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Lois Weithorn

Professor of Law and Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair

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Bio

Lois A. Weithorn is a Professor of Law and the Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair. She joined the full-time UC Law SF faculty in 2001. She received the UC Law SF Foundation Faculty Scholarship Award in 2002, and the Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence in 2007. Professor Weithorn received her J.D. from Stanford Law School where she served as President of the Stanford Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. After graduating, she clerked for the Honorable Joseph T. Sneed III of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit.

Professor Weithorn also has a Ph.D. in Psychology (University of Pittsburgh). Her work integrates perspectives in law and the behavioral and health sciences, with special emphasis on legal policies affecting family relationships or vulnerable or underserved groups such as children and persons with mental disorders. Professor Weithorn’s scholarship includes topics such as informed consent, health care decisionmaking capacity, and children’s participation in treatment decisions; 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; legal responses to children’s exposure to domestic violence; and intellectual disability and the death penalty. She also has served 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 Law SF, 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.

Selected Scholarship

Books
  • Children in the Legal System: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press 6th ed. 2020) (with Samuel M. Davis, Elizabeth Scott, & Walter Wadlington) (with Teachers’ Manual). AMAZON
  • Children in the Legal System: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press 5th ed. 2014) (with Samuel M. Davis, Elizabeth Scott, & Walter Wadlington) (with Teachers’ Manual).
  • Family Law: Cases, Texts, Problems (LexisNexis abridged 5th ed. 2014) (with Ira Mark Ellman, Paul M. Kurtz, Brian H. Bix, Karen Czapanskiy & Maxine Eichner) (with Teachers’ Manual).
  • Family Law: Cases, Texts, Problems (LexisNexis 5th ed. 2010) (with Ira Mark Ellman, Paul M. Kurtz, Brian H. Bix, Karen Czapanskiy & Maxine Eichner).
  • Psychology and Child Custody Determinations: Knowledge, Roles, and Expertise (Univ. of Nebraska Press 1987) (editor).
  • Community Mental Health Centers and the Courts: An Evaluation of Community–Based Forensic Services (Univ. of Nebraska Press 1985) (with Gary B. Melton & Christopher Slobogin).
  • Children, Mental Health, and the Law (Sage Publications 1984) (with N. Dickon Reppucci et al.).
Journal Articles
  • Providing Adolescents with Independent and Confidential Access to Childhood Vaccines: A Proposal to Lower the Age of Consent, 52 Conn. L. Rev. 771 (2020) (with Dorit Rubinstein Reiss). FULLTEXT SSRN
  • Psychological Distress, Mental Disorder, and Assessment of Decisionmaking Capacity under U.S. Medical Aid in Dying Statutes, 71 Hastings L.J. 637 (2020). FULLTEXT
  • When Does A Minor’s Legal Competence To Make Health Care Decisions Matter?, 146 Pediatrics (Supp. 1) (Aug. 2020). URL
  • Legal Approaches to Promoting Parental Compliance with Childhood Immunization Recommendations, 14 Hum. Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics 1610 (2018) (with Dorit Rubinstein Reiss). FULLTEXT
  • A Constitutional Jurisprudence of Children’s Vulnerability, 69 Hastings L.J. 179 (2017). FULLTEXT
  • Responding to the Childhood Vaccination Crisis: Legal Frameworks and Tools in the Context of Parental Vaccine Refusal, 63 Buff. L. Rev. 881 (2015) (with Dorit Rubinstein Reiss). FULLTEXT SSRN
  • Developmental Neuroscience, Children’s Relationships with Primary Caregivers, and Child Protection Policy Reform, 63 Hastings L.J. 1487 (2012). FULLTEXT
  • Lost in Translation: The Unintended Consequences of Advance Directive Law on Clinical Care, 154 Annals Internal Med. 121 (2011) (with Lesley S. Castillo, Brie A. Williams, Sarah M. Hooper, Charles P. Sabatino & Rebecca L. Sudore). URL
  • Can a Subsequent Change in Law Void a Marriage that Was Valid at its Inception? Considering the Legal Effect of Proposition 8 on California’s Existing Same-Sex Marriages, 60 Hastings L.J. 1063 (2009). FULLTEXT SSRN
  • Conceptual Hurdles to the Application of Atkins v. Virginia, 59 Hastings L.J. 1203 (2008). FULLTEXT SSRN
  • Envisioning Second-Order Change in America’s Responses to Troubled and Troublesome Youth, 33 Hofstra L. Rev. 1305 (2005). FULLTEXT SSRN
  • Protecting Children from Exposure to Domestic Violence: The Use and Abuse of Child Maltreatment Statutes, 53 Hastings L.J. 1 (2001). FULLTEXT SSRN
  • Domestic Violence and Children: Analysis and Recommendations, 9 Future of Child. 4 (Winter 1999) (with Lucy S. Carter & Richard E. Behrman). FULLTEXT
  • Youth Participation in Family and Community Decision Making, 2 Fam. Futures 6 (1998).
  • Children’s Capacities To Decide About Participation in Research, 5 IRB: Rev. Hum. Subjects Res. 1 (Mar.–Apr. 1983).
  • Developmental Factors and Competence to Make Informed Treatment Decisions, 5 Child & Youth Services 85 (1982) (reprinted in Legal Reforms Affecting Child & Youth Services 85 (Gary B. Melton ed., Haworth Press 1982)). URL
  • The Competency of Children and Adolescents to Make Informed Treatment Decisions, 53 Child Dev. 1589 (1982) (with Susan B. Campbell). FULLTEXT
  • A Comparison of Extreme Groups of Good and Poor Foster Placements, 6 Soc. Welfare 49 (1979) (with S.G. Campbell, R Simon, D Krikston, & K. Connolly).
  • Child Abuse Training: A Community–Based Interdisciplinary Program, 14 Community Mental Health J. 179 (1978) (with Elizabeth Elmer et al.).
Chapters In Books
  • Medical Care and Procedures, Consent to, in The Child: An Encyclopedic Companion ___ (Richard A. Schweder, ed., University of Chicago Press 2009). AMAZON
  • The Legal Contexts of Forensic Assessment of Children and Families, in Forensic Mental Health Assessment of Children and Adolescents 11 (Steven N. Sparta & Gerald P. Koocher eds., Oxford Univ. Press 2006). CATALOG
  • Informed Consent, in 4 Encyclopedia of Psychology 297 (Alan E. Kazdin ed., Am. Psychological Ass’n 2000). CATALOG
  • Children’s Involvement in Research Participation Decisions: Psychological Considerations, in Children as Research Subjects 133 (Michael A. Grodin & Leonard H. Glantz eds., Oxford Univ. Press 1994) (with David G. Scherer). CATALOG
  • Legal and Ethical Issues in Pediatric Psychology, in Handbook of Pediatric Psychology 567 (Donald K. Routh ed., Guilford Press 1988) (with M.A. McCabe).
  • Informed Consent for Prevention Research Involving Children: Legal and Ethical Issues, in Preventing Mental Disorders: A Research Perspective 226 (Jane A. Steinberg & Morton M. Silverman eds., National Institute of Mental Health 1987).
  • Professional Responsibility in the Dissemination of Psychological Research in Legal Contexts, in Reforming the Law: Impact of Child Development Research 253 (Gary B. Melton ed., Guilford Press 1987). CATALOG
  • Psychological Consultation in Divorce Custody Litigation: Ethical Considerations, in Psychology and Child Custody Determinations: Knowledge, Roles and Expertise 183 (Lois A. Weithorn ed., Univ. of Nebraska Press 1987).
  • Psychological Evaluations in Divorce Custody: Problems, Principles, and Procedures Considerations, in Psychology and Child Custody Determinations: Knowledge, Roles and Expertise 157 (Lois A. Weithorn ed., Univ. of Nebraska Press 1987) (with Thomas Grisso).
  • Children’s Capacities for Participation in Treatment Decision–Making, in Emerging Issues in Child Psychiatry and the Law 22 (Elissa P. Benedek & Diane H. Schetky eds., Brunner/Mazel, Inc. 1985).
  • Children’s Capacities in Legal Contexts, in Children, Mental Health, and the Law 25 (N. Dickon Reppucci et al. eds., Sage Publications 1984).
  • Involving Children in Decisions Affecting Their Own Welfare, in Children’s Competence to Consent 235 (Gary B Melton, Gerald P Koocher, & Michael J Saks eds., Plenum Press 1983).
  • Drug Therapy—Children’s Rights, in Drugs and the Special Child 203 (Michael Jay Cohen ed., Gardner Press 1979).
Book Reviews
  • Interpreting the Law for the Mental Health Professional, 2 Contemp. Psychiatry 198 (1983) (reviewing Robert L. Sadoff, Legal Issues in the Care of Psychiatric Patients (1982)).
Student Notes/Comments
  • Note, Mental Hospitalization of Troublesome Youth: An Analysis of Skyrocketing Admission Rates, 40 Stan. L. Rev. 773 (1988). HEIN WL
Dissertations & Theses
  • Competency to Render Informed Treatment Decisions: A Comparison Of Certain Minors and Adults (1980) (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh) (on file with author).

Education

  • Stanford Law School
    J.D., Law     1989

  • University of Pittsburgh
    Ph.D., Psychology     1980

  • Hamilton (Kirkland) College
    B.A., Psychology     1974

Accomplishments

  • President (Editor-in-Chief)
    Served as President of the Stanford Law Review     1989

  • Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence
    Awarded by University of California - Hastings College of the Law.     2007

  • Faculty Scholarship Award
    Awarded by UC Law SF Foundation.     2002

Selected Scholarship

Links

Courses

  • Children and the Law
  • Bioethics, Law, and Health Care Decisionmaking Seminar
  • Criminal Law
  • Family Law
  • Mental Health Law and Policy

Expertise

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