Legal Insanity and the Brain Science, Law and European Courts

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

- 1. Introduction
- 2. The Neurobiology of Antisocial and Amoral Behaviour: Insights from Brain Science and Implications for Law
- 3. 'Neuroscepticism' in the Courtroom: The Limited Role of Neuroscientific Evidence in Belgian Criminal Proceedings
- 4. France. Is the Evidence Too Cerebral to Be Cartesian?
- 5. 'Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity' in the Italian Jurisdiction. A Neuroscience Revolution?
- 6. Legal Insanity and Neurolaw in the Netherlands: Developments and Debates
- 7. On the Abolition and Reintroduction of Legal Insanity in Sweden
- 8. Abolishing the Insanity Verdict in the United Kingdom: A Better Balance Between Legal Rules and Scientific Understanding?
- 9. Legal Insanity in the Age of Neuroscience

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.