Sarah Polcz

Acting Professor of Law Sarah Polcz wearing a blue blazer and standing in front of a bookshelf.

Position Title
Acting Professor of Law

Bio

Sarah Polcz’s research explores the intersection of law and psychological science. She is particularly interested in how basic cognitive processes relate to more complex social phenomena such as market culture and the moral intuitions underlying intellectual property law. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Southern California Law Review, Hastings Law Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Journal of Law & the Biosciences, The Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, and Social Psychology and Justice.

Education and Degree(s)
  • B.A., Philosophy, Queen’s University Canada
  • J.D., Queen’s University Canada
  • MSc in Cognitive and Decision Sciences, University College London
  • J.S.D., Stanford Law School
Research Interests & Expertise
  • Law and Psychological Science
  • Cognitive Processes
Membership and Service
  • Fellow, Stanford Law School's Center for Law and the Biosciences

Publications

Law Review Articles and Chapters in Books

Loyalties v. Royalties, 74 UC Hastings L.J. 765 (2023).

Co-Creating Equality, 96 S. Cal. L. Rev. 607 (2023).

Integrating Three Theoretical Traditions in Distributive Justice and Social Exchange Research, in Social Psychology and Justice (E. Allan Lind ed., Routledge, 2020) (with Robert J. MacCoun).

Regulating Genetic Advantage, 32 Harv. J. L. & Tech. 266 (2018) (with Anna Lewis).

A Menagerie of Moral Hazards: Regulating Genetically Modified Animals, 46 J.L. Med. & Ethics 180 (2018) (with Anna Lewis).

CRISPR-Cas9 and the Non-Germline Non-Controversy, 3 J.L. & Biosciences 413 (2016) (with Anna Lewis).

Book Reviews

Book Review, 51 L. & Soc’y Rev. 462 (2017) (reviewing Susanna L. Blumenthal, Law and the Modern Mind: Consciousness and Responsibility in American Legal Culture (2016)).

Book Review, 50 L. & Soc’y Rev. 549 (2016) (reviewing Ellen Wiles, Saffron Shadows and Salvaged Scripts: Literary Life in Myanmar Under Censorship and in Transition (2015)).