Welcome
Neuroscience is a field of biological research that is growing rapidly. Recent discoveries about the human brain are already beginning to influence our legal system, and these applications are bound to increase in coming decades.
To address the diverse and complex issues that neuroscience raises for our legal system, we have launched The MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project. This Project consists of two Research Networks and an Education and Outreach Program, all coordinated by a Central Office and overseen by a Governing Board, chaired by Sandra Day O'Connor.
The Research Networks are focused on criminal responsibility and prediction as well as legal decision making concerning neuroscience.
These Research Networks will conduct and foster legal and neuroscientific research on their topics. When appropriate, they will recommend legal reforms and ethical guidelines.
The mission of the Education and Outreach Program is to also inform the public through the media, and to provide training in relevant neuroscience for legal officials.
We are now publishing a blog on law and neuroscience. Please visit us at at our new blog website.
Josh Greene and Joe Paxton have (in press) "Patterns of neural activity associated with honest and dishonest moral decisions." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA." This article has generated a great deal of discussion, including coverage on ABC News, TIME Magazine and Science Daily.
Evolution, Morality, and Biolegal History. Vanderbilt University Law School, Nashville, TN, Saturday April 18, 2009. Speakers include: Fiery Cushman (Harvard), Liane Young (MIT), Rob Kurzban (Penn), Joshua Bukholtz (Vanderbilt), Rob Kar (Loyola), and John Mikhail (Georgetown). Keynote Lecture by renowned primatologist Frans de Waal. The conference is co-sponsored by the Society for Evolutionary Analysis in Law (S.E.A.L.), the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research, the Law and Human Behavior Program of Vanderbilt University, and Vanderbilt Law and Behavioral Biology Speaker Program. For further information, contact Christie Bishop at Christie.bishop@vanderbilt.edu.
Volume 5, Issue 3 of Episteme: A Journal of Social Epistemology was guest edited by co-director Walter Sinnott-Armstrong and governing board member Fred Schauer. Michael Saks, Adina Roskies, Teneille Brown and Emily Murphy also participated in writing articles for this issue. For those with a subscription, the journal is available here.
The Law and Neuroscience Project was discussed in Death penalty and neuroscience in the Providence Journal on January 17, 2009. Link to the article here.
Psychopathy and the Law Symposium. 9-6pm Wednesday, April 15 - Thursday, April 16, 2009
Location: Chateau Bourbon - Wyndham, New Orleans, LA. More information here.
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article on law and neuroscience. Many of the members and codirectors commented on the topic and the paper used that material. The full article is here: The Brain, Your Honor, Will Take the Witness Stand.
Stephen J. Morse publishes Psychopathy and Criminal Responsibility in Neuroethics: (2008) 1:205Ð212. This article considers whether psychopaths should be held criminally responsible. After describing the positive law of criminal responsibility in general and as it applies to psychopaths, it suggests that psychopaths lack moral rationality and that severe psychopaths should be excused from crimes that violate the moral rights of others. Alternative forms of social control for dangerous psychopaths, such as involuntary civil commitment, are considered, and the potential legal implications of future scientific understanding of psychopathy are addressed.. Link to article here: Psychopathy and Criminal Responsibility
Announcement: The Law and Neuroscience Project presents a symposium on
Joshua W. Buckholtz, Christopher L. Asplund, Paul E. Dux, David H. Zald, John C. Gore, Owen D. Jones ,and RenŽ Marois, publish The Neural Correlates of Third-Party Punishment in Neuron:Volume 60, Issue 5, 930-940, 10 December 2008. Legal decision-making in criminal contexts includes two essential functions performed by impartial third parties: assessing responsibility and determining an appropriate punishment. To explore the neural underpinnings of these processes, we scanned subjects with fMRI while they determined the appropriate punishment for crimes that varied in perpetrator responsibility and crime severity. Activity within regions linked to affective processing (amygdala, medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortex) predicted punishment magnitude for a range of criminal scenarios. By contrast, activity in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex distinguished between scenarios on the basis of criminal responsibility, suggesting that it plays a key role in third-party punishment. The same prefrontal region has previously been shown to be involved in punishing unfair economic behavior in two-party interactions, raising the possibility that the cognitive processes supporting third-party legal decision-making and second-party economic norm enforcement may be supported by a common neural mechanism in human prefrontal cortex. Link to article here: The Neural Correlates of Third-Party Punishment
The Law and Neuroscience Project Seeks 2009-2010 Post-Doctoral Fellows. The MacArthur Law and Neuroscience Project, based at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is currently accepting applications for post-doctoral fellows for July 2009 to July 2010. We are seeking researchers who are interested in the intersection of law and neuroscience with experience in law, neuroscience, philosophy and/or a combination of those fields. We are currently exploring issues of criminal responsibility, prediction, and the use of neuroscience in legal decision-making. Various research projects led by or including prominent scholars and judges at over two dozen leading institutions are currently being launched. The program operates under a $10 million three-year grant and we are currently in year two of the project. Candidates must be willing to relocate to Santa Barbara. The position pays between $45,000 and $50,000 annually for a full time fellow. Half time positions may also be offered. The University of California is an enthusiastic participant in affirmative action and an equal opportunity employer. We encourage applications form those who embrace our commitment to excellence in teaching, research, and public service. Please email a resume and the names and contact information for three people who will provide recommendations to Andrew Mansfield at amansfield@lawneuro.org.
Michael Gazzaniga publishes The Law and Neuroscience in Neuron: Volume 60, Issue 3, 412-415, 6 November 2008. Some of the implications for law of recent discoveries in neuroscience are considered in a new program established by the MacArthur Foundation. A group of neuroscientists, lawyers, philosophers, and juristsare examining issues in criminal law and, in particular, problems in responsibility and prediction and problems in legal decision making. Link to article here: The Law and Neuroscience
Neuroscience, Law and Government Symposium 2008
more
Press Coverage of Law and Neuroscience: Silvia Bunge and Robert Knight
Dec. 4 Neuroimaging, Pain, & the Law
(Stanford)
Jan. 8-10 Winter project meeting
(Santa Monica)
April 15-16 Psychopathy conference
(New Orleans)
Law and Neuroscience Project Fall 2008 Newsletter more
Fact Sheet: About the Law and Neuroscience Project more
March 21-24, 2009 Cognitive Neuroscience Society conference (San Fransisco, CA)
April 16-18, 2009 Society for Evolutionary Analysis in Law scholarship conference (Vanderbilt Law, Nashville, TN)
May 23, 2009 Neuroscience & Law conference (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX)
Sept. 24-26, 2009 Brain Matters: New Directions in Neuroethics conference (Halifax, NovaScotia, CAN)
