Christopher Robertson

interesting that the Federal Judicial Center page on the contempt power seems to be down.

www.fjc.gov/history/work...

still available at Wayback though

web.archive.org/web/20250607...

Here’s what food and drug regulation might look like under the Trump administration Leaders of the FDA have published a list of new priorities for the agency. They want to deliver rapidly-approved cures and "unleash AI."

"Some innovation saves lives; some innovation kills people,” says Robertson.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/06/13/1...

Absolutely could, but my guess is that Lilly has done a much more careful job of papering over these relationships, which is really all that the doctrine requires. As I teach my students, the corporate practice and medicine doctrine is really now mostly just make-work for lawyers.

Give them this link to save a spot:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

And if you want to read the research paper, here it is:

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Thank you!

...by calling your Members of Congress and asking their legislative staff to attend.

Here is a flyer with more details on the event:

acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:...

Here is the contact information for your Members of Congress:

www.congress.gov/members/find...

Thank you!

This week (Apr29), I am co-convening a Congressional briefing on the huge disparities in payment for surgeries for women and how that leads to really bad outcomes -- lifelong pain, disabilities, and even death. You get what you pay for!

You can help! ....

Eli Lilly opens a new legal front in its battle against compounded GLP-1s Eli Lilly sued four telehealth firms, but it is adopting a new legal strategy in its fight against compounded GLP-1s.

“Licensed professionals are not supposed to be following orders of non-licensed professionals when it comes to clinical care. ... That said [often] the relationships are so close that the corporate practice of medicine doctrine has basically been eviscerated.”

www.statnews.com/pharmalot/20...

Health Law as Private Law Cambridge Core - Medico-Legal, Bioethics and Health Law - Health Law as Private Law

Check out our new book, Health Law as Private Law. In addition to the amazing co-editors and authors -- too many to list here, I am particularly excited to have Alexander Calder on the cover. The book is open-access, so dig in!

www.cambridge.org/core/books/h...

We got some really excellent anonymous peer reviews on the piece, I might mention.

A New Legal Standard for Medical Malpractice From the American Law Institute In 2024, the American Law Institute revised the legal standard for assessing medical negligence. Author Christopher T. Robertson, JD, PhD, of Boston University School of Law joins JAMA Executive Editor Gregory Curfman, MD, to discuss these changes in the first-ever restatement of the law.

Check out the short podcast JAMA recorded with me to discuss the American Law Institute's new Restatement for medical liability.

jamanetwork.com/learning/aud...

Legal Group Issues 'Restatement' of Medical Malpractice Law More emphasis on use of evidence-based care and nationally recognized practice guidelines

The new restatement for medical liability moves towards evidence-based care. I'm quoted as saying, doctors "should not fear liability if they're just practicing good medicine. ... American doctors are probably too scared of liability..."

www.medpagetoday.com/practicemana...

let me know if anyone needs full text access.

A New Legal Standard for Medical Malpractice This Special Communication discusses the changes introduced in the first-ever restatement of the law of medical malpractice by the American Law Institute.

Our new special communication in @jama.com discussing the new restatement on medical liability. The new approach supports physicians who follow the science, rather than blind custom. If you need full text let me know.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

I spent several years working with the California State Bar to understand the racial disparities in the system of attorney discipline, and what we could do about it. Profs Fortney and Zirke have chronicled that work in a new piece:

journals.library.wustl.edu/lawpolicy/ar...

Beyond What We Can See: Evolving Compliance & Ethical Considerations in the Wake of the Weight Loss Medication Revolution

Last week, I made a trip to Loyola Chicago to speak on GLP-1 drugs and off-label use, with vertically-integrated companies. Here is my part, but others include those by @nathancortez.bsky.social @govindpersad.bsky.social who spoke just before me.

luc.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Page...

New in ELJ: "Structural Sex Discrimination: Why Gynecology Patients Suffer Avoidable Injuries and What the Law Can Do About It" by @profcrobertson.bsky.social, Annabel Kupke, and Dr. Louise P. King.

scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/elj/vol74/is...

if need full text, email me ctr00@BU.edu

E-Cigarettes at the Supreme Court — Potential Implications for the FDA and Public Health | NEJM The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a case about adolescent e-cigarette use and the FDA’s role in addressing it. A ruling against the FDA could have implications for its authority and for pub...

My new NEJM piece on the vaping litigation. One angle that I could only allude to is this: the SCt says that agencies should be subject to presidential control, but here 5thCir dings FDA for flip-flopping when presidency changed. Which is the rule? @medlawdan.bsky.social www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Check out the new podcast featuring our work on structural sex discrimination in gynecology.

shows.acast.com/6666be8ab6f3...

And the paper:

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

In another peer-rev paper, we have replicated our landmark finding that JD-Next exam has predictive validity = to LSAT but without the huge racial disparities. Now 50+ law schools are using JD-Next to admit diverse classes of law students.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

If you're talking about suing a prosecutor without mentioning immunity, you might be missing something.

Today some of the SupCt are gonna pretend that doctors are harmed when FDA merely allows them to prescribe a drug. Some of the justices really want to say that fetuses have standing instead, but the justices don't think the country is fully ready for that theocratic premise. Yet.

Mind-boggling to see the Right in the SupCourt today asking it to stop the FDA from allowing access to treatments. An inversion of 50+ years of rhetoric about govt interfering with the doctor-patient relationship and medical liberty. Oh well. "Agencies bad" is a simpler msg.

Yesterday I spoke @ industry conf for giving expanded access (EA) to drugs prior to FDA approval (aka "compassionate use"). Politicians have exploited patient desperation by passing a "Right to Try" (RTT) law that also immunizes companies & doctors (who have no liability anyway). My fav slide.

The Breyer interview seems so naive, arguing as if "originalist" and "textualists" aren't attentive to the consequences of their decisions, as if people flying those flags were somehow actually apolitical and tethered to a neutral history. If only.

Fascinating study of doctors behaving as businesses (with false views about customer satisfaction that are also deadly).

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

At some point before AI causes extinction of the Huma race I hope that it will at least read my emails and texts and tell me if I have made a bonehead mistake with calendaring my appointments.

TFW Jamelle Bouie films a TikTok in which he calls The Political Value of Time one of his favorite books of political theory from the past few years & goes on to explain & apply several of its core arguments.

Bouie’s Tiktoks are scholarly works of art www.tiktok.com/t/ZT87WJaoN/

New paper w phenom coauthors on surgical tools made for big (male) hands; surgeons with smaller hands (typically women) are harmed. How have markets and the law failed to solve the problem?

Need access? LMK.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Why Trump Should Not Be Removed, v3 I’ve written a couple of short pieces about the move to invoke Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to block Donald Trump from the ballot. The…

An important argument by @lessig that "SCt should not remove Trump from ballot." He says it will be viewed as political not judicial.

But do you reach the same conclusion if framed as "SCt should force a state official to put Trump on the ballot"? Any way out?

lessig.medium.com/why-trump-sh...