A session analyses the application of neurosciences in the field of Law and Public Management and Criminology

The session will take place in the Faculty of Law.

Can we apply neuroscience techniques, such as the waves detected in an electroencephalogram, when questioning the accused ones in a trial? Can public policies be more efficient if neuroscience research is considered when predicting people’s behaviour? These are some of the questions to be commented on in the session to be held on Wednesday November 22 at the Faculty of Law, organized jointly by the TransJus Research Institute – which covers the fields of Law, Political Science, Criminology, Public Management and Industrial Relations- and the Institute of Neurosciences, which gathers researchers from the faculties of Psychology, Medicine, Pharmacy and Biology.

Under the title “Jornada sobre Neurociències i Ciències Socials: una aproximació trandisciplinar” (session on neurosciences and social sciences: a trandisciplinary approach) this academic meeting will take place at the Faculty of Law and will be opened by Juli Ponce, director of TransJus, and Carles Escera, director of the Institute of Neurosciences. Ponce says this initiative results from “the assumption that there are topics of common interest between neurosciences and social sciences such as law, political science, public management, or criminology”. In his speech, Ponce will explain that “right and more effective” public policies can be made if considering the way in which people’s brain reacts. This can be supposedly applied to campaigns against smoking, or to increase charity donations, or reducing the use of energy, for instance. Ponce will also analyse the concept of nudging, pushing someone to get someone’s attention, which in social sciences refers to promoting certain positive attitudes without using any ban or economic reward.

Professor Carles Escera states that the field of relations between neurosciences and law, although it appeared in the nineties, “has stepped forward recently” and notes this is a field “which has more questions than answers and where results have to be always considered and valued in the context of the ethical implications”. During his speech, Carles Escera will comment on the P300 wave taken from the electroencephalogram, which some authors suggested that can be used to reveal information which, for instance, is hidden by an accused in a trial. Actually, this was used in the case of the disappearance of Marta del Castillo. Escera states that “the results of this test cannot be concluding since there are many factors influencing the P300 potential and therefore it is a highly unspecific brain response”.

During the session, other topics will be commented on, for instance, neuroscience on decision-taking, neuroscience and legal guilt, or the psychological aspects of criminality and the prediction of risks of violence, among others.