Gary Watson

Gary Watson is one of the country’s leading philosophers, whose writings have shaped our understanding of the nature of moral agency, moral responsibility, freedom of action, and freedom of the will. His interest in concepts of legal responsibility target the relations between moral and criminal responsibility and the criminal law’s conceptions of moral agency.

Articles and Book Chapters

• “Psychopathic Agency and Prudential Deficits,” 113 Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 269 (2013) Part 3.
• “Responsibility and the Limits of Evil: Variations on a Strawsonian Theme,” in The Philosophy of Free Will: Essential Readings from the Contemporary Debates (Paul Russell and Oisin Deery, eds., Oxford University Press, 2013).
• “Asymmetry and Rational Ability,” Book Symposium:  Making Sense of Freedom and Responsibility, 86 Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 467 (2013).
• “The Insanity Defense,” in The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Law (Andrei Marmor, ed., Routledge, 2012).

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

The Washington Post
June 12, 2019
Re: Niels W. Frenzen

Niels W. Frenzen was quoted about the case of Scott Warren, an activist who was arrested and charged with harboring and conspiring to transport undocumented immigrants. In 2017, a directive from then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to prioritize cases involving the transportation of undocumented immigrants,"brought to a head the conflict between immigration enforcement and a sanctuary movement that reaches back to the 1980s," explained Frenzen. "While maintaining a spiritual element, the movement has become more political and less religious...especially as the Trump administration draws stark battle lines on immigration," he said. Frenzen's quote was also mentioned in the National Post, Daily Herald, Calgary Herald, Montreal Gazette, Leader Post, Ottawa Citizen, The London Free Press, The Star Phoenix, Canada.com, The Salt Lake Tribune, and The Province.

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Lisa Klerman
April, 2019

“Labor and Employment Law Jeopardy,” Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section Annual Retreat, Westlake Village, CA.

Hannah Garry
April, 2019

Hannah Garry co-facilitated "#MeToo" at the International Human Rights Clinicians Conference held at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania Law School.

Thomas D. Lyon
April, 2019

Tom Lyon received a one-year $250,000 grant from the California Office of Emergency Services Child Advocacy Center Program for his and his lab's interviewing work in the Los Angeles County Dependency Court.