LAW AND NEUROSCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF DENVER STURM COLLEGE OF LAW
FALL 2013
SYLLABUS
I.
INTRODUCTION (Class 1)
A.
B.
C.
II.
Easy and hard cases
1.
United States v. Semrau
2.
People v. Weinstein
3.
Recurring pedophilia with recurring tumor
4.
People v. Dugan
Overview of the Intersection
1.
Neuroscientific evidence: What it is and how to get it
admitted or excluded
2.
Pain
3.
Memory
4.
Lie Detection
5.
Responsibility
The Big Picture: Figuring Out Where Neuroscience May Matter and
Should Matter and Where it Probably Will Not and Should Not
NEUROSCIENCE PRIMER (Classes 2, 3 and 4)
A.
A Brief History of Neuroscience
B.
Neurons
C.
Brain Anatomy and Function
D.
Neuroimaging: What It Is, What It Isn’t
E.
The Cartesian Error: Emotion and Cognition
F.
III.
IV.
1.
CRTs
2.
The Monty Hall Paradox
3.
The Trolley Problem
4.
Heuristics
5.
Libet
6.
Some wacky TMS experiments
The Evolved Brain: NOT A Blank Slate, But How Predisposed?
1.
Even Infants are Intentionality Detectors
2.
Homo economicus v. Homo exchangius: The Ultimatum Game
3.
Disgust and the Insula
4.
Mirror neurons
5.
Probabilistic decision-making—Paul Glimcher
NEUROSCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE (Classes 5 and 6)
A.
The Checkered History of Neuroscience in the Courtroom
B.
Refresher on Rule 702, Daubert and Shreck
C.
The Mixed Literature on the Prejudicial Effect of Brain Images
D.
Revisiting Semrau, Weinstein, the Recurring Pedophile and Dugan
E.
In What Contexts are Courts Actually Starting to See Neuroscience?
PAIN (Class 7)
A.
What is Pain?
2
V.
VI.
VII.
B.
Acute versus Chronic
C.
Neuroimaging Pain
D.
Potential Applications
MEMORY (Class 8)
A.
What is Memory?
B.
Types of Memory
C.
The Current Debate about Cross-Racial Identification
D.
Neural Signatures of Past Experience
E.
Potential Applications
LIE DETECTION (Class 9)
A.
Current State of the Research
B.
Revisiting Semrau
RESPONSIBILITY (Classes 10 and 11)
A.
Causation, Personhood and Moral Agency: Law v. Science
B.
The Criminal’s Brain
1.
Mens rea
a.
The History and Anthropology of Mens Rea: Intent v.
Accident
b.
The Science of Mens Rea—Virtually Nothing
Current experiments to get at D’s state of mind
c.
Revisiting Semrau,Weinstein and the Recurring Pedophile
Yet Again
3
d.
C.
VII.
VIII.
Psychopathy—revisiting Dugan
Judges’ and Jurors’ Brains
1.
Third-Party Punishment
2.
The Universality of Blameworthiness
3.
PKRN
4.
The Neuroscience of Third-Party Punishment
THE ADOLESCENT BRAIN (Class 12)
A.
Behavioral Differences and Similarities: Duh!
B.
Neurological Differences and Similarities: Too much and too little
C.
Legal consequences: Roper, Graham and Miller
Colorado cases post-Graham and Miller:
Gardenhire, Littlejohn and Nelms
ADDICTION (Class 13)
A.
The Neuroscience of Addiction
B.
When Should It Matter to the Law?
C.
When Should it Matter to Public Policy?
IX.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND NEUROPROSTHETICS: CIRCLING
BACK TO PERSONHOOD (Class 14)
X.
PRACTICE EXAM (Class 14)
4