Lois Weithorn
Professor of Law, Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair UC Hastings College of the Law
UC Hastings College of the Law
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Biography
Professor Weithorn also has a Ph.D. in Psychology (University of Pittsburgh). Her work integrates perspectives in law and science, with special emphasis on legal policies affecting family relationships or vulnerable or underserved groups (such as children and persons with mental and emotional disabilities). Professor Weithorn’s scholarship includes topics such as the law and ethics of informed consent for treatment and research; legal responses to parental vaccine refusal; policies affecting youth crossing child welfare, juvenile justice and/or mental health system boundaries; developmental neuroscience and child protection policy reform; intellectual disability and the death penalty; California’s Proposition 8 and same-sex marriage. She also serves as a consultant to the Ethics and Policy Core at the Center for AIDS Prevention, UCSF Medical Center.
Prior to joining the faculty at UC Hastings, Professor Weithorn held positions at the University of Virginia (Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy and Department of Psychology). She served as a fellow at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, worked on federal mental health policy at the National Mental Health Association in Washington, D.C., and consulted with the Judicial Council of California and other agencies on child and family policy issues. Professor Weithorn also served on the Ethics Committee of the American Psychological Association and chaired several APA divisional committees relating to children and the law.
Media
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
President (Editor-in-Chief)
Served as President of the Stanford Law Review
Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence
2007-01-01
Awarded by University of California - Hastings College of the Law.
Faculty Scholarship Award
2002-01-01
Awarded by UC Hastings Foundation.
Education
Stanford Law School
J.D.
Law
1989
University of Pittsburgh
Ph.D.
Psychology
1980
Hamilton (Kirkland) College
B.A.
Psychology
1974
Affiliations
- American Journal of Orthopsychiatry : Editorial Board
- Psychology Public Policy and Law (Journal) : Editorial Board
- American Psychological Association : Fellow
Media Appearances
CALIFORNIA / Spank a little kid, go to jail, if bill becomes law / Critics blast effort as intrusive and difficult to enforce
SFGate online
2007-01-19
Lois Weithorn, who teaches family law at UC's Hastings College of the Law, said while there are both civil and criminal statutes addressing child abuse, there is room for subjectivity on what constitutes abuse. "There are laws on the books, but corporal punishment has always been a challenge to deal with," she said. "Most jurisdictions do not sanction parents (for) corporal punishment that doesn't result in physical injury." That's the reason we need a law that clearly delineates what is legal or not, Lieber said. "Under current law, parents can beat their children to a reasonable degree," Lieber said. Leiber continued "I just think that that's plain wrong and we ought to ban any sort of physical attack on children who are not old enough to defend themselves." But Weithorn said even Lieber's bill could potentially be open to interpretation, such as what is spanking versus a pat on the bottom. "We're dealing with the challenge of drawing lines," the law professor said...
Event Appearances
Mandatory Vaccination Policies: Legal Justifications and Challenges
San Francisco, CA Health Law Professors Conference, American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics
2014-06-06
The Evolution of Legal Policies Governing Vaccination of Children: Controversies and Challenges
Conference on Children's Health, Mental Health and the Law San Francisco, CA
2014-03-28
Children’s Mental Health and the Mental Health “Non-System”
Conference on Children's Health, Mental Health and the Law San Francisco, CA
2014-03-29
Same-Sex Marriage and US Supreme Court: Oral Argument and Panel Discussion
UCSF-UC Hastings Consortium San Francisco, CA
2013-04-01
Parental Refusal of Childhood Vaccinations: Trends, Consequences and Legal Policy Reponses,
UCSF-UC Hastings Consortium San Francisco, CA
2013-03-29
Selected Articles
Responding to the Childhood Vaccination Crisis: Legal Frameworks and Tools in the Context of Parental Vaccine Refusal
Buffalo Law Review2015-01-01
In spite of vaccines' impressive record of safety and effectiveness, some families have failed to immunize their children, denying those children protection against vaccine-preventable diseases. In the last years, rates of nonvaccination, as well as rates of partial ...
Developmental Neuroscience, Children's Relationships with Primary Caregivers, and Child Protection Policy Reform
Children's Relationships with Primary Caregivers, and Child Protection Policy Reform2012-01-01
Empirical research has confirmed that the harms of child maltreatment can affect almost every area of an individual's functioning and can reverberate across relationships, generations, and communities. Most recently, investigators at the US Centers for Disease ...
Conceptual Hurdles to the Application of Atkins v. Virgina
Hastings Law Journal2007-01-01
In its 2002 decision, Atkins v. Virginia, the United States Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment precludes the execution of "mentally retarded offender [s]."'Writing for a six-member majority, Justice Stevens ...
Envisioning second-order change in America's responses to troubled and troublesome youth
Hofstra Law Review2005-01-01
Every year hundreds of thousands of troubled and troublesome children
experience out-of-home placements under the auspices of the mental health, juvenile justice, and child welfare systems. The annual rates of such placements were higher at the ...
Protecting children from exposure to domestic violence: The use and abuse of child maltreatment statutes
Hastings Law Journal2001-01-01
In the past two decades, researchers have amassed an impressive body of
empirical data demonstrating the deleterious impact of exposure to interparental violence on children. Policymakers are now confronted with the question of how society can best ...
Courses
Family Law
Spring '14 and Spring '15
Bioethics, Law & Healthcare Decisionmaking Seminar
Spring '13 and Spring '16
Children and the Law
Fall '14
Mental Health Law & Policy Course
Fall '14
Criminal Law
Fall '15
