Richard Bonnie

(Fall 2011 - Spring 2012)

Office: rbonni@law.columbia.edu
Email:

Education
  • Johns Hopkins University, B.A., 1966
  • University of Virginia School of Law, LL.B., 1969
Research Interests
  • Psychiatry
  • Criminal Law
  • Mental Health and Drug Law
  • Public Health Law
  • Bioethics
  • Human Rights and Psychiatry
  • Death Penalty
  • Aging and the Law
  • Insanity and Competency
Biography
Professor Richard Bonnie teaches and writes about criminal law, bioethics and public policies relating to mental health, substance abuse, aging and public health.

Bonnie has been actively involved in public service throughout his career. Among many other positions, he has been associate director of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse (1971–73); secretary of the first National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse (1975–80); chair of Virginia's State Human Rights Committee responsible for protecting rights of persons with mental disabilities (1979–85), and chief advisor for the ABA Criminal Justice Mental Health Standards Project (1981–88). He is currently chairing a Commission on Mental Health Law Reform at the request of the chief justice of Virginia.

Bonnie has served as an advisor to the American Psychiatric Association Council on Psychiatry and Law since 1979, received the APA's Isaac Ray Award in 1998 for contributions to the field of forensic psychiatry, and was awarded a special presidential commendation in 2003 for his contributions to American psychiatry. He has also served on the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mental Health and the Law (1988–96) and is currently participating in the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mandated Community Treatment and in a new MacArthur Foundation Project on Law and Neuroscience.

In 1991, Bonnie was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. He has chaired numerous academy studies on subjects ranging from elder mistreatment to underage drinking, as well as a major IOM study on tobacco policy. He received the Yarmolinsky Medal in 2002 for his contributions to the IOM and the National Academies.

In 2007, Bonnie received the University of Virginia's highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award.

Publications
  • Law Touched Our Hearts: A Generation Remembers Brown v. Board of Education (ed. with Mildred Wigfall Robinson) (Vanderbilt University Press, 2009).
  • "Mental Health System Transformation After The Virginia Tech Tragedy," (with James S. Reinhard, Phillip Hamilton & Elizabeth L. McGarvey) 28 Health Affairs 793 (2009).
  • "An Account of Collective Actions in Public Health" (with Gil Siegal & Neomi Siegal), Am. J. Public Health (2009).