Carl F. CranorCarl F. Cranor

Ph.D., UCLA, 1971
Professor of Philosophy
Faculty Member of the Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program
HMNSS 3220
951-827-2353
carl.cranor@ucr.edu

«Back to Faculty | More Information

Professor Cranor's generic research interests are in legal and moral philosophy. More specifically in recent years he has focused on philosophic issues concerning risks, science and the law, writing on the regulation of carcinogens and developmental toxicants, the use of scientific evidence in legal decisions, the idea of acceptable risks, protection of susceptible populations, and how society might approach the regulation of new technologies and toxicants. He is the author of Legally Poisoned: How the Law Puts Us at Risk from Toxicants (Harvard, 2011), Regulating Toxic Substances: A Philosophy of Science and the Law (1993) and Toxic Torts: Science, Law and the Possibility of Justice (2006), as well as co-authoring a report for the Office of Technology Assessment, Identifying and Regulating Carcinogens (1987), and a study by an Institute of Medicine Committee, Valuing Health: Cost Effectiveness Analysis for Regulation (2006). This research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the University of California Toxic Substances Research and Teaching Program. At the undergraduate level he has taught courses on ethics, political philosophy, law and society, legal philosophy, environmental ethics, Rawls, justice and utilitarianism and a rare course in the history of philosophy. At the graduate level seminars have included justice, Rawls, Rawls and utilitarianism, philosophy of the tort law, legal philosophy, and the idea of acceptable risks. He has served on science advisory panels (California’s Proposition 65 Panel and its Electric and Magnetic Fields Panel) as well as on Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Sciences Committees.

Education:

  • University of Colorado, B.A. 1966 (Cum Laude, Mathematics and General Studies)
    • Major: Mathematics;
    • Minor: Physics
  • University of California, Los Angeles
    • Cand. Phil., 1970 (Philosophy)
    • Ph.D., 1971 (Philosophy)
  • Yale Law School, Master of Studies in Law (MSL), 1981

Employment:

7/71–present University of California, Riverside , Assistant, Associate, Full Professor (IX)
7/83–8/89 University of California, Riverside , Chair, Philosophy Department
9/85–8/86 Congressional Fellow ( U.S., Congress, Office of Technology Assessment)
9/86–11/87 Consultant, U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment
9/90–7/93 Associate Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
6/93–7/94 Interim Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences
7/94–6/99 Associate Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Area of Specialization:

Legal and Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Law and Science, Philosophy of Risk Assessment

Research Interests:

  • Legal Philosophy
  • Philosophic Issues in Science and the Law
  • Moral Philosophy
  • Regulatory Policy
  • Political Philosophy

Honors and Awards (from most recent):

  • Distinguished Campus Service Award, UCR Academic Senate, 2007-2008
  • Honors Professor of the Year, UCR Honors Program, 2007- 2008
  • Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, 2008-
  • Elected Fellow, Collegium Ramazzini, International Headquarters, Carpi, Italy (2003)
  • Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (1998)
  • Distinguished Humanist Achievement Lecture, UC Riverside, Ideas and Society (1997)
  • National Science Foundation Scholars Award (1996-98)
  • Congressional Fellow, American Philosophical Association, 1985-86
  • Fellow, Master of Studies in Law, Yale Law School, 1980-81
  • Fellow, American Council of Learned Societies, 1980-81
  • Fellow, NDEA, Title IV, UCLA, 1971
  • Chancellor's Fellow, UCLA, 1966-1970
  • Honorable Mention, Danforth Fellowship, 1966
  • Phi Beta Kappa, 1966

Grants Received (selected):

  • National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Research Fellowship, 1976.
  • American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, 1980–81.
  • Congressional Fellowship, American Philosophical Association, 1985–86.
  • University of California, Toxic Substances Research and Teaching Program for the "UCR Carcinogen Risk Assessment Project" ($242,000, no overhead), Principal Investigator, 1987–90.
  • National Science Foundation Grant, "Evidentiary Procedures for Carcinogen Risk Assessment," ($71,660, w/overhead), 1990–1993), Principal Investigator.
  • University of California Humanities Research Institute, ($150,000), for Ethical Issues in Genetics and Genetic Technologies, 15-week in-residence Faculty Seminar, 1991 (Convenor).
  • University of California , Biotechnology Research and Education Program, "Ethical Issues in Genetics and Genetic Technology" ($50,000) Co-PI, 1991.
  • National Science Foundation, "An Evaluation of the Desirability of Evidentiary Procedures for Identifying Carcinogens," ($77,927), 1994–1996, PI.
  • National Science Foundation Scholars Award, "The Normative Foundations of Comparative Risk Judgments," ($65,000), 1996–1998.
  • National Science Foundation, "A Philosophic and Scientific Investigation of the Use of Scientific Evidence in Toxic Tort Law," 160,000 (2000–2004), 2002–2003.
  • University of California , Toxic Substances Research and Teaching Program, various grants ($48,289), 2001–2004.

National Academy of Sciences Committees:

  • National Academy of Sciences Panel to Czechoslovakian Academy of Science, "Pesticides and Agriculture: Risks and Alternatives," April 3–15, 1990.
  • Institute of Medicine Committee to Evaluate Measures of Health Benefits for Environmental Health, and Safety Regulation, 2004–2006.

Science Advisory Panels:

  • State of California Proposition 65 Science Advisory Panel (1989–92).
  • Science Advisory Panel, Electric and Magnetic Fields Program, California Department of Health Sciences and the Public Health Institute (1999–2002).
  • Science Advisory Panel, State of California on Nanotechnology, (2008-2010).

Selected Publications (from most recent)

Books/Monographs:

  • Legally Poisoned: How the Law Puts Us at Risk from Toxicants (Harvard University Press, 2011).

    Recent reviews (summarizing and assessing the content):
  • Toxic Torts: Science, Law and the Possibility of Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2006, 2007 (Paperback)).

    Recent reviews (summarizing and assessing the content):
  • Valuing Health: Cost Effectiveness Analysis for Regulation, eds. Wilhelmine Miller, Lisa A. Robinson, and Robert S. Lawrence. Co-authors: Institute of Medicine Committee to Evaluate Measures of Health Benefits for Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulation: Robert S. Lawrence, Henry A. Anderson, Richard T. Burnett, Carl F. Cranor, Maureen Cropper, Norman Daniels, Dennis G. Fryback, Alan M. Garber, Mathe R. Gold, James K. Hammitt, Lisa I. Iezzoni, Peter D. Jacobson, Emmett Keeler, Willard G. Manning, Charles Poole, David A. Schkade, (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2006).
  • Are Genes Us? The Social Consequences of the New Genetics, ed. C. Cranor. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994) (271 pp.).
  • Regulating Toxic Substances: A Philosophy of Science and the Law. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 1997 (Paperback).
  • Eric Reichard, Carl Cranor, Robert Rancher, Giovanni Zapponi, Groundwater Risk Assessment: A Guide to Understanding and Managing Uncertainties (International Association of Hydrological Sciences, 1990).
  • Office of Technology Assessment, Identifying & Regulating Carcinogens (U.S. Government Printing Office, Nov. 1987) (co-author of the report).

Articles (selected):

  • “Toward a Premarket Approach to Risk assessment,” in Handbook on Risk Assessment, ed. Sabine Roeser and Lotte Asveld (forthcoming Elesevier, 2012).
  • “Developing Science Challenges Torts: Can the Tort Law Retain a Central Legal Role?” Perspectives on Causation, ed. Richard Goldberg (Oxford, UK: Hart Publishing Co. 2011),  pp. 261-281.
  • “Collective and Individual Duties to Reduce Global Warming,” in Economic Thought and U.S. Climate Change Policy, ed. David M. Driesen, (Cambridge: MIT Press 2010),  p.153-169.
  • “Scientific Sentinels: What Should Constitute Minimal Scientific Evidence for Identifying Substantial Public Health Problems?” 25th Anniversary Jubilee, Collegium Ramazzini Online Journal, October, 2008, 1-23, located at www.collegiumramazzini.org/crolj.asp.
  • “(Almost) Equal Protection for Genetically Susceptible Subpopulations: A Hybrid Regulatory-Compensation Proposal,” in Genomics and Environmental Policy, ed. Gary Marchant (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), pp. 267-289.
  • “Do You Want to Bet Your Children’s Health on Post-Market Harm Principles? An Argument for A Trespass or Permission Model for Regulating Toxicants, Villanova Environmental Law Journal Vol. XIX, Issue 2 (2008), pp. 251-314.
  • “Information Generation and Use Under Proposition 65: A Model for Other Post-market Laws? “Indiana Law Review, Vol. 83, No. 2 (2008), pp. 609-627.
  • “Risk Assessment, Susceptible Subpopulations and Environmental Justice,” in The Law of Environmental Justice, 2d Edition, ed. Michael B. Gerrard and Sheila Foster (The American Bar Association: 2008), pp. 341-394.
  • “The Legal Failure to Prevent Sub-clinical Toxicity,” Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology Vol. 102, No. 2 (February 2008), pp. 267-273.
  • “Scientific Sentinels: What Should Constitute Minimal Scientific Evidence for Identifying Substantial Public Health Problems?” 25th Anniversary Jubilee, Collegium Ramazzini Online Journal, October, 2008, 1-23.
  • “A Framework for Assessing Scientific Arguments: Gaps, Relevance, and Integrated Evidence,” in the Journal of Law and Policy, Vol. XV, No. 1, pp. 7-58 (2007).
  • “Toward a Non-Consequentialist Theory of Acceptable Risks,” in Risk and Philosophy, Routledge, ed. Tim Lewens (2007), pp. 36-53.
  • “The Dual Legacy of Daubert v. Merrell-Dow Pharmaceuticals: Replacing Junk Science with Insidious Science,” in Rescuing Science from Politics, ed. Wendy Wagner and Rena Steinzor (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 120-142.
  • "Scientific Inferences in the Laboratory and the Law", forthcoming in the American Journal of Public Health (37 ds. ms. pp.).
  • "The Science Veil over Toxic Tort Law: How Should Scientific Evidence Be Used in Toxic Tort Law?" in Law and Philosophy, 2004.
  • " Assessing Some of the Regulatory Approaches to Transgenic Plants: What Can We Learn from the Regulation of Other Technologies?" Envrionmental Biosafety Research 3 (2004) 29–43.
  • "Some Legal Implications of the Precautionary Principle: Improving Information Generation and Legal Protections," the European Journal of Oncology, Library Vol. 2 (2003), pp. 31–51.
  • "Toward Understanding Aspects of the Precautionary Principle," the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy (2004).
  • "How Should Society Approach the Real and Potential Risks Posed by New Technologies?" Editor's Choice Series in Agricultural Ethics, Plant Physiology, pp. 3–9 (2003). [Invited]
  • "What Could Precautionary Science Be? Research for Early Warnings and a Better Future," in Precaution: Environmental Science and Preventive Public Policy, ed. Joel A. Tickner ( Washington, D.C. : Island Press, 2003), pp. 305–320. [Invited]
  • "Learning from the Law to Address Uncertainty in the Precautionary Principle," Science and Engineering Ethics, Vol. 7, (2001), pp. 313–326.
  • "The Regulatory Context for Environmental and Workplace Health Protections: Recent Developments," The Blackwell Guide to Business Ethics, ed. Norman Bowie (Oxford, UK and Malden, Mass. : Blackwell Publishers, 2002), pp. 77–101.
  • "Scientific Ignorance and Reliable Patterns of Evidence in Toxic Tort Causation: Is There a Need for Liability Reform?" (with David A. Eastmond) Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol.64, No. 4 (Autumn 2001), pp. 5–48. [Invited].
  • "Asymmetric Information, the Precautionary Principle and Burdens of Proof in Environmental Health Protections," Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle, ed. Carolyn Raffensperger and Joel Tickner (Washington, D.C., Island Press: 1999), pp. 74–99 [Invited].
  • "Discerning the Effects of Toxic Substances: Using Science without Distorting the Law" Jurimetrics: Journal of Law, Science and Technology Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 545–552 (1998).
  • "Eggshell Skulls and Loss of Hair from Fright: Some Moral and Legal Principles that Protect Susceptible Subpopulations," Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology, Vol. 4, pp. 239–245 (1997).
  • "The Normative Nature of Risk Assessment: Features and Possibilities," 8 Risk: Health, Safety and Environment, pp. 123–136 (Spring 1997) [Invited].
  • "A Philosophy of Risk Assessment and the Law: A Case Study of the Role of Philosophy in Public Policy," Philosophical Studies, Vol. 85, pp. 135–162 (1997).
  • "Judicial Boundary-Drawing and the Need for Context-Sensitive Science in Toxic Torts after Daubert v. Merrell-Dow Pharmaceutical ", (with David A. Eastmond and John G. Fischer), 16 The Virginia Environmental Law Journal, pp. 1–77 (1996).
  • "The Use of Comparative Risk Judgments in Risk Management," in Toxicology and Risk Assessment: Principles, Methods and Applications, ed. Fan, A.M. and Chang, L.W. (Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1995), pp. 817–833.
  • "The Social Benefits of Expedited Risk Assessment," Risk Analysis Vol. 15, No. 4, June, 1995, pp. 353–358.
  • "Improving the Regulation of Carcinogens by Expediting Cancer Potency Estimation," with Sara M. Hoover, Lauren Zeise, William S. Pease, Louise E. Lee, Mark P. Henning, Laura B. Weiss, and Carl Cranor, Risk Analysis Vol. 15, No. 2, April, 1995, pp. 267–280.
  • "Learning from the Law for Regulatory Science," Law and Philosophy Vol. 14, pp. 115–145 (1995).
  • "Genetic Causation," in Are Genes Us? The Social Consequences of the New Genetics, ed. C. Cranor (Rutgers University Press, 1994) (pp. 125–141).
  • "Some Moral Issues in Risk Assessment," Ethics, Vol. 101 (October 1990) pp. 123–143.
  • "Patenting Body Parts: A Sketch of Some Moral Issues," in Owning Scientific and Technical Information: Values and Ethical Issues, ed. V. Weil and J. Snapper (Rutgers University Press, 1989). [Invited]
  • "Political Philosophy, Morality and the Law," 95 The Yale Law Journal, pp. 1066–1086 (1986). [Invited]
  • "Collective and Individual Duties to Protect the Environment," 2, The Journal of Applied Philosophy, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 243–259 (1985).
  • "Epidemiology and Procedural Protections for Workplace Health in the Aftermath of the Benzene Case," 5 Industrial Relations Law Journal pp. 372–401 (1984).
  • "On Respecting Human Beings as Persons," 17, The Journal of Value Inquiry, pp. 103–177 (October 1983).
  • "Limitations on Respect-for-Persons Principle," Tulane Studies in Philosophy, Vol, XXXI, pp. 45–60 (1982).
  • "Kant's Respect-for-Persons Principle," International Studies in Philosophy, pp. 19–39 (1980).
  • "Legal Moralism Reconsidered," Ethics, Vol. 87, No. 2, pp. 147–164 (January 1979).
  • "Toward a Theory of Respect for Persons," The American Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 309–319 (October 1975)