Neuroscience and the Law

In this course we look at how the brain functions, what the legal issues are, how the technologies that attempt to understand and address brain functioning work, and why this is pertinent to the legal system. Participants learn how to deal with the rising tide of neuroscientific information being proffered in litigation and in the legal policy context. They see how research studies are used in contexts outside the laboratory and are challenged to critically assess and evaluate not only the scientific principles but also their legal and ethical implications.

The course focuses on brain functioning as it influences behavior and responsibility principles. The legal principle of culpable conduct and its implications are addressed, and appropriate penalties and punishment for criminal conduct are discussed. Students are asked to address fundamental questions about what it means to be morally and legally responsible, and what, if anything, neuroscience can provide to our assessments of individual responsibility for actions.

Discussions transition from case-specific inquiries to first principles, namely: How do the separate domains of law, science, and behavior relate to one another? What are the purposes and roles of law in society? How may science help or hinder those purposes? And what can science tell us about behavior that might be legally relevant, and how?

Some of the topics that may be addressed include the Frye and Daubert standards for the admissibility of expert testimony, objective assessments of subjective complaints of pain, inaccurate eyewitness testimony, cross-racial witness identification, applicable jury instructions employing principles of science, memory and emotion, lie detection, adolescent brain function and implications for sentencing and criminal liability, addiction, artificial intelligence, and cognitive enhancements.

The course requires daily reading and active class participation; it is taught in a law school format, using the Socratic method. Assigned readings include scientific studies and articles from medical journals as well as prominent legal cases, including some lengthy U.S. Supreme Court decisions.