Neurolaw Sampler

From ForaTV, we’ve pasted  a video of the 95-minute “Battle of Ideas” panel discussion hosted by the Institute of Ideas in London and titled “My Brain Made Me Do It.”

“[H]ow much can science tell us about behaviour? Do scientific findings justify the government’s many interventions into the early years of children’s lives? Should neuroscience enjoy an exalted place in the courtroom? Are policies being developed because of genuine advances in scientific knowledge – or is science being (mis)used, perhaps in the place of political conviction, to justify policies?”

The panel is composed of the following speakers: Steve Yearley; Raymond Tallis; Jeffrey Rosen; Pierre Magistretti; and David Perks.

from fora.tv posted with vodpod

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A recent episode of Justice Talking, a weekly radio program of the National Public Radio network, is devoted to Neurolaw: The New Frontier:

“Some lawyers are using brain scans showing defects to argue that their clients aren’t responsible for criminal behavior. In recent years, this neuroscientific evidence has been increasingly used in our courtrooms. But some scientists argue that the imaging is still new and unreliable, while others question whether juries should be ruling on what counts as a ‘defective’ brain. As neurolaw grows in influence, it could potentially revolutionize our notions of guilt and punishment as criminals say ‘my brain made me do it.’ Might we be, one day, just a brain scan away from a form of lie detection and prediction of criminal behavior?”

The show is broken into five parts among which you can pick and choose. Guests include neurologist Dr. Larry Farwell, attorney Mary Kennedy, Professor Carter Snead, Professor Joshua Greene, Professor Stephen Morse, and Dr. Daniel Amen.

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For a few related Situationist posts, see “Law & the Brain,” “Pinker on the Situation of Morality,” “The Science of Morality,” and “Your Brain and Morality.”

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