(temporary: from the Introduction) As a result, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation decided to support a three-year multidisciplinary initiative, The Law and Neuroscience Project, that created teams (termed "research networks") of lawyers, neuroscientists and philosophers to explore the appropriate conceptual relation of neuroscience and law and to engage in empirical investigations that would demonstrate the specific relevance of neuroscience to law. Although there was a substantial range of opinion among Project participants about the potential relevance of neuroscience to criminal law, it became apparent that a basic primer or handbook that set forth a statement of the relation as the authors understand it at present would be enormously helpful to practicing lawyers, judges, and legal policy makers as they increasingly were confronted with claims based on neuroscience information. The goal is to provide accurate information and to clarify the basic questions that will inevitable arise so that the criminal law can avoid confusion and mistakes based on inadequate understanding.

This handbook, the result of a three-year multidisciplinary initiative supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur foundation, brings lawyers, neuroscientists, and philosophers together to explore the appropriate relation between neuroscience and law.

"New insights offered by neuroscience have provoked discussions of the nature of human agency and responsibility. Alces draws on neuroscience to explore the internal contradictions of legal doctrines, and consider what would be involved in constructing novel legal regimes based on emerging understandings of human capacities and characteristics not only in criminal law but in contract and tort law."--Provided by publisher.

The past 20 years have seen unparalleled advances in neurobiology, with findings from neuroscience being used to shed light on a range of human activities - many historically the province of those in the humanities and social sciences - aesthetics, emotion, consciousness, music. Applying this new knowledge to law seems a natural development - the making, considering, and enforcing of law of course rests on mental processes. However, where some of those activities can be studied with a certain amount of academic detachment, what we discover about the brain has considerable implications for how we consider and judge those who follow or indeed flout the law - with inevitable social and political consequences. There are real issues that the legal system will face as neurobiological studies continue to relentlessly probe the human mind - the motives for our actions, our decision making processes, and such issues as free will and responsibility. This volume represents a first serious attempt to address questions of law as reflecting brain activity, emphasizing that it is the organization and functioning of the brain that determines how we enact and obey laws. It applies the most recent developments in brain science to debates over criminal responsibility, cooperation and punishment, deception, moral and legal judgment, property, evolutionary psychology, law and economics, and decision-making by judges and juries. Written and edited by leading specialists from a range of disciplines, the book presents a groundbreaking and challenging new look at human behaviour.

The legal system depends upon memory function in a number of critical ways, including the memories of victims, the memories of individuals who witness crimes or other critical events, the memories of investigators, lawyers, and judges engaged in the legal process, and the memories of jurors. How well memory works, how accurate it is, how it is affected by various aspects of the criminal justice system — these are all important questions. But there are others as well: Can we tell when someone is reporting an accurate memory? Can we distinguish a true memory from a false one? Can memories be selectively enhanced, or erased? Are memories altered by emotion, by stress, by drugs? These questions and more are addressed by Memory and Law, which aims to present the current state of knowledge among cognitive and neural scientists about memory as applied to the law.

Whereas the past few years have repeatedly been referred to as the “era of biotechnology”, most recently the impression has emerged that at least the same degree of attention is being paid to the latest developments in the field of neurosciences. It has now become nearly impossible to maintain an overview of the number of research projects dealing with the functionality of the brain – for example concerning its organizational structure – or projects dealing with the topics of legal responsibility, brain-computer interface applications, neuromarketing, lie detection or mind reading. These procedures are connected to a number of legal questions concerning the framework conditions of research projects as well as the right approach to the findings generated. Given the primary importance of the topic for the latest developments, it is essential to compare the different legal systems and strategies that they offer for dealing with these legal implications. Therefore, the book International Neurolaw – A Comparative Analysis contains several country reports from around the world, as well as those of international organizations such as UNESCO, in order to show the different legal approaches to the topic and possible interactions.

This book brings cutting edge neuroscience and psychology into dialogue with philosophical reflection to illuminate the loss of control experienced by addicts, and thereby cast light on ordinary agency and the way in which it sometimes goes wrong.

The discussion of whether psychopaths are morally responsible for their behaviour has long taken place in philosophy. In recent years this has moved into scientific and psychiatric investigation. Responsibility and Psychopathy discusses this subject from both the philosophical and scientific disciplines, as well as a legal perspective.

This volume aims to introduce organizational researchers and practitioners to the role of neuroscience in building theory, research methodologies and practical applications. The volume introduces the field of organizational neuroscience and explores its influence on topics such as leadership, ethics and moral reasoning.

This book surveys the scientific, cultural, and legal history of Shaken Baby Syndrome from inception to formal dissolution. It exposes extraordinary failings in the criminal justice system's treatment of what is, in essence, a medical diagnosis of murder.--Publisher's description.