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

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.


About the Author
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 on legal proof. He is a co-author of the fifth edition of Evidence: Text, Problems, and Cases (2011, with Allen, Kuhns, Swift, and Schwartz), and the author of numerous articles in distinguished law reviews and legal philosophy journals. He received his JD from Northwestern University School of Law.

Dennis Patterson is Board of Governors Professor of Law and Philosophy at Rutgers University School of Law. He holds the Chair in Legal Philosophy and Legal Theory at the European University Institute, and a Chair in Jurisprudence and International Trade at Swansea University. His scholarship includes legal theory, commercial law, and trade law. 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 jurisprudence, commercial law, trade law, and EU law. He received his JD and PhD (Philosophy) from the University at Buffalo.