Welcome to the Gruter Institute

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

The Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research brings together a multidisciplinary 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. To this end, education and communication among law professors, judges, economists, scholars from numerous other social sciences, and behavioral biologists are a primary aim of the Institute. 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 will continue to lead Education and Outreach to the Judiciary in the next phase of the MacArthur Foundation Grant on Law and Neuroscience

Following the three year Law & Neuroscience Project (2007-2010) funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation has awarded a phase two grant for the Law and Neuroscience Project for nearly $5M.  An interdisciplinary collaborative initiative, the second phase of this Project will focus on two main goals: (1) helping the legal system avoid misuse of neuroscientific evidence in criminal law contexts, and (2) exploring ways to deploy neuroscientific insights to improve the fairness and effectiveness of the criminal justice system. 

The Project will draw together several dozen of the nation's top researchers to conduct a coordinated and comprehensive investigation of basic issues at the intersection of law and neuroscience.  The Gruter Institute will continue to lead efforts to bring the research into the hands of judges and other members of the judiciary. Under Phase I of the Project, the Gruter Institute worked together with a distinguished and interdisciplinary group of scientists, legal scholars, jurists, and philosophers from across the country and organized over 20 conferences for federal and state judges, introducing law and neuroscience techniques and issues to nearly 800 judges over three years. We look forward to continuing this important work.

Read more… http://www.lawneuro.org/

The Law Lab

The Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research is a partner in a new, innovative project to be housed at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.  The Law Lab is a multidisciplinary research initiative and collaborative network of University, nonprofit and industry partners. Its mission is to investigate and harness the varied forces — evolutionary, social, psychological, neurological and economic — that shape the role of law and social norms as they enable cooperation, governance and entrepreneurial innovation. Through open observational and experimental web-based platforms and open source software, the Law Lab will develop new digital institutions to foster innovation and research tools to deepen our understanding of trust, transparency and human cooperation. We will bring a laboratory approach to legal scholarship and social science research, and build a body of knowledge, expertise and software technologies that will fundamentally transform law and entrepreneurial practice.  

Read more.... http://lawlab.org/law-lab/#

Research Fellows Update

Professor Lynn A. Stout is the Paul Hastings Professor of Corporate and Securities Law at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. Professor Stout is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of corporate governance, securities regulation, financial derivatives, law and economics, and moral behavior. She is the author of numerous articles and books on these topics and lectures widely. Her most recent book is “Cultivating Conscience; How Good Laws Make Good People” (Princeton University press, 20II).