Background

Marie Boyd is an associate professor of law at the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law. Her research focuses on the regulation of food, cosmetics, drugs, and medical devices by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Her current work examines the relationship between FDA regulation and state tort law, focusing on how these areas of law impact historically marginalized communities. Her work explores a variety of topics including the regulation of insects as human food and the regulation of allergens in restaurants. Her scholarship has been published in the Boston University Law Review, the Cardozo Law Review, the Yale Journal of Law & Feminism, and the Yale Law & Policy Review, among other journals. She teaches Food and Drug Law, Food Law and Policy, Administrative Law, and Torts. 

In 2022, Professor Boyd was appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as a member of the Board of International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD), an advisory board to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Professor Boyd is a past chair of the Agricultural and Food Law Section of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) and of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Food and Drug Law Journal. She was a member of the inaugural City of Columbia Food Policy Committee. She has also served on the boards of South Carolina Humanities, the Palmetto Health Foundation, and the South Carolina HIV/AIDS Council.  

Before joining the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law, Professor Boyd practiced law with Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C.  At Covington, she advised companies on the federal and state regulation of drugs, biologics, devices, foods, and dietary supplements. She also advised and represented low-income residents in Washington, D.C. through the Neighborhood Legal Services Program. Professor Boyd earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.  

Education

• J.D. (2007) Yale Law School
• A.B. (2003) Harvard University

Teaching

• Torts (LAWS 529)
• Food & Drug Law (LAWS 655)
• Food Law & Policy (LAWS 698)
• Administrative Law (LAWS 709)

Scholarship

• Preemption & Gender & Racial (In)equity: Why State Tort Law Is Needed in the Cosmetics Context, 102 B.U. L. Rev. 167 (2022).
• Gender, Race & the Inadequate Regulation of Cosmetics, 30 Yale J. L. & Feminism 275 (2018).
• Serving Up Allergy Labeling: Mitigating Food Allergen Risks in Restaurants, 97 Or. L. Rev. 109 (2018).
• Cricket Soup: A Critical Examination of the Regulation of Insects as Food, 36 Yale L. & Pol'y Rev. 17 (2017).
• FDA, Negotiated Rulemaking, and Generics: A Proposal, in FDA In The Twenty-First Century 382–401 (Holly Fernandez Lynch & I. Glenn Cohen eds., 2015).
• Unequal Protection Under the Law: Why FDA Should Use Negotiated Rulemaking to Reform the Regulation of Generic Drugs, 35 Cardozo L. Rev. 1525 (2014).
• Zoning for Apartments: A Study of the Role of Law in the Control of Apartment Houses in New Haven, Connecticut, 1912–1932, 33 Pace L. Rev. 600 (2013).
• FDA Regulation of Biological Products, in The Pharmaceutical Regulatory Process (2nd ed. 2008), with Michael S. Labson and Krista Hessler Carver.