The Law and Neuroscience Blog has been moved to a new URL. In the future to access the blog, please visit: http://lawneuro.org/blog/ Continue reading

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Nature Editorial: Science takes the stand Two legal rulings by the US Supreme Court last week will have significant implications for research into health-care outcomes and for how neuroscience is used in sentencing juveniles. To read more, visit: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v487/n7405/full/487005a.html Continue reading

On Monday, June 25, 2012, Justice Kagan announced the opinion for the Court in Miller v. Alabama and Jackson v. Hobbs, holding in a five-to-four vote, that “the Eighth Amendment forbids a sentencing scheme that mandates life in prison without possibility of parole for juvenile offenders.” In footnote 5 of the opinion, the Court notes: “The evidence presented to us in these cases indicates that the science and social science supporting Roper’s and Graham’s conclusions have become even stronger. See, e.g., Brief for American Psychological Association et al. as Amici Curiae 3 (“[A]n ever-growing body of research in developmental psychology... Continue reading

The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience distributes Neurolaw News, which highlights important items of interest for the neurolaw community. These include notifications of new publications, news of upcoming neurolaw conferences, and the like. To avoid inbox clutter, distributions occur approximately once every 2 months. To subscribe to the listserv, please visit: http://www.lawneuro.org/listserv.php For the latest edition of Neurolaw News, please visit: http://www.lawneuro.org/listserv.php#archives Continue reading

New York Times, The Opinion Pages: Larry Steinberg participated in a virtual round-table discussion, Room for Debate: When to Punish, and When to Rehabilitate, where he commented on “Seeing Juveniles’ Maturity, and Immaturity”: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/06/05/when-to-punish-a-young-offender-and-when-to-rehabilitate/sentences-should-acknowledge-juveniles-maturity-and-immaturity Continue reading

Larry Steinberg, member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, and distinguished university professor of psychology at Temple University, writes on What the Brain Says About Maturity in The Opinion Pages of the New York Times. Continue reading

Register now for the 2012 Public Defender's Justice Summit in San Francisco Former gang members, top law enforcement officials, leading neuroscientists and drug reform pioneers will gather for a frank and fascinating discussion at the 2012 Public Defender’s Justice Summit on Tuesday, May 29 at San Francisco Main Library. The summit, JUSTICE ON TRIAL: Gangs, Neuroscience and Drug Reform, will be held in the library’s Koret Auditorium from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is free, but seating is limited. All attendees must register at sfpublicdefender.org. The Justice Summit is the premier criminal justice conference on the West Coast.... Continue reading

Neuroethics Symposium May 25, 2012 @ 1-5pm The Truth About Lies: the Neuroscience, Law, and Ethics of Lie Detection Technologies You Can’t Handle the Truth! The Neuroscience Program, Center for Ethics Neuroethics Program, and the Scholars Program in Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research (SPINR) are combining forces to hold a symposium on the intersection of neuroscience and law pertaining to the use of fMRI and other lie detection technologies in the courtroom. Drs. Hank Greely, director of the Center for Law and Biosciences at Stanford Law School, Daniel Langleben, a professor of Psychiatry at University of Pennsylvania and pioneer of using fMRI... Continue reading

Moral & Criminal Responsibility and Neuroscience Workshop 18-19th June, 2012 Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London AHRC ‘Science in Culture’ Project: Neuroscience and the Law – Free Will, Responsibility and Punishment. Call for Abstracts This workshop aims to bring together early-career researchers in law, philosophy, neuroscience, and psychology to explore in what way, if any, recent findings in neuroscience (broadly construed) can inform debates on the source of voluntary action and the related notions of moral and criminal responsibility. Issues that might be addressed are: Should we hold criminals diagnosed with psychopathy less accountable for their... Continue reading

"Neuroscience shows that the adolescent brain is still developing. The question is whether that should influence the sentencing of juveniles." Lizzie Buchen, Science in Court: Arrested Development, 304 Nature 484 (2012). Continue reading

Nita Farahany blogs on her Law and Biosciences Digest, “a daily digest of legal opinions featuring cognitive neuroscience and behavioral genetics.” Continue reading

"Free will has long been a fraught concept among philosophers and theologians. Now neuroscience is entering the fray." The Chronicle of Higher Education presents pieces from Jerry A. Coyne, Alfred R. Mele, Michael S. Gazzaniga, Hilary Bok, Owen D. Jones, and Paul Bloom. Click here to read more. Continue reading

Laurence Steinberg is a professor of psychology at Temple University, and a member of the Research Network on Law and Neuroscience. Click here to read his CNN Opinion: Don't put juveniles in jail for life. Continue reading

The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience distributes Neurolaw News, which highlights important items of interest for the neurolaw community. These include notifications of new publications, news of upcoming neurolaw conferences, and the like. To avoid inbox clutter, distributions occur approximately once every 2 months. To subscribe to the listserv, please visit: http://www.lawneuro.org/listserv.php For the latest edition of Neurolaw News, please visit: http://www.lawneuro.org/listserv.php#archives Continue reading

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Watch this conference here: http://www.livestream.com/uchastings Law and Policy of the Developing Brain: Neuroscience from Womb to Death 2/10/2012, 8:30 am – 7:00 pm Location: UC Hastings College of the Law, 200 McAllister Street, Alumni Reception Center 2/11/2012, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm Location: Stanford Law School, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Room 190 Continue reading

Law and Policy of the Developing Brain: Neuroscience from Womb to Death 2/10/2012, 8:30 am – 7:00 pm Location: UC Hastings College of the Law, 200 McAllister Street, Alumni Reception Center 2/11/2012, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm Location: Stanford Law School, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Room 190 The Conference on Law and Neuroscience will be a two-day event, beginning on Friday, February 10th, with a full day of panels at UC Hastings followed by a reception. A second full day of panels and talks will take place at Stanford University on Saturday, February 11th. The theme of the Conference revolves... Continue reading

Hampshire College An interdisciplinary conference: June 11 and 12, 2012 Sponsored by the FPR-Hampshire College Program in Culture, Brain, and Development CALL FOR PROPOSALS: GUIDELINES Proposals should be one to two pages in length and should include: • A brief description of your academic/professional background; • A statement of your interest in this topic and what you would offer to the discussion; • A description of a particular issue or question that engages with, or could shed light on, issues at the intersections of the neurosciences and law, philosophy, economics, ethics, or other aspects of the cultural/social/political sphere, and a... Continue reading

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Jean Macchiaroli Eggen & Eric J. Laury Columbia Science and Technology Law Review The “neuroscience revolution” has now gained the attention of legal thinkers and is poised to be the catalyst for significant changes in the law. Over the past several decades, research in functional neuroimaging has sought to explain a vast array of human thought processes and behaviors, and the law has taken notice. Although functional neuroimaging is not yet close to being a staple in the courtroom, the information acquired from these studies has been featured in a handful of cases, including a few before the United States... Continue reading

Harrison A. Korn, Micha A. Johnson, Marvin M. Chun Social Neuroscience Currently, potential jurors' racial biases are measured by explicit questioning––a poor measure because people often hide their views to adhere to social norms, and people have implicit views they are not consciously aware of. In this experiment, we investigated whether two alternative methods of measuring racial bias––a standard Black/White, good/bad Implicit Association Test (IAT) and neural activity, measured by fMRI, in response to seeing faces of Black and White individuals––could predict how much money subjects would award Black victims in hypothetical employment discrimination cases. IAT scores failed to predict... Continue reading

Kerri Smith Nature Scientists think they can prove that free will is an illusion. Philosophers are urging them to think again. Smith, Kerri. (2011), Taking Aim at Free Will. Nature: 1 Sept 2011, 477, 23-25. Continue reading

Four neurolaw experts spoke on “The Promises and Perils of Neuroscience Evidence in the Courtroom” at the Annual Conference of the U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, in Carlsbad, California, on August 16, 2011. The panel included Professors Owen Jones (Vanderbilt), Nita Farahany (Vanderbilt), Stephen Morse (Pennsylvania) and Hank Greely (Stanford). Before a large audience that included the Hon. Anthony Kennedy, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Hon. Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge of the 9th Circuit, the panelists provided a brief introduction to law-relevant neuroscience, summarized the growing use of neuroscientific evidence in the courtroom, and addressed... Continue reading

David M. Eagleman Baylor College of Medicine This article summarizes several difficulties with the current system of criminal justice. It begins with several examples to clarify the relationship between biology and behavior, identifies problems with the assumption that all brains are created equal, argues for a forward-looking justice system, describes new opportunities from neuroscience for rehabilitation, and offers a roadmap to achieve a more tailored, customized, neurally-compatible system of sentencing. Eagleman, David M. (2011), The Brain on Trial. Atlantic Monthy: Jul/Aug 2011, 308:1, 112-123. Continue reading