Mission

ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AND TEACHING IN LAW AND THE BIOLOGICALLY INFORMED BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Since 1981, the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research, a private nonprofit institute, has fostered interdisciplinary research and teaching designed to inform law, economics and other social sciences about the latest scientific findings about human behavior. To this end, the Institute brings together a network of distinguished scholars from the United States and abroad to pursue interdisciplinary research and teaching in law and the biologically informed behavioral sciences. The scholars and scientists associated with the Institute see a need for the law and other social sciences to be informed about the biological bases of human behavior, in addition to understanding information from the traditional social sciences.

Education and communication among law professors, judges, lawyers, economists, scholars from numerous other social sciences, and behavioral biologists, including evolutionary biologists and neuroscientists, are a primary aim of the Institute.

"...human legal behavior is both facilitated and constrained by our biological Workshops, symposia, conferences, and interdisciplinary working teams continue
to be organized to carry out the goals of the Institute. Results of these efforts are
disseminated in written form in scholarly journals, books, and in special
publications of the Institute. The Gruter Institute has developed and refined
theoretical frameworks for understanding relationships between law, economics,
and behavioral biology. Institute associates have also found new ways of integrating
biological theories and findings in law and public policy. Four ideas have guided
the Institute's activities and compelled it to place a strong emphasis on the need for teaching: e"

1.       the realization that biology is making rapid advances in its understanding of human behavior;

2.       that this understanding has significant implications for law and public policy;

3.       that biological findings are advancing at a more rapid rate than it is incorporated into law, legal cultures, and the social
          sciences; and

4.       that in many instances there are no established processes for incorporating biological findings into our legal and educational
          institutions
                                    

A non-profit enterprise, the Gruter Institute is a research organization centered around a group of Research Fellows and participating scholars comprised of some of the finest scientists and educators from around the world, including the United States, Great Britain, Switzerland, Russia, Netherlands, Japan, Italy, Germany and Austria, who are active in organizing and implementing specific research projects. The Institute is administered by its Board of Directors, which is assisted by the Planning and Programming Committee and the Advisory Board.