Albany Law School

B.A., Yale University  
J.D., Yale Law School

Joined Albany Law School in 2000. Previously associate professor of law at New York Law School; research fellow and clinical instructor at Yale University; fellow at Hartman Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, and Harvard University Program in Ethics and the Professions; and assistant professor of law at Capital University Law School. He has published articles in both English and Spanish on torts, administrative law, conflict resolution, and jurisprudence. He is the editor of Suing the Gun Industry: A Battle at the Crossroads of Gun Control and Mass Torts (Michigan University Press 2005) and co-author of Jurisprudence, Cases and Materials: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Law (Lexis 2006). He is also author of Holding Bishops Accountable: How Lawsuits Helped the Catholic Church Confront Clergy Sexual Abuse (Harvard University Press 2008). His latest book is Kosher: Private Regulation in the Age of Industrial Food (Harvard University Press 2013).

Professor Lytton was awarded the first annual Excellence in Teaching award in 2006 and the annual Excellence in Scholarship award in 2009.

Curriculum Vita (.pdf)

KOSHER: PRIVATE REGULATION IN THE AGE OF INDUSTRIAL OF FOOD (Harvard University Press, 2013)

HOLDING BISHOPS ACCOUNTABLE:HOW LAWSUITS HELPED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH CONFRONT CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE
(Harvard University Press, 2008)

SUING THE GUN INDUSTRY:A BATTLE AT THE CROSSROADS OF GUN CONTROL AND MASS TORTS (University of Michigan Press, 2005)​​​​​​

Generating more than $12 billion in annual sales, kosher food is big business. It is also an unheralded story of private-sector regulation in an era of growing public concern over the government’s ability to regulate the food industry. Kosher uncovers how independent certification agencies rescued American kosher supervision from corruption and turned it into a model of nongovernmental administration.

“Kosher is one terrific book. It’s a wonderfully entertaining account of the squabbles, finger-pointing, and cutthroat competition that turned kosher certification from scandalous corruption to a respectable—and highly profitable—business. Today, if a food is labeled kosher, it is kosher, which is more than can be said of most claims on food labels. You don’t have to be Jewish to appreciate the fun in Timothy Lytton’s presentation of an unusually successful case study.”
- Marion Nestle, New York University and author of the bestselling books Food Politics and Safe Food

In overcoming many of the problems of insufficient resources and weak enforcement that hamper the government, private kosher certification holds important lessons for improving food regulation. The growing popularity of kosher food is a response to a more general cultural anxiety about industrialization of the food supply. Like the organic and locavore movements, a growing number of consumers see rabbinic supervision as a way to personalize today’s complex, globalized system of food production.

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Read a recent interview with Professor Lytton

Listen to a public radio interview with Professor Lytton

Kosher was featured in BusinessWeek

Read an interview with Professor Lytton in the Albany, N.Y., Times Union

Watch an interview on WNYT's Forum 13

KOSHER: PRIVATE REGULATION IN THE AGE OF INDUSTRIAL FOOD (Harvard University Press, 2013)​ 

Tort as a Litigation Lottery:A Misconceived Metaphor, 52 Boston College Law Review 267 (2011) (with Robert Rabin and Peter Shuck) 

An Educational Approach to School Food: Using Nutrition Standards to Promote Healthy Dietary Habits, 2010 Utah Law Review 1189 (2010)

Banning Front-of-Package Food Labels: First Amendment Constraints on Public Health Policy, Public Health Nutrition 1 (2010)

Signs of Change or Clash of Symbols?: FDA Regulation of Nutrient Profile Labeling, 20 Health Matrix 93 (2010)

Allowing Patients to Waive the Right to Sue for Medical Malpractice: A Response to Thaler and Sunstein, 104 Northwestern Law Review 233 (2010) (with Tom Baker)

Framing Clergy Sexual Abuse as an Institutional Failure: How Tort Litigation Influences Media Coverage, 36 William Mitchell Law Review 169 (2009)

HOLDING BISHOPS ACCOUNTABLE: HOW LAWSUITS HELPED THE CATHOLIC CHURCH CONFRONT CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE, (Harvard University Press, 2008)

Using Tort Litigation to Enhance Policymaking:  Lessons From Gun Industry and Clergy Sexual Abuse Lawsuits and Implications for Climate Change Litigation, 83 Texas Law Review1837 (2008)

Clergy Sexual Abuse Litigation: The Policymaking Role of Tort Law, 39 Connecticut Law Review 809 (2007)

Due Process and Legal Authority in the Garden of Eden: Jurisprudence in Aggadic Midrash, 16 Jewish Law Annual 185 (2006)

JURISPRUDENCE, CASES AND MATERIALS: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF LAW AND ITS APPLICATIONS, 2nd ed. (LexisNexis Matthew Bender Publishing, 2006) (with Stephen E. Gottlieb, Brian Bix, and Robin L. West)

Editor, SUING THE GUN INDUSTRY: A BATTLE AT THE CROSSROADS OF GUN CONTROL AND MASS TORTS, (University of Michigan Press, 2005)

Introduction, An Overview of Lawsuits Against the Gun Industry in SUING THE GUN INDUSTRY: A BATTLE AT THE CROSSROADS OF GUN CONTROL AND MASS TORTS, (University of Michigan Press, 2005)

Chapter 6, The NRA, the Brady Campaign, and the Politics of Gun Litigation, in SUING THE GUN INDUSTRY: A BATTLE AT THE CROSSROADS OF GUN CONTROL AND MASS TORTS, (University of Michigan Press, 2005)

Chapter 10, The Complementary Role of Tort Litigation in Regulating the Gun Industry, in SUING THE GUN INDUSTRY: A BATTLE AT THE CROSSROADS OF GUN CONTROL AND MASS TORTS, (University of Michigan Press, 2005)

Afterword, Federal Gun Industry Immunity Legislation, in SUING THE GUN INDUSTRY: A BATTLE AT THE CROSSROADS OF GUN CONTROL AND MASS TORTS, (University of Michigan Press, 2005)

Symposium Introduction: Assessing the Theoretical Claims and Policy Prescriptions of Peter Schuck's Diversity in America: Keeping Government at a Safe Distance, 23 Yale Law and Policy Review 1 (2005)

Using Litigation to Make Public Health Policy: Theoretical and Empirical Challenges in Assessing Product Liability, Tobacco, and Gun Litigation, 32 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 556 (2004)

"Shall not the Judge of the Earth Deal Justly?":  Accountability, Compassion, and Judicial Authority in the Biblical Story of Sodom and Gomorrah, 18 Journal of Law & Religion 31 (2002-2003)

Should Government be Allowed to Recover the Costs of Public Services from Tortfeasors?: Tort Subsidies, the Limits of Loss Spreading, and the Free Public Services Doctrine, 76 Tulane Law Review 727 (2002)

Lawsuits Against the Gun Industry: A Comparative Institutional Analysis, 32 Connecticut Law Review 1247 (2000)

Tort Claims Against Gun Manufacturers for Crime-Related Injuries: Defining a Suitable Role for the Tort System in Regulating the Firearms Industry, 65 Missouri Law Review 1 (2000)

Building Peace by Teaching Mediation: A New Model of Law and Development, 17 In Brief 13 (1999)

Promoting the Rule of Law and a Culture of Peace in Guatemala and Nicaragua Using a New Model of South-South Development (Spanish language), Cultura de Paz, Fall 1999

Halberstam v. Daniel and the Uncertain Future of Negligent Marketing Claims Against Firearms Manufacturers, 64 Brooklyn Law Review 681 (1998)

Rules and Relationships: The Varieties of Wrongdoing in Tort Law, 28 Seton Hall Law Review 359 (1997)

Various Methods of Resolving Conflict (Spanish language), 13 De lo juridico 33 (1997)

Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (Spanish language), 5 Justicia 37 (1996)

Mediation: On the Road to Peace and Justice in Nicaragua (Spanish language), 11 De lo juridico 5 (1995)

Mediation in Nicaragua: Putting Law to Work for People (Spanish language), 6 De lo juridico 31 (1994)

Responsibility for Human Suffering: Awareness, Participation, and the Frontiers of Tort Law, 78 Cornell Law Review 470 (1993)

Book Review: Smashing Idols of Efficiency, reviewing Coleman, Jules L., RISKS AND WRONGS, 79 Virginia Law Review 275 (1993)

Revolution, Participatory Democracy, and Property (The Nicaraguan Property Regime After Sandinista Land Reform), 22 Capital University Law Review 833 (1993)

Exodus and the Struggle for Deliverance: Guatemalan Refugees in Mexico, International Journal of Refugee Law, 173 (Special Issue, September 1990)​​

Lessons from the L.A. Kosher Meat Scandal, jweekly (online) (April 11, 2013)

Kosher Certification: A Model of Reliable Food Label Regulation, Fooducate (online) (March 25, 2013)

The Role of Litigation in Social Change, Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, Yale University (podcast) (March 28, 2012)

Certification of Kosher Food as a Model for Food Safety, Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, Yale University (podcast) (March 28, 2012)

Inadequate Public Funding and the Sale of Competitive Foods as a Revenue Source, Fooducate (online) (March 11, 2010)

Regulating Front-of-Package Nutrition Labels (3 part se​ries), Fooducate (online) (January 15, 19, & 25, 2010)

Lawsuits Once Again Help Expose Clergy Sexual Abuse, The Huffington Post (online) (December 7, 2009)

Is the Tort System a Litigation Lottery?, Torts Prof Blog (online) (November 16, 2009)

A Shabbat Evening Siddur for Young People (Torah Aura Productions 2009) (with Rachel Anisfeld)

A Shabbat Morning Siddur for Young People (Torah Aura Productions 2009) (with Rachel Anisfeld)

Exposing Secrets of the Catholic Church: How Civil Lawsuits Brought the Sex Abuse Scandal to Light, American Sexuality Magazine (online) (July 31, 2008)

Book Review: Doyle, Thomas P. et al., Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes: The Church’s 2,000-Year Paper Trail of Sexual Abuse, 23 Journal of Law & Religion 615 (2007)

Legal Legacy: Five Years after the Clergy Sexual Abuse Scandal, Boston Globe, (February 4, 2007), E1

The Sting: New York Has Devised an Ingenious Approach to Stopping the Flow of Guns into the City. Could It Work for Boston?​, Boston Globe (August 27, 2006), D1

Gun Bill a Messy Mix of Law, Politics​, Op-Ed, Albany Times Union (October 27, 2005)

New York City’s Gun Industry Responsibility Act: Why It May Do More Harm than Good, Findlaw’s Writ, Legal Commentary (online) (March 7, 2005) (with Anthony Sebok)

The New Bill to Protect the Gun Industry from Lawsuits: How It Strikes at the Heart of Age-Old Tort Law Principles, Findlaw’s Writ, Legal Commentary  (online) (Feb. 12, 2004) (with Anthony Sebok)

Neither Side Right on Grunow Suit’s Impact, Op-Ed, Palm Beach Post, (November 24, 2002)