Law, Mind and Brain

Description

Over the past 20 years, cognitive neuroscience has revolutionized our ability to understand the nature of human thought. Working with the understandings of traditional psychology, the new brain science is transforming many disciplines, from economics to literary theory. These developments are now affecting the law and there is an upsurge of interest in the potential of neuroscience to contribute to our understanding of criminal and civil law and our system of justice in general. The international and interdisciplinary chapters in this volume are written by experts in criminal behaviour, civil law and jurisprudence. They concentrate on the potential of neuroscience to increase our understanding of blame and responsibility in such areas as juveniles and the death penalty, evidence and procedure, neurological enhancement and treatment, property, end-of-life choices, contracting and the effects of words and pictures in law. This collection suggests that legal scholarship and practice will be increasingly enriched by an interdisciplinary study of law, mind and brain and is a valuable addition to the emerging field of neurolaw. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Contributors Preface 1 Introduction 2 Law, Responsibility and the Brain 3 Brain Imaging and Courtroom Evidence: On the Admissibility and Persuasiveness of fMRI 4 Mind the Gap: Problems of Mind, Body and Brain in the Criminal Law 5 Self-Exclusion Agreements: Should We Be Free not to Be Free to Ruin Ourselves? Gambling, Self-Exclusion Agreements and the Brain 6 The Problems with Blaming 7 Why Distinguish “Mental” and “Physical” Illness in the Law of Involuntary Treatment? 8 A Stable Paradigm: Revisiting Capacity, Vulnerability and the Rights Claims of Adolescents after Roper v. Simmons 9 Thinking Like a Child: Legal Implications of Recent Developments in Brain Research for Juvenile Offenders 10 Legal Implications of Memory-Dampening 11 Reframing the Good Death: Enhancing Choice in Dying, Neuroscience, End-of-Life Research and the Potential of Psychedelics in Palliative Care 12 Equality in Exchange Revisited: From an Evolutionary (Genetic and Cultural) Point of View 13 Just (and Efficient?) Compensation for Governmental Expropriations 14 Examining the Biological Bases of Family Law: Lessons to be Learned for the Evolutionary Analysis of Law 15 Why Do Good People Steal Intellectual Property? 16 Cues in the Courtroom: When Do They Improve Jurors’ Decisions? 17 Reflections on Reading: Words and Pictures and Law Index