In the past decades, cognitive neuroscience has enabled a more complex study of how brain processes relate to mental states.  The law interprets mental states, particularly intentions, to determine whether a person will live freely or in the custody of the state. Is cognitive neuroscience ready to help the law interpret human intentions – and, if so, how? Join U. S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York and frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books Jed S. Rakoff, and Baruch Professor and Neuroscientist Jennifer Mangels, PhD for a discussion on whether the significant advances in our knowledge of the brain warrant their application to the law.  

About the presenters:

Jed S. Rakoff – Received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and was nominated by President Bill Clinton to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1995, assuming senior status in 2010.  He has taught for Columbia Law School since 1988 and serves on the Governing Board of the MacArthur Foundation’s Law & Neuroscience Project.

Jennifer Mangels – Received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.  She is Professor of Psychology at the Graduate Center and Baruch College of the City University of New York, serving as chair of the Dept of Psychology at Baruch.  Her Dynamic Learning Lab studies how attention, learning, and memory interact in helping students to learn and how these processes are impacted by individual differences in personality or environment.

March 9 at 7pm
Engelman Recital Hall
General Public $15; Students FREE

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