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.

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.