News

November 5, 2015

This message brings news about:

A. Neurolaw Lecture at Society for Neuroscience Conference
B. Recent or Forthcoming Neurolaw Publications
C. Neurolaw Media & News Clippings
D. Conferences & Speaker Series
E. Other Developments

A. Neurolaw Lecture opens the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) Conference in Chicago.

Federal Judge Jed Rakoff delivered the conference-opening Plenary Lecture on the subject “Law and Neuroscience,” moderated by SFN President Steve Hyman, with co-moderators Carol Mason, Emanuel Dicicco-Bloom, and Owen Jones. The lecture was well-attended, and yielded over 100 written questions from the audience (only a fraction of which could be reached during the 2-hour session). More than twenty-seven thousand people attended the five-day SFN conference in Chicago, overall.

B. Recent or Forthcoming Neurolaw Publications

Kathryn Monahan, Laurence Steinberg, & Alex R. Piquero, Juvenile Justice Policy and Practice: A Developmental Perspective , 44 Crime & Just. 557 (2015).
Amanda C. Pustilnik, Imaging Brains, Changing Minds: How Pain Neuroimaging Can Inform the Law , 66(5) Alabama L. Rev. 1099 (2015).
Morris B. Hoffman, Neuroscience Cannot Answer These Questions: A Response to G. and R. Murrow's Essay Hypothesizing a Link between Dehumanization, Human Rights Abuses and Public Policy , J Law Biosci (2015).
Adam J. Kolber, Free Will as a Matter of Law , in Philosophical Foundations of Law and Neuroscience, Michael Pardo & Dennis Patterson eds. (2016).
Betsy Grey & Gary E. Marchant, Biomarkers, Concussions and the Duty of Care , Michigan St. L. Rev. (forthcoming).
Theodore Y. Blumoff, Rationality, Insanity, and the Insanity Defense: Reflections on the Limits of Reason , 39 Law & Psychol. Rev. 161 (2014).
Lynn Hecht Schafran, Domestic Violence, Developing Brains, and the Lifespan: New Knowledge from Neuroscience , 53(3) The Judges’ Journal 32 (2014).

C. Neurolaw Media & News Clippings

Science in Court: Courage of Conviction: Nature published an article titled “Science in Court: Courage of Conviction.” The article explores the crucial role of expert witnesses in bringing science into the legal system. Owen Jones, Director of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience is quoted in the article. Read more here .

The Brain, Guilt and Public Safety : The Lawyers Weekly recently published a piece by Jennifer Chandler titled “The Brain, Guilt and Public Safety: A Look at Neuroscientific Evidence in Canadian Criminal Proceedings.” Read more here .

Federal Judge Says Neuroscience Is Not Ready for the Courtroom—Yet: The ABA Journal recently published an article by Kevin Davis titled “Federal Judge Says Neuroscience Is Not Ready for the Courtroom—Yet.” The article covers the keynote address (see item A, above) given by U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting in Chicago. Read more here .

Neurolaw on PBS series The Brain: David Eagleman, director of the Initiative on Neuroscience and the Law , is the creator and presenter of a new international series, The Brain . Several episodes deal with issues of legal decision making and biologically-based improvements to social policy.

D. Conferences & Speaker Series

1. From Do-It-Yourself to Direct-to-Consumer: The Regulation of Consumer Noninvasive Brain Stimulation Devices: On November 5, 2015, the Center for Neuroscience & Society at the University of Pennsylvania will host a lecture by Anna Wexler titled “From Do-It-Yourself to Direct-to-Consumer: The Regulation of Consumer Noninvasive Brain Stimulation Devices.” Read more here .
  
  a. See also this associated publication: Wexler A (2015). A Pragmatic Analysis of the Regulation of Consumer Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (TDCS) Devices in the United States . J. Law Biosci. 1-28.
2. From Troubled Teens to Tsarnaev: Promises and Perils of Adolescent Neuroscience and Law: On Monday, September 28, 2015, the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Law, Brain & Behavior and the Petrie-Flom Center hosted a panel of developmental scientists, clinicians, and legal scholars for a panel discussion titled “From Troubled Teens to Tsarnaev: Promises and Perils of Adolescent Neuroscience and Law.” To learn more and to watch video of the panel discussion, visit here .

E. Other Developments

Neuroscience and Law Center: Fordham University School of Law has recently launched a Neuroscience and Law Center . The center is founded by Deborah Denno, PhD, Arthur A. McGivney Professor of Law, and “aims to be a multi-disciplinary, evidence-based center that explores the ways in which the law is being affected by changing notions about criminal culpability, free will, thought, behavior, and pain.” Read more here .

Criminal Record Database: A new criminal records database for large-scale, cross-jurisdictional analysis of policy and behavior has been developed. The Center for Science and Law’s Criminal Record Database (CRD), a collection of tens of millions of U.S. courthouse records and can enhance many types of research—for example, identification of high-frequency offenders, measurement of changes in policing strategies, and quantification of legislative efficacy—giving policy makers the best data upon which to base law enforcement decisions. Read more here .

a. See also this associated publication: Ormachea PA, Haarsma G, Davenport S, Eagleman DM (2015). A New Criminal Records Database for Large Scale Analysis of Policy and Behavior . Journal of Science and Law. 1(1):1-7.

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