Neurolaw is an emerging interdisciplinary field that explores the intersection of neuroscience and legal principles. This innovative area of study examines how insights from brain science can inform legal processes, decision-making, and the administration of justice.
“In the legal field, better science leads to better outcomes,” notes Judith G. Edersheim, JD, MD, Co-Founder and Director of the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior at Mass General Hospital. The Center for Law, Brain & Behavior is an interdisciplinary organization that focuses on bridging the gap between neuroscience and the legal system.
One of the primary missions of the CLBB is to promote the responsible and effective application of brain science in legal contexts. The CLBB works to translate complex neuroscientific findings into actionable information for legal professionals. The CLBB monitors relevant neuroscience research and promotes responsible, ethical, and scientifically sound neuroscience research. The CLBB plays an active role in educating legal professionals about neuroscience, training lawyers, judges, and others who directly shape the criminal justice system, and providing expert training, tools, and consultation to help members of the legal community understand and apply relevant brain science in a legal context.
With a generous gift from the Tow Foundation and the backing of other supporters, CLBB launched the NeuroLaw Library, a first-of-its kind database providing open access to the most accurate research and clinical findings in neuroscience to educate and assist judges, attorneys, legislators, policy analysts and advocates. The library provides a curated collection of case law, scientific articles, policy papers, expert affidavits, amicus briefs, sample motions, and sample affidavits, as well as educational videos, a neurolaw dictionary and toolkits for attorneys and incarcerated persons.
The Resource Library is a searchable database of case law, scientific articles, and amicus briefs involving juvenile justice. This digital library is already one of a kind, but its comprehension slider allows users to review these resources at multiple reading levels, thereby increasing accessibility.
The Educational Courses provide brief modules on adolescence in the legal system, focusing on topics like criminal trajectories of juvenile offenders, working with forensic experts, the science of trauma, the science of substance use, and the effects of incarceration on children and late adolescents.
The site also offers librarian assistance via phone (select hours) and email using Ask a Librarian.
While neuroscience research is playing a more significant role in the justice system and policy, not everybody has access to the relevant research. Edersheim comments, “With the NeuroLaw Library, we’re leveling the playing field when it comes to informing the justice system about neuroscience.”
“The CLBB NeuroLaw Library aligns powerfully with our core mission to make ‘accurate and actionable’ neuroscience broadly accessible to inform and reform law and public policy,” says CLBB Executive Director Robert Kinscherff, PhD, JD. “Each module added over time will bring neuroscience and related behavioral sciences to critical areas of law and policy with impacts across the lifespan, from child well-being to elder protection.”
Center of Law, Brain & Behavior NeuroLaw Library
A Neuroscience Library Helps Level the Legal Playing Field (Mass General Giving)
New Resource Aims to Bring More Adolescent Brain Science Into Juvenile Courtrooms (The Imprint)
