
Christopher Robertson
Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, BU School of Law
Professor of Law, BU School of Law
Professor of Health Law, Policy & Management in the BU School of Public Health
BA, Southeast Missouri State University, summa cum laude
MA, Washington University in St. Louis
PhD, Washington University in St. Louis
JD, Harvard Law School, magna cum laude
Biography
Christopher Robertson joined the BU Law faculty in 2020 as a tenured professor and N. Neal Pike Scholar in Health & Disability Law. He is also a Professor of Health Law, Policy & Management in the BU School of Public Health.
Professor Robertson is an expert in health law, institutional design, and decision making. His wide-ranging work includes torts, bioethics, professional responsibility, conflicts of interests, criminal justice, evidence, the First Amendment, racial disparities, and corruption.
In 2019, Harvard University Press published Exposed: Why Our Health Insurance is Incomplete and What Can be Done About It. Robertson has co-edited three books, Nudging Health: Behavioral Economics and Health Law (2016), Blinding as a Solution to Bias: Strengthening Biomedical Science, Forensic Science, and Law (2016), and Innovation and Protection: The Future of Medical Device Regulation (2022).
Acting in legal reform movements, Robertson has worked for the board of trustees of the California State Bar to reduce racial disparities in the attorney discipline system. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute. He previously served as reporter for the Health Law Monitoring Committee of the Uniform Law Commission. For over a decade, he has served on the clinical ethics committee of an academic medical center.
Working to reform legal education, Robertson is leading the development of JD-Next, a national program designed to reduce disparities in preparation for law school and to provide a more reliable predictor of student success. In its second year, the program enrolled over 1100 students nationwide. With ETS, Robertson also conducted the first major study of the validity of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) as an admissions test for JD programs, which led to 90+ schools, including Harvard, Yale, and BU now relying on the exam. Robertson has also pioneered legal education for undergraduates and non-lawyer professionals.
Robertson previously served as associate dean for research and innovation and professor of law at the University of Arizona. Professor Robertson has served as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, NYU Law, and the London School of Economics, and as a visiting scholar at the Brown University Policy Lab. He is affiliated with the Petrie Flom Center for Health Care Policy, Bioethics and Biotechnology at Harvard and the NYU Langone Health Working Group on Compassionate Use and Pre-Approval Access (CUPA). Robertson’s legal practice has focused on complex litigation involving medical and scientific disputes, and he continues to work with litigators through his firm, Hugo Analytics.
- Profile Types
- Associate Deans, Faculty, Full-Time Faculty, Professors & Clinical Instructors, and Staff
- Areas of Interest
- Civil Litigation, Constitutional Law, Diversity & Inclusion, Evidence Law, Health Law, Law & Technology, Legal Ethics, and Torts
- Profiles
- Christopher Robertson
Publications
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National Telecommunications and Information Administration: Comments from Researchers at Boston University and the University of Chicago Boston University School of Law Research Paper Series (2023)
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Annabel Kupke, Carmel Shachar & Christopher Robertson, Pulse Oximeters and Violation of Federal Antidiscrimination Law JAMA (2023)
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Jessica Findley, Adriana Cimetta, Heidi Burross, Katherine Cheng, Matt Charles, Cayley Balser, Ran Li & Christopher Robertson, JD-Next: A Valid and Reliable Tool to Predict Diverse Students’ Success in Law School Journal of Empirical Legal Studies (2023)
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Christopher Robertson, Wendy Netter Epstein, David Yokum, Hansoo Ko, Kevin Wilson, Monica Ramos, Katherine Kettering & Margaret Houtz, Can Moral Framing Drive Insurance Enrollment in the US? 19 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies (2022)
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Christopher Robertson, What The Harm Principle Says About Vaccination and Healthcare Rationing 9 Journal of Law and the Biosciences (2022)
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Christopher Robertson, Jessica Fishman, Mandy K. Salmon, Daniel Scheitrum & K Aleks Schaefer, Comparative effectiveness of mandates and financial policies targeting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: A randomized, controlled survey experiment Vaccine (2022)
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Megan Wright, Shima Baradaran Baughman & Christopher Robertson, Inside the Black Box of Prosecutor Discretion 55 U.C. Davis Law Review (2022)
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Michael Sinha, Aaron Kesselheim & Christopher Robertson, Patient Assistance Programs and the Anti-Kickback Statute: Charting a Pathway Forward JAMA (2022)
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Christopher Robertson, Threat and Emotions: Mobilizing and Attitudinal Outcomes of a Ballistic Missile Scare 69 Social Problems (2022)
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Christopher Robertson, Mark Rukavina & Erin C. Fuse Brown, New State Consumer Protections Against Medical Debt 327 JAMA (2022)
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Christopher Robertson & Margaret Houtz, When Desperate Patients Go to Court for Unproven Treatments - The Battle for Hospital Independence 386 New England Journal of Medicine (2022)
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I. Glen Cohen, Timo Minssen, W. Nicholson Price II, Christopher Robertson & Carmel Shachar, The Future of Medical Device Regulation: Innovation and Protection (2022)
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Christopher Robertson & Holly Fernandez Lynch, Challenges in confirming drug effectiveness after early approval 374 Science (2021)
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Christopher Robertson, K. Aleks Schaefer & Daniel Scheitrum, Are Vaccine Lotteries Worth the Money? 209 Economics Letters (2021)
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Christopher Robertson & Michael Shammas, The Jury Trial Reinvented 9 Texas A&M Law Review (2021)
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Christopher Robertson, Patient responses to physician disclosures of industry conflicts of interest: A randomized field experiment 166 Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (2021)
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Christopher Robertson, Keith Bentele, Beth Meyerson, Alexander Wood & Jacqueline Salwa, Effects of Political versus Expert Messaging on Vaccination Intentions of Trump Voters 16 PLos One (2021)
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Robert L. Tsai & Christopher Robertson, Biden’s attempts to diversify federal courts can’t come fast enough The Hill (2021)
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Christopher Robertson, The Ethics of Research That May Disadvantage Others 43 Ethics & Human Research (2021)
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Jacqueline Salwa & Christopher Robertson, The Need for a Strong and Stable Federal Public Health Agency Independent from Politicians, in COVID-19 Policy Playbook: Legal Recommendations for a Safer, More Equitable Future (2021)
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Christopher Robertson, Daniel Scheitrum, K. Aleks Schaefer, Trey Malone, Brandon McFadden, Paul Ferraro & Kent Messer, Paying Americans to Take the Vaccine - Would it Help or Backfire? 8 Journal of Law and the Biosciences (2021)
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Christopher Robertson, Jonathan Darrow & Willard S. Kasoff, Evidence Supporting the Value of Surgical Procedures: Can We Do Better? 87 The American Surgeon (2020)
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Kelly McBride Folkers, Alison Bateman-House & Christopher Robertson, Paying for Unapproved Medical Products 11 Wake Forest Journal of Law & Policy (2020)
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Tara Sklar & Christopher Robertson, Telehealth for an Aging Population: How Can Law Influence Adoption Among Providers, Payors, and Patients? 46 American Journal of Law & Medicine (2020)
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Christopher Robertson, K Aleks Schaefer, Daniel Scheitrum, Sergio Puig & Keith Joiner, Indemnifying Precaution: Economic Insights for Regulation of a Highly Infectious Disease 7 Journal of Law and the Biosciences (2020)
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Christopher Robertson, Andy Yuan, Wendan Zhang & Keith Joiner, Distinguishing Moral Hazard from Access for High-Cost Healthcare under Insurance 15 PLOS ONE (2020)
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Christopher Robertson, Is Tort Law the Tool for Fixing Reproductive Wrongs? 100 Boston University Law Review Online (2020)
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Christopher Robertson, Shima Baradaran Baughman & Megan Wright, Race and Class: A Randomized Experiment with Prosecutors 16 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies (2019)
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Tara Sklar, Richard Carmona, Kathie Insel & Christopher Robertson, Digital Health Privacy in Active-Aging Settings: Will the Law Let You Age Well? 18 Journal on Active Aging (2019)
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Tara Sklar & Christopher Robertson, Affordability Boards: The States’ New Fix for Drug Pricing 381 New England Journal of Medicine (2019)
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Christopher Robertson, Why the Duty to Research Falls on Institutions Rather than Individuals 19 The American Journal of Bioethics (2019)
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Christopher Robertson, The Inability to Self-Diagnose Bias 96 Denver Law Review (2019)
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Christopher Robertson, Exposed: Why Our Health Insurance is Incomplete and What Can Be Done About it (2019)
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Christopher Robertson, Will Courts Allow States to Regulate Drug Prices? 379 The New England Journal of Medicine (2018)
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Christopher Robertson, Bernard Chao, Ian Farrell & Catherine Durso, Why Courts Fail to Protect Privacy: Race, Age, Bias, and Technology 106 California Law Review (2018)
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Christopher Robertson & Victor Laurion, Ideology Meets Reality: What Works and What Doesn't in Patient Exposure to Health Care Costs 15 Indiana Health Law Review (2018)
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Sarah E. Malanga, Jonathan D. Loe, Christopher Robertson & Kenneth S. Ramos, Who's Left Out of Big Data? How Big Data Collection, Analysis, and Use Neglect Populations Most in Need of Medical and Public Health Research and Interventions, in Big Data, Health Law, and Bioethics (I. Glenn Cohen, Holly Fernandez Lynch, Effy Vayena & Urs Gasser,2018)
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Nir Eyal, Paul Romain & Christopher Robertson, Can Rationing Through Inconvenience Be Ethical? 48 Hastings Center Report (2018)
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Christopher Robertson, Bernard Chao & David Yokum, Crowdsourcing & Data Analytics: The New Settlement Tools 102 Judicature (2018)
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Christopher Robertson, Practice-Based Research Networks and the Mandate for Real-World Evidence 44 American Journal of Law and Medicine (2018)
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Christopher Robertson, The Tip of the Iceberg: A First Amendment Right to Promote Drugs Off-Label 78 Ohio State Law Journal (2017)
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Christopher Robertson, Tip of the Iceberg II: How the Intended-Uses Principle Produces Medical Knowledge and Protects Liberty 11 New York University Journal of Law and Liberty (2017)
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Christopher Robertson, Time Is Money: An Empirical Assessment of Non-Economic Damages Arguments 95 Washington University Law Review (2017)
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Christopher Robertson, Incentives, Lies, and Disclosure 20 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law (2017)
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Christopher Robertson & Aaron S. Kesselheim, Regulating Off-Label Promotion — A Critical Test 375 The New England Journal of Medicine (2016)
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Christopher Robertson, Vaccines and Airline Travel: A Federal Role to Protect the Public Health 42 American Journal of Law & Medicine (2016)
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Megan S. Wright, Christopher Robertson & David V. Yokum, Mock Juror and Jury Assessments of Blinded Expert Witnesses, in Blinding as a Solution to Bias: Strengthening Biomedical Science, Forensic Science, and Law (Christopher T. Robertson & Aaron S. Kesselheim,2016)
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Christopher Robertson & Marc A. Rodwin, Money Blinding as a Solution to Industry Influence in Biomedical Science, in Blinding as a Solution to Bias: Strengthening Biomedical Science, Forensic Science, and Law (Christopher T. Robertson & Aaron S. Kesselheim,2016)
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Christopher Robertson, Why Blinding? How Blinding? A Theory of Blinding and Its Application to Institutional Corruption, in Blinding as a Solution to Bias: Strengthening Biomedical Science, Forensic Science, and Law (Christopher T. Robertson & Aaron S. Kesselheim,2016)
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Christopher Robertson, Medical Causes and Consequences of Home Foreclosures 46 International Journal of Health Services (2016)
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Christopher Robertson, An Assessment of the Human Subjects Protection Review Process for Exempt Research 44 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics (2016)
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Christopher Robertson & Jonathan D. Loe, Federal Government's Proposed Expansion of Regulation of Biospecimen Research Should Be Reconsidered 14 Biopreservation and Biobanking (2016)
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Christopher Robertson, John Campbell, Bernard Chao & David Yokum, Countering the Plaintiff’s Anchor: Jury Simulations to Evaluate Damages Arguments 101 Iowa Law Review (2016)
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Christopher Robertson, D. Alex Winkelman, Kelly Bergstrand & Darren Modzelewski, The Appearance and the Reality of Quid Pro Quo Corruption: An Empirical Investigation 8 Journal of Legal Analysis (2016)
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Christopher Robertson, Reducing Wasteful Incarcerations 39 Criminal Justice (2016)
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Christopher Robertson & Aaron S. Kesselheim, Blinding as a Solution to Bias: Strengthening Biomedical Science, Forensic Science, and Law (2016)
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Athan Papailiou, David Yokum & Christopher Robertson, The Novel New Jersey Eyewitness Instruction Induces Skepticism but Not Sensitivity 10 PLOS ONE (2015)
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Sunita Sah, Christopher Robertson & Shima Baughman, Blinding Prosecutors to Defendants’ Race: A Policy Proposal to Reduce Unconscious Bias in the Criminal Justice System 2 Behavioral Science & Policy (2015)
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Christopher Robertson, New DTCA Guidance — Enough to Empower Consumers? 373 The New England Journal of Medicine (2015)
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Christopher Robertson, Scaling Cost-Sharing to Wages: How Employers Can Reduce Health Spending and Provide Greater Economic Security 14 Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics (2015)
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Christopher Robertson, The FDCA as the Test for Truth of Promotional Claims, in FDA in the Twenty-First Century: The Challenges of Regulating Drugs and New Technologies (Holly Fernandez Lynch & I. Glenn Cohen,2015)
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Christopher Robertson, A Problem Not Yet Manifest: Gaps in Insurance Coverage of Medical Interventions After Genetic Testing 2 Journal of Law and the Biosciences (2015)
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Christopher Robertson, Do Observer Effects Matter? A Comment on Langenburg, Bochet, and Ford 6 Forensic Science Policy & Management: An International Journal (2015)
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Christopher Robertson, Scaling and Splitting, New Approaches to Health Insurance 38 Regulation (2015)
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Christopher Robertson, Preserving Public Trust and Demanding Accountability (Introduction to Part II), in FDA in the Twenty-First Century: The Challenges of Regulating Drugs and New Technologies (Holly Fernandez Lynch & I. Glenn Cohen,2015)
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Christopher Robertson, Should Patient Responsibility for Costs Change the Doctor-Patient Relationship? 50 Wake Forest Law Review (2015)
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Christopher Robertson & Megan Wright, Heterogeneity in IRB Policies with Regard to Disclosures About Payment for Participation in Recruitment Materials 42 Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics (2014)
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Christopher Robertson, David V. Yokum, Nimish Sheth & Keith A. Joiner, A Randomized Experiment of the Split Benefit Health Insurance Reform to Reduce High-Cost, Low-Value Consumption 1 Innovation & Entrepreneurship in Health (2014)
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Christopher Robertson, Perceptions of Efficacy, Morality, and Politics of Potential Cadaveric Organ-Transplantation Reforms 77 Law & Contemporary Problems (2014)
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Christopher Robertson, An Empirical Method for Harmless Error 46 Arizona State Law Journal (2014)
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Christopher Robertson & David Yokum, The Burden of Deciding for Yourself: The Disutility Caused by Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Spending 11 Indiana Health Law Review (2014)
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Christopher Robertson, When Truth Cannot Be Presumed: The Regulation of Drug Promotion Under an Expanding First Amendment 94 Boston University Law Review (2014)
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Christopher Robertson, The Presumption Against Expensive Health Care Consumption 49 Tulsa Law Review (2014)
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Christopher Robertson, An Empirical Method for Materiality: Would Conflict of Interest Disclosures Change Patient Decisions? 40 American Journal of Law and Medicine (2014)
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Christopher Robertson, Expert Witness Blinding Strategies to Mitigate Bias in Radiology Malpractice Cases: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature 11 Journal of the American College of Radiology (2014)
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Christopher Robertson, The Split Benefit: The Painless Way to Put Skin Back in the Health Care Game 98 Cornell Law Review (2013)
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Christopher Robertson, Distributions of Industry Payments to Massachusetts Physicians 368 New England Journal of Medicine (2013)
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Christopher Robertson, Susannah Rose & Aaron Kesselheim, Effect of Financial Relationships on the Behaviors of Health Care Professionals: A Review of the Evidence 40 Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics (2012)
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Christopher Robertson, The Effect of Blinded Experts on Jurors’ Verdicts 9 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies (2012)
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Christopher Robertson, Contingent Compensation of Post-Conviction Counsel: A Modest Proposal to Identify Meritorious Claims and Reduce Wasteful Government Spending 64 Maine Law Review (2012)
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Christopher Robertson, A Randomized Study of How Physicians Interpret Research Funding Disclosures 367 New England Journal of Medicine (2012)
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Christopher Robertson, Biased Advice 60 Emory Law Journal (2011)
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Christopher Robertson, The Money Blind: How to Stop Industry Bias in Biomedical Science, Without Violating the First Amendment 37 American Journal of Law and Medicine (2011)
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Christopher Robertson, Blind Expertise 85 New York University Law Review (2010)
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Christopher Robertson, Richard Egelhof & Michael Hoke, Get Sick, Get Out: The Medical Causes of Home Mortgage Foreclosures 18 Health Matrix (2008)
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Christopher Robertson, From Free Riders to Fairness: A Cooperative System for Organ Transplantation 48 Jurimetrics (2007)
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In the Media
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STAT November 3, 2023
The Best Way to Convince Healthy People to Get Insurance Is Not ‘Because It’s in Your Financial Interest’
Christopher T. Robertson co-authors a piece.
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BU Office of Research October 25, 2023
Research on Tap: Toward Responsible AI: Privacy, Fairness, and Accountability
Stacey Dogan, Woodrow Hartzog and Christopher Robertson are featured.
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Formulary Watch October 16, 2023
Questions Remain about Nonprescription Opill
Christopher Robertson's research is referenced.
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Managed Healthcare Executive October 13, 2023
7 Things You Should Know About Opill, the First OTC Daily Oral Contraceptive
Christopher Robertson's research is referenced.
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The Verge October 2, 2023
Who Wins When Telehealth Companies Push Weight Loss Drugs?
Christopher Robertson is quoted.
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Law.com September 28, 2023
Aba Grants 32 Variances for JD-Next Law School Admission Test
Christopher Robertson is featured.
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Fox43 September 8, 2023
Aspen Publishing Acquires Exclusive License from University of Arizona to Administer New Law School Admissions Test
Christopher Robertson is featured.
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PR Newswire
Aspen Publishing Acquires Exclusive License from University of Arizona to Administer New Law School Admissions Test
Christopher Robertson is featured.
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GBH August 18, 2023
How Should Media Cover the Latest Trump Indictment?
Christopher Robertson is interviewed.
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The Hill August 17, 2023
Trump’s Special Treatment in the Courts Highlights Failings in Our Legal System
Christopher Robertson pens an opinion.
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MIT Technology Review August 10, 2023
Who Gets to Decide Who Receives Experimental Medical Treatments?
Christopher Robertson is quoted.
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The Conversation August 9, 2023
Donald Trump’s Right − He Is Getting Special Treatment, Far Better than Most Other Criminal Defendants
Christopher Robertson pens an opinion.
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CBS News Boston August 2, 2023
‘Gave the World a Gift’: Henrietta Lacks’ Family Gets Justice 70 Years after Cells Taken without Consent
Christopher Robertson is quoted.
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Above The Law July 28, 2023
AI Update: Sam Altman Isn’t in It for the Money, AI Companies Attempt Self-Regulation, Tort Law for AI
Christopher Robertson is mentioned.
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Boston Globe July 26, 2023
Families Impacted by Police Violence Fight for ‘Medical Civil Rights’
Christopher Robertson is quoted.
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