Neurolaw

Initiative on Neuroscience and Law I am founder and co-director of the Center for Science and Law, which studies how new discoveries in neuroscience should navigate the way we make laws, punish criminals, and develop rehabilitation. The project brings together a unique collaboration of neurobiologists, legal scholars, and policy makers, with the goal of building modern, evidence-based policy.

I serve as a faculty affiliate at the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Houston Law Center, as well as adjunct faculty in Social Sciences at Rice University.

For more about our neurolaw research, read my manifesto in The Atlantic, watch the videos below, listen to an interview on Terry Gross' Fresh Air, or browse some of the articles from the Initiative:

Ormachea PA, Davenport S, Haarsma G, Jarman A, Henderson H, Eagleman DM (2016). Enabling individualized criminal sentencing while reducing subjectivity: a tablet-based assessment of recidivism risk. AMA Journal of Ethics, 18:243-251.
Ormachea PA, Savjani RR, DeLaGarza R, Eagleman DM (2016). The role of neuroscience in drug policy: Promises and prospects. Journal of Science and Law, 2(1): 1-15.
Ormachea PA, Haarsma G, Davenport S, Eagleman DM (2015). A new criminal records database for large scale analysis of policy and behavior. Journal of Science and Law. 1(1):1-7.
Plitt MH, Savjani RR, Eagleman DM (2014). Are corporations people too?: The neural correlates of moral judgments about corporations and individuals. Social Neuroscience. 1-13. DOI:10.1080/17470919.2014.978026 [Full text]
Eagleman DM, Isgur S (2012). Defining a neurocompatibility index for systems of law. In Law of the Future, Hague Institute for the Internationalisation of Law. 1(2012):161-172.
Bumann B, Eagleman DM (2012). Intuitions of blameworthiness as a heuristic that evaluates the probability of the offender committing future antisocial acts. Thurgood Marshall Law Review. 36(2):129-155.
Eagleman DM (2011). The Brain on Trial. The Atlantic. July 2011.
Eagleman DM (2011). Turning our minds to the law. The Telegraph. Apr 5, 2011.
Eagleman DM, Correro MA, Singh J (2010). Why neuroscience matters for a rational drug policy. Minnesota Journal of Law, Science and Technology.
Eagleman DM (2008). Neuroscience and the Law. Houston Lawyer. 16(6): 36-40.

For more detail on all our projects, please visit SciLaw.org.

A talk on neurolaw at the RSA in London

A short interview on Reason.tv about the main issues in neurolaw

From the Blog

The Mystery of Expertise

To the extent that consciousness is useful, it is useful in small quantities, and for very particular kinds of tasks. It's easy to understand why you would not want to be consciously aware of the intricacies of your muscle movement, but this can be less intuitive when applied to your perceptions, thoughts, and beliefs, which are also final products of…
Discussing dreaming with Henry Rollins

I spent an evening speaking at the Rubin Museum in NYC with punk rock legend, writer, and spoken word artist Henry Rollins. We discussed the origin, meaning, neuroscience, and bizarreness of dreams.
New Scientist time story

New Scientist magazine featured my time perception research as their cover story.
CNN's Next List - video profile

I was named a CNN Next List Fellow. Watch two clips from the show.