Rutgers Law Scholar to Publish Major Work on the Law of the European Union and Three Books on Neurolaw

Rutgers Board of Governors Professor of Law and Philosophy Dennis Patterson, an expert in law and neuroscience, has several publications appearing this year, including three major books on “neurolaw.”

Patterson, who teaches a course on neuroscience and the law at Rutgers, has written widely on the subject and received grants for his work. He says interest in the topic has exploded.

“There are now many dimensions to the subject ranging over the conceptual to matters of public policy,” says the Rutgers Law scholar. “As the underlying technology gets more sophisticated (the fMRI), there will be greater calls for its use in and out of courtrooms.”

While Patterson has been a leading voice in the neurolaw dialogue, his most recent book, his fourth in a matter of months, deals with the law of the European Union.

A Companion to European Union Law and International Law was published this March and appears in the renowned Wiley-Blackwell series of companions. Patterson previously edited two editions of the Companion in Legal Philosophy. This latest book, which is co-edited with Anna Södersten, is a compendium of articles on all aspects of the law of the European Union as well as the current most important topics of international law.

“Migration and immigration law are now critical,” says Patterson. “The EU has a refugee crisis and the law is in flux. Additionally, the economic dimensions of the EU are under stress. There is open warfare between Berlin and the ECB over the scope of ECB powers.”

Patterson’s next book, which will be published by Oxford University this summer, is a collection of articles produced from a conference held at Rutgers Law School’s Camden location. 

Entitled, Philosophical Foundations of Law and Neuroscience, the book features articles by top world scholars on law and neuroscience and features a contribution by Patterson and his co-author, Michael Pardo, Henry Upson Sims Professor of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law.

Another book of conference papers was produced by Patterson at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.  The focus was on law and the insanity defense in Europe.

 Co-edited with Sofia Moratti, Legal Insanity and the Brain: Science, Law and European Courts (Hart, September 2016), this interdisciplinary volume will serve as a practical guide for the comparative legal scholar and the judge, as well as for the neuroscientist, the social scientist, and the philosopher.

Finally, Patterson co-edited a book of articles on various aspects of neuroscience, law and human agency, to be published by Cambridge University Press.  That book, entitled “Neurolaw and Responsibility for Action: Concepts, Crimes and Courts” will appear in 2017.

According to the Rutgers Law Professor, much more scholarship is still to come on the legal implications of neuroscience.

“The next frontier in law and neuroscience will be revamping aspects of criminal law to incorporate what neuroscientists are learning about underlying cerebral function and disorder.”