I’m a graduate student at the University of Michigan and Stanford Law School.

I’m currently a PhD Candidate at the University of Michigan and a JD student at Stanford Law School. My research lies in the union of legal theory, political philosophy, and epistemology. What unites much of my research is a focus on interactions between non-ideal agents, asking: how should we build our institutions in light of the often unpredictable, sometimes harmful, and yes — beautiful — ways in which human beings (and our institutions) mess up.

My early-stage dissertation work tentatively explores the political economy of environmental justice — in other words: I ask, how do our institutions interact to promote or hinder equal access to a healthy environment, and what can we do to make them better? In this project, I aim to connect the dots between political philosophy, environmental ethics, and areas of legal doctrine, especially administrative law, property law, and toxic torts.

Before graduate school, I worked in international human rights, especially environmental advocacy. Most recently, I helped work to expose the racial inequities within a corporate buyout scheme in southwest Louisiana. Before that, I graduated with a BA in Philosophy and German Studies from Stanford and studied in Germany. For all the specifics, you can see my bio page.

You can best reach me at jrpeter[at]umich[dot]edu, making the conventional substitutions.

Some research keywords: environmental justice, human rights, restorative justice, interstate cooperation, disability justice, queer justice, solidarity, grassroots organizing, epistemic normativity, social epistemology, legal epistemology, statistical evidence, responsibility and culpability, strict liability, and algorithmic administrative law.