Law and Human Behavior: A Study in Behavioral Biology, Neuroscience, and the Law

Abstract:     
Behavioral biology and neuroscience are the next frontiers for legal thought. In the next few years, behavioral biology and neuroscience will become as important for the analysis of law as economics has been for the last several decades. In this book (Vandeplas 2011), Professor Fruehwald presents the general principles of behavioral biology and neuroscience, then he applies these principles to topics in the law. He believes that there was a nascent legal system on the savannah, where innate behavioral rules were enforced by devices such as force, reputation, and ostracism. Among the topics he explores are the use of behavioral biology and neuroscience to critique postmodern legal thought, reciprocal altruism as the basis for contract, a biological basis of rights, and how behavioral biology can be used to analyze constitutional cases. He concludes by showing why it is important to base law on a correct view of human nature.

Keywords: evolution, biology, jurisprudence, psychology, contracts, human rights, constitutional law, neuroscience, philosophy

Accepted Paper Series