A.B., M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley; M.Phil., Cambridge University, Trinity College; J.D., Columbia Law School
Professor Butterton has research interests in legal reasoning; international and comparative law; and international trade. In addition, he works on issues at the intersection of law and cognitive neuroscience, theoretical linguistics, psychology, analytic philosophy, and literature.
He has been a Senior Associate in International Trade at O’Melveny & Myers, LLP, a Senior Attorney at the International Trade Administration in Washington, DC, and has served as Distinguished Senior Research Scholar, Deputy Director and Consultant for the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience. He has done pro bono work, too, in support of individuals and the UN International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNICERD).
At the University of Chicago, he was a Bigelow Fellow and taught at the University of Chicago Law School; at Columbia University, he was a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows, and taught in the Columbia College Core Curriculum; at Peking University, he was a Cornelius Vander Starr Senior Lecturer and Foreign Expert, and taught in the School of Transnational Law and the School of Humanities; at Harvard University, he was a Resident Tutor, Assistant Senior Tutor and Member of the Senior Common Room at Dunster House in Harvard College, and taught in the MBA program at the Harvard Business School.
Professor Butterton has taught courses on Comparative Law; Law & Neuroscience; Law & Authoritarian Societies; Transnational Legal Practice; Administrative Law; Philosophy of Law; Introduction to American Law; Western Legal Tradition; Legal Writing & Appellate Advocacy; Legal Communication & Research; among others.
He was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, earning the A.B. degree with Highest Honors (summa cum laude), Great Distinction, and Phi Beta Kappa, while concentrating on Literature, Psychology, and Philosophy. He then studied broadly in the cognitive sciences, earning M.A. & Ph.D. degrees as a Regents’ Fellow, Heller Traveling Fellow, and Phi Beta Kappa Doctoral Fellow, while concentrating on English Philology, Theoretical Linguistics, and Philosophy of Language. At Cambridge University, he earned the M.Phil. degree in Trinity College with support from the Arthur Stanley Eddington Fund, and received a Hooper Declamation Prize, while concentrating on International Law, Economics & Political History. At Columbia University Law School, he earned the J.D. degree as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, received Parker School Honors in Foreign Law, and concentrated on Foreign, Comparative & International Law. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, and a judicial law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, for the Hon. Judge Rosemary Barkett.
He has explored 49 of the 50 states, run seven marathons, and played many games of four-wall handball. Most important of all, he is a single parent and the proud father of two extraordinary children, who are the most interesting people he has ever met, and the best teachers he has ever had.