Legal Insanity and the Brain: Science, Law and European Courts

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This landmark publication offers a unique comparative and interdisciplinary study of criminal insanity and neuroscience. Criminal law theories and ideologies which underpin the regulation of criminal insanity have always been the subject of controversy. The history of criminal insanity is characterised by conceptual and empirical tension between two disciplinary realms: the law and the mind sciences. The authors in this anthology explore in depth the state of the art of legal insanity and the numerous intricate, fascinating, pioneering and sophisticated questions raised by the integration of different criminal law and behaviour theories, diverse disciplines and methodologies, in a genuinely interdisciplinary perspective. This volume will serve as a practical guide for the comparative legal scholar and the judge, as well as stimulating scholarly reading for the neuroscientist, the social scientist and the philosopher with interdisciplinary scientific interests.

Reviews

Legal Insanity and the Brain enriches our understanding of the nuance and complexity associated with the intersection of law and neuroscience and makes a novel contribution to the debate...the collection provides a rigorous and accurate introduction to the regulation of legal insanity and the presentation of expert evidence in Europe and the United States. The reader who is unfamiliar with these themes, and who is looking for an updated account of the most recent proposals in this area of criminal law, will find an extremely valuable resource in this volume. -- Chlo Deambrogio, University of Oxford * European Journal of Health Law *
Those interested in any aspect of criminal law and procedure and those interested in any aspect of scientific evidence will find this book worth their time and attention. Those who are particularly interested in the insanity defense will find in it a bonanza of new, provocative and thoughtful ideas. We are pleased to recommend it. -- Michael L Perlin and Alison J Lynch * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books *

Author Bio

Sofia Moratti is Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Law of the European University Institute in Florence, Italy and Member of the Ethics Committee of the Neuroscience Area of the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy. Dennis Patterson is Board of Governors Professor of Law and Philosophy at Rutgers University, Professor of Legal Theory and Legal Philosophy at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy and he holds a Chair in Legal Theory and International Trade at Swansea University, UK.