effect of Etiological Information on the Perception of Moral Agency
- The Mistaken Quest for a Control Test: For a Rationality Standard of Sanity