Minds, Brains, and Law The Conceptual Foundations of Law and Neuroscience

by Pardo, Michael S.; Patterson, Dennis

• ISBN13: 9780199812134
• ISBN10: 0199812136
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-11-12
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Cognitive neuroscientists have deepened our understanding of the complex relationship between mind and brain and complicated the relationship between mental attributes and law. New arguments and conclusions based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and other increasingly sophisticated technologies are being applied to debates and processes in the legal field, from lie detection to legal doctrine surrounding criminal law, including the insanity defense to legal theory.

In Minds, Brains, and Law, Michael S. Pardo and Dennis Patterson analyze questions that lie at the core of implementing neuroscientific research and technology within the legal system. They examine the arguments favoring increased use of neuroscience in law, the scientific evidence available for the reliability of neuroscientific evidence in legal proceedings, and the integration of neuroscientific research into substantive legal doctrines.

The authors also explore the basic philosophical questions that lie at the intersection of law, mind, and neuroscience. In doing so, they argue that mistaken inferences and conceptual errors arise from mismatched concepts, such as the disconnect between lying and what constitutes "lying" in many neuroscientific studies. The empirical, practical, ethical, and conceptual issues that Pardo and Patterson seek to redress will deeply influence how we negotiate and implement the fruits of neuroscience in law and policy in the future.

This paperback edition contain a new Preface covering developments in this subject since the hardcover edition published in 2013.

Author Biography

Michael S. Pardo is the Henry Upson Sims Professor of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law. His scholarship explores epistemological issues in the areas of evidence, criminal procedure, civil procedure, and jurisprudence, with a specific focus regarding evidence and legal proof. He is the co-author of the fifth edition of Evidence: Text, Problems, and Cases (2011, with Allen, Kuhns, Swift, and Schwartz). He received his JD from Northwestern University School of Law.

Dennis Patterson is the chair in Legal Philosophy and Legal Theory at the European University Institute, and is also the Board of Governors Professor of Law and Philosophy at Rutgers University School of Law, and chair in Jurisprudence and International Trade at Swansea University. His scholarship includes commercial law, trade law, and legal philosophy. Patterson is the author of Law and Truth (Oxford University Press, 1996) and The New Global Trading Order (2008, with Ari Afilalo). He is the series editor of The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law and the general editor of The Blackwell Companion to the Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory. He has published widely in commercial law, trade law, and legal philosophy. He received his JD and PhD from the University of Buffalo.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition

Preface to the Hardcover Edition

Introduction

Chapter One: Philosophical Issues
I. The Conceptual and the Empirical
II. Criterial and Inductive Evidence
III. Unconscious Rule Following
IV. Interpretation
V. Knowledge
VI. The Mereological Fallacy

Chapter Two: The Concept of Mind
I. Neuro-Reductionism
II. Eliminative Materialism and the "Theory" of Folk Psychology
III. Two Examples of Neuro-Reductionism and Its Implications for Law
IV. Conceptions of Mind and the Role of Neuroscience in Law

Chapter Three: Neuroscience and Legal Theory: Jurisprudence, Morality, and Economics
I. Jurisprudence
II. Emotion and Moral Judgments
III. Mind, Moral Grammar, and Knowledge
IV. Neuroeconomics

Chapter Four: Brain-Based Lie Detection
I. fMRI Lie Detection
II. EEG Lie Detection ("Brain Fingerprinting")
III. Analysis: Empirical, Conceptual, and Practical Issues

Chapter Five: Criminal Law Doctrine
I. Actus reus
II. Mens rea
III. Insanity

Chapter Six: Criminal Procedure
I. Fourth Amendment
II. Fifth Amendment
III. Due Process

Chapter Seven: Theories of Criminal Punishment
I. A Brief Taxonomy of Theories of Criminal Punishment
II. The First Challenge: Brains and Punishment Decisions
III. The Second Challenge: Neuroscience and Intuitions about Punishment

Conclusion

Bibliography
Table of Cases
Index