Mission

In 2007, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation began funding “The Law and Neuroscience Project” as an interdisciplinary collaborative initiative to accomplish two main goals: (1) to help the legal system avoid misuse of neuroscientific evidence in criminal law contexts, and (2) to explore ways to deploy neuroscientific insights to improve the fairness and effectiveness of the criminal justice system. Phase I laid the cornerstones for the work of the current Network by drawing together several dozen of the nation’s top researchers to conduct a comprehensive investigation of basic issues at the intersection of law and neuroscience. Phase II, the Research Network on Law and Neuroscience, builds upon the results of Phase I within a tightly focused Research Network that pursues an interconnected program of research with three foci: Mental States, Capacity and Evidence.