The Law and Neuroscience Blog

9th Cir. Conference includes Neurolaw Expert Panel

Four neurolaw experts spoke on “The Promises and Perils of Neuroscience Evidence in the Courtroom” at the Annual Conference of the U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, in Carlsbad, California, on August 16, 2011.  The panel included Professors Owen Jones (Vanderbilt), Nita Farahany (Vanderbilt), Stephen Morse (Pennsylvania) and Hank Greely (Stanford).  Before a large audience that included the Hon. Anthony Kennedy, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Hon. Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge of the 9^th Circuit, the panelists provided a brief introduction to law-relevant neuroscience, summarized the growing use of neuroscientific evidence in the courtroom, and addressed both the benefits and pitfalls of trying to use such evidence to inform legal decision-making.

Adolescent Brains and Juvenile Justice

In May 2011, Arizona State University hosted a conference on "Adolescent Brains and Juvenile Justice: New Insights from Neuroscience, Genetics and Addiction Science."  The conference was co-sponsored by the ASU Center for Law, Science & Innovation, the Diane Halle Center for Family Justice, the ASU Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, and the MacArthur Law and Neuroscience Project.  To learn more about the conference, please visit the conference site.

iTunes U

In the event that you have some extra time this summer, you might enjoy checking out some of the lectures and courses on subjects ranging from law and psychology to philosphy that are presently available via iTunes U.  The following universities have an especially impressive amount of free material available:

1. MIT
2. Stanford
3. UC Berkeley
4. Yale 

If you listen to any particularly interesting lectures, please let us know in the comment threads!