News and Commentary Archive

Explore recent scientific discoveries and news as well as CLBB events, commentary, and press.

Mission

The Center for Law, Brain & Behavior puts the most accurate and actionable neuroscience in the hands of judges, lawyers, policymakers and journalists—people who shape the standards and practices of our legal system and affect its impact on people’s lives. We work to make the legal system more effective and more just for all those affected by the law.

Life Sentences for Children?: The Neuroscientific Basis for Limitations on Harsh Sentencing

October 27, 2022, 12:00 PM
Online

Register for this Event

Abstract Head and brain from lines and triangles, point connecting network on blue background.

Online viewing

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this panel discussion will be held virtually, as an online webinar. To ensure that you will receive access to the livestream and be kept up to date on any changes to the event, register now. We will send out a link to the livestream of the event to all registrants the day before and day of the event. Last registration is 11:30am on the day of the event. 

Event Description

Neuroscience is playing a key role in legal decisions about children and young adults serving life sentences. The US Supreme Court relied upon research on adolescent brain development to bar execution and limit sentences of Life Without Possibility of Parole for crimes committed under age 18. However, the U.S. Supreme Court case Jones v. Mississippi (2021) shifted the battleground from federal constitutional protections to protections afforded by state constitutions—with mixed results to date. This panel examines the latest neuroscience in the context of emerging case law.

Panelists

  • Introduction: Carmel Shachar, Executive Director, Petrie-Flom Center
  • Leah Somerville, Professor of Psychology and Director, Affective Neuroscience and Development Laboratory, Harvard University
  • Stephanie Tabashneck, PsyD, JD, Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience, CLBB and the Petrie-Flom Center

This event is part of the Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience, a collaboration between the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.

CLBB Spring 2022 Events Highlights

The Center for Law, Brain and Behavior presents a variety of lectures and events each year, along with those in collaboration with the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School and the Boston Society of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. This Spring 2022, CLBB presented seven events on topics including addiction, juvenile justice and the courts, and elder fraud and abuse.

See the video HERE.

Please see the time stamps below corresponding to the highlights for each event:

Neuroscience and Criminal Law | February 9, 2022 | 00:15

Families, Substance Use Disorder, and the Courts | February 22, 2022 | 04:16

Dementia & the Law | March 5, 2022 | 08:01

Neuroscience in the Service of Justice | March 22, 2022 | 10:37

The Criminalization of Addiction | March 31, 2022 | 14:19

Cannabis and the Law | April 20, 2022 | 17:53

CLBB Publishes “Justice for Emerging Adults after Jones” in the NYU Law Review

The Center for Law, Brain and Behavior published a co-authored article, “Justice for Emerging Adults After Jones: The Rapidly Developing Use of Neuroscience to Extend Eighth Amendment Miller Protections to Defendants Ages 18 and Older” in the May 2022 Issue of the New York University Law Review.


During his tenure as CLBB Executive Director, Dr. Francis Shen teamed with CLBB student research assistants to provide the first empirical analysis of how courts are receiving arguments favoring raising the age above 18 for Eighth Amendment constitutional protections.

View the article here.


Authors: Francis X. Shen, Fenella McLuskie, Erin Shortell, Mariah Bellamoroso, Elizabeth Escalante, Brenna Evans, Ian Hayes, Clarissa Kimmey, Sarah Lagan, Madeleine Muller, Jennifer Near, Kailey Nicholson, Job Okeri, Ifeoma Okoli, Emily Rehmet, Nancy Gertner, Robert Kinscherff

Dr. Bruce Price Presents at 2nd Dubai Neurology Hybrid Congress

Dubai Neurology Hybrid Congress | February 25-27, 2022

CLBB Co-Founder and Co-Director Dr. Bruce Price presented at the 2nd Dubai Neurology Hybrid Congress, held in Dubai Festival City, UAE. Dr. Price spoke at the Dementia Session in a lecture titled “Alzheimer Disease: A Neuropsychiatric Syndrome?”


Workshops at this conference included topics on movement disorder and Parkinson’s, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, headache management, multiple sclerosis, stroke, and epilepsy.


View a recording of Dr. Price’s lecture on Vimeo here.

The Science of Addiction

May 17, 2022, 12:00 PM
Online

Register for this Event

Online Viewing

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this panel discussion will be held virtually, as an online webinar. The event will be recorded, captioned, and distributed at a later date for registrants who are unable to watch live. To ensure that you receive access to the livestream and the recording, register now. We will send out a link to the livestream of the event to all registrants the day before and day of the event. Last registration is 11:30am on the day of the event.

Event Description

Advances in the scientific understanding of addiction have important implications for treatment, policy, and the law. In this panel, Eden Evins, M.D. will discuss addiction neuroscience, prognosis, and treatment. Stephanie Tabashneck, Psy.D., J.D. will then lead a discussion on the role of addiction science in judicial and legal decision making at the intersection of science and the law.

Join the conversation or submit questions on Twitter @PetrieFlom using #LawAndNeuro.

Panelists

  • Introduction: Carmel Shachar, Executive Director, Petrie-Flom Center
  • Eden Evins, M.D., Director, MGH Center for Addiction Medicine and Cox Family Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
  • Stephanie Tabashneck, PsyD, JD, Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience, CLBB and the Petrie-Flom Center