Jonathan H. Marks

Jonathan H. Marks is director of the Bioethics Program at Penn State University. He is also affiliate faculty with Penn State Law and School of International Affairs. Marks obtained his M.A., B.C.L. (equivalent to J.D., LL.M) from Oxford University.

Marks is also a barrister and academic member of Matrix Chambers, London. While in full-time legal practice, Marks was counsel for Human Rights Watch in the Pinochet case. He also represented a Canadian physician in a leading case on pharmaceutical regulation in the European Court of Justice. Marks has also advised on the legal implications of the dissolution of a state; on the implementation of European environmental law prior to accession to the EU; and on the compatibility of the International Health Regulations with human rights law.

Before coming to Penn State, Marks held the Greenwall Fellowship in Bioethics and Health Policy at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins. He was also affiliated with the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard during its six-year initiative on Institutional Corruption (2009-2015).

An expert working at the intersections of human rights, bioethics, and global health, Professor Marks writes for journals in a variety of disciplines including law and ethics. He has also written for broader audiences in venues such as The Times (London), the New York Times (including its international edition), and the LA Times.

Professor Marks has participated in nationally broadcast panels and radio shows on law and medical ethics at Guantanamo Bay and other detention centers. He is often invited to participate as an expert on institutional ethics in policy meetings on public-private partnerships in global health—including meetings at or organized by the World Health Organization, the South Centre (Geneva), and the Committee on World Food Security (Rome).

Affiliate faculty member Jonathan Marks named a Hastings Center fellow

SIA affiliate faculty member comments on corporate support for federal agencies in The New York Times