News, Resources, and Events Tagged "Criminal Law"
Petrie-Flom & Coalition to Transform Advanced Care Welcome New Senior Fellow
The Petrie-Flom Center is excited to announce our 2021–2022 Senior Fellow in Advanced Care and Health Policy, Cheryl Matheis! Project on Advanced Care and Health Policy The Project on Advanced…
Petrie-Flom Welcomes New Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience!
The Petrie-Flom Center is excited to announce our 2021–2022 Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience, Elyssa Spitzer! Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience The Project on Law and Applied…
Emergency statutes must be passed to protect doctors and hospitals from potential lawsuits, say Harvard Law professors
State governments must enact emergency immunity statutes to protect doctors and hospitals from potential lawsuits and criminal prosecution during the COVID-19 pandemic, Harvard Law Professors I. Glenn Cohen ’03 and…
Viewpoint: Potential Legal Liability for Withdrawing or Withholding Ventilators During COVID-19: Assessing the Risks and Identifying Needed Reforms
With an anticipated shortage of ventilators for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), hospitals, physicians, and nurses may have to make an unprecedented decision: should they withdraw or withhold ventilators from…
Protect the Doctors and Nurses Who Are Protecting Us: They need immunity from lawsuits and prosecution for triage decisions.
[...] triage protocols are essential to ensuring that we make it through the impending crisis with the fewest possible deaths. But if these public-health strategies are to succeed, doctors must be…
The Next Frontier of Neuroscience and Juvenile Justice
Event Description In the fifteen years since the United States Supreme Court referred to developmental science in ruling the death penalty unconstitutional for juveniles in Roper v. Simmons, state and…
Criminal Justice or Public Health: A Comparison of the Representation of the Crack Cocaine and Opioid Epidemics in the Media
Abstract Context: The opioid epidemic is a major US public health crisis. Its scope prompted significant public outreach, but this response triggered a series of journalistic articles comparing the opioid…
A tweet gave a journalist a seizure. His case brings new meaning to the idea of ‘online assault.’
Kurt Eichenwald sat down at the desk in his Dallas home office and logged onto Twitter. The prominent journalist and author was used to Internet invective — especially then, in…
Samoa Arrests Anti-Vaccination Activist As Measles Death Toll Rises
Samoan authorities have arrested a prominent anti-vaccination activist amid an outbreak that has killed at least 63 people, most of them children. Edwin Tamasese has been charged with "incitement against a…
Health Law Workshop: Jacob T. Elberg: Corporate Health Care Enforcement at a Crossroads: Newly Available Data and the Need for Comprehensive False Claims Act Reform
Presentation Topic: "Corporate Health Care Enforcement at a Crossroads: Newly Available Data and the Need for Comprehensive False Claims Act Reform" About the Presenter Jacob T. Elberg is Associate Professor…
Computational Justice: How Artificial Intelligence and Digital Phenotyping Can Advance Social Good
Couldn't join us for the event? Check out some of the panelists' slide presentations below! And read a write-up of the event in the Harvard Crimson! Description The future…
2019 Petrie-Flom Center Annual Conference: Consuming Genetics: Ethical and Legal Considerations of New Technologies
Couldn't join us for the conference? Join the conversation on Twitter with #DTCgenome! And check out many of our speakers' slide presentations and our "Consuming Genetics" blog symposium! The…
On Life and Death in Rikers with Dr. Homer Venters
“The closing of Rikers is absolutely necessary. It's not sufficient to transform the criminal justice system in New York City to become more humane, but it's necessary.…
The Neuroscience of Hate
Description Human beings are biologically predisposed to divide humanity into ingroups and outgroups, and this comes with a great social cost – the capacity for hate. While we may view…
Seventh Annual Health Law Year in P/Review
Description At the Seventh Annual Health Law Year in P/Review symposium, leading experts discussed major developments during 2018 and what to watch out for in 2019. Speakers covered hot topics including…
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup: A Special Evening with Author John Carreyrou
This event featured moderated discussion with John Carreyrou, investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal and author of the New York Times bestseller Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a…
Authorities Use DNA Testing Service to Identify “Golden State Killer” - What Does This Mean for You?
From the article: Late last month, authorities charged a man in Sacramento County, California as the so-called Golden State Killer after tracking him down with a private DNA test company,…
Our Aging Brains: Decision-making, Fraud, and Undue Influence
Couldn't join us? Check out the conversation online! #OurAgingBrains @PetrieFlom @mghclbb Check out some of the panelists' slide presentations below! With over 70 million Baby Boomers retiring, elder financial exploitation…
Crimes of Passion: New Neuroscience vs. Old Doctrine
Couldn't join us for the event? Check out some of the panelists' slide presentations below! Description The criminal law often sees love and passion turned into violence. How does…
Criminal Abortion in the United States
Couldn't join us for the event? Listen to the full event below! The Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School invites you to a lunch talk on human rights…
HIV Criminalization: Creating a Viral Underclass in the Law
Description HLS Lambda hosted this lecture on HIV stigma, criminalization, and activism. Sean Strub is a longtime HIV survivor, founder of POZ magazine, director of the Sero Project, and an…
Addiction, Neuroscience, and the Criminal Law: Commonwealth vs. Julie Eldred
Description Is addiction a disease? And does it matter for the criminal law? The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court now faces these questions in the potentially landmark case, Commonwealth vs. Julie…
Punishing Disease: HIV and the Criminalization of Sickness
Couldn't join us for the event? Check out the video of the event here! Please join us for a talk with Trevor Hoppe on his book, Punishing Disease: HIV…
Sixth Annual Health Law Year in P/Review
Couldn't join us? Check out the conversation on Twitter: @PetrieFlom #healthlawpreview2018 and some of our speakers' slide presentations below! Description The Sixth Annual Health Law Year in P/Review…
Behind Bars: Ethics and Human Rights in U.S. Prisons
The United States leads the world in incarceration. The “War on Drugs” and prioritizing punishment over rehabilitation has led to mass imprisonment, mainly of the nation’s…
Health Law Workshop: I. Glenn Cohen
Presentation Topic: "Cops, Docs, and Code: A Dialogue Between Big Data in Health Care and Predictive Policing" This paper is not available for download. To request a copy in preparation…
The Neurolaw Revolution: A lecture by Francis X. Shen
Couldn't join us for the event? Check out the panelist's slide presentation below! Description Rapid advances in the brain sciences offer both promise and peril for the law.…
Judge Offers Inmates Reduced Sentences in Exchange for Vasectomy
From the article: [... I.] Glenn Cohen, a professor at Harvard Law School, said the program was a "bad policy," and pointed to prior court rulings, which set a precedent that…
Petrie-Flom Welcomes New Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience!
We’re excited to announce our 2017–2018 Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience, Francis X. Shen! Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience The Project on Law and Applied…
Second Chance Kids
On May 2, 2017, PBS's Frontline aired "Second Chance Kids," an exploration of the fight over the fate of juveniles in prison for murder, following a landmark Supreme Court ruling. Robert…
Harvard Medical School 2017 Bioethics Conference: The Ethics of "Making Babies"
Description The use of assisted reproductive technologies raises far-reaching ethical and legal implications, yet there is little regulatory oversight of these medical procedures in the United States. In a field…
edX Course: The Opioid Crisis in America, Harvard University
About this course Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin as well as powerful pain relievers, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, fentanyl and many…
Fifth Annual Health Law Year in P/Review
Couldn't make it to the event? Check out some of the speakers' slides as well as the Health Affairs blog symposium! Description The Fifth Annual Health Law Year in…
Half A Life: Legal and Policy Implications of Releasing Youth Incarcerated for Murder
Couldn't attend the event? Check out the speakers' slide presentations below! Description Youth convicted of murder ordinarily serve decades in prison before they complete a sentence or are paroled.…
Regulating Off-Label Promotion — A Critical Test: New NEJM Perspective Article
Petrie-Flom Academic Alumnus Christopher T. Robertson and Faculty Affiliate Aaron S. Kesselheim have coauthored a new Perspective article in NEJM on recent judicial decisions regarding off-label promotion of pharmaceuticals. From…
Harvard Medical Ethicists Challenge Court Ruling on Lethal Injection in Alabama Case: Amicus Brief Co-Authored by Petrie-Flom Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contacts: Ekaterina Pesheva Director, Science Communications and Media Relations 617.432.0441 ekaterina_pesheva@hms.harvard.edu HARVARD MEDICAL ETHICISTS CHALLENGE COURT RULING ON LETHAL INJECTION IN ALABAMA CASE …
Workshop on Pretrial Justice: What Works and Why
In September 2016, the Federal Judicial Center hosted a workshop for federal judges and law enforcement officials on issues relating to pretrial diversionary courts, exploring the question of "What Works and…
The Neuroethics of Biomarkers: What the Development of Bioprediction Means for Moral Responsibility, Justice, and the Nature of Mental Disorder
About the Book: Neuroscientists are mining nucleic acids, blood, saliva, and brain images in hopes of uncovering biomarkers that could help estimate risk of brain disorders like psychosis and dementia;…
Experts in Psychology, Law Discuss Juvenile Sentencing
From the article: [...] “When the Supreme Court eliminated mandatory life without parole for juvenile homicides, it was unquestionably an earth shattering decision,” Judge Nancy Gertner, the moderator of…
Boys to Men to Boys
Couldn't join us for the event? Check out more information, including related publications and our speakers' slides, below! Description Approximately 2,000 youth sentenced to life without parole are now serving…
New Journal of Law & Biosciences featuring Harvard student work
The Journal of Law and the Biosciences, the open-access journal launched in 2014 by the Petrie-Flom Center and Harvard Law School in partnership with Duke University and Stanford University, has published…
Health Law Workshop: Seema Shah
Presentation Download the presentation: "Uncertainty and the Eighth Amendment" About the Presenter Seema Shah is a faculty member in the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center Department of Bioethics and…
Should the Science of Adolescent Brain Development Inform Legal Policy?: A lecture by Laurence Steinberg, PhD
In the past decade, the United States Supreme Court has issued landmark opinions in three cases that involved the criminal culpability of juveniles. In 2005, the Court abolished the juvenile death…
Health Law Workshop: Adam Kolber
Presentation Download the paper: "Two Views of First Amendment Thought Privacy" About the Presenter Adam Kolber is a Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. He writes and teaches in…
Moral Bioprediction, Bioenhancement, and the Law: A Lecture by Julian Savulescu
Description Increasingly, knowledge from biology and neuroscience allows us to identify biological states that are predictive but not determinative of human behavior in certain situations. These are called biomarkers of…
Scholars Discuss Role of Neuroscience in Youth Criminal Justice: Summary of Project on Law & Applied Neuroscience Panel on the Neuroscience of Teen Sentencing
Check out the Harvard Crimson's summary of our first event of the year, "From Trouble Teens to Tsarnaev: Promises and Perils of Adolescent Neuroscience and the Law." This event…
From Troubled Teens to Tsarnaev: Promises and Perils of Adolescent Neuroscience and Law
Read the Harvard Crimson's summary of the event! Description The neuroscience of adolescent brain development has had increasing impact on American jurisprudence. The U.S. Supreme Court relied on…
Visible Solutions: How Neuroimaging Helps Law Re-envision Pain
Description Can brain imaging be a “pain-o-meter” that tells courts when a person is in pain? Can fMRI help us discern whether intractable chronic pain is “all…
Review of Human subjects research regulation: perspectives on the future: by I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director) & Holly F. Lynch (Executive Director) (eds.):
Petrie-Flom Visiting Scholar Lydia Stewart Ferreira, currently Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and Osgoode Hall Law School, recently published a review of I. Glenn Cohen …
"Ending Institutional Corruption" conference
On Friday, May 1, and Saturday, May 2, several Petrie-Flom Center affiliates will participate in the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University conference "Ending Institutional Corruption." Participants include: Christopher…
Moral Decisions in the Law: What's the Brain Got to Do with It?
Law – particularly criminal law – is infused with moral judgment and calls upon prosecutors, judges, and and jurors to make morally-informed decisions. But where does morality come from? How…
April 14 Panel, “Does Brain-Based Lie Detection Belong in American Courtrooms?”: Featuring Visiting Scholar Francis Shen
Petrie-Flom Visiting Scholar Dr. Francis Shen served as a panelist at the Neuroethics Seminar Series event, "Does Brain-Based Lie Detection Belong in American Courtrooms?" at the Center for Bioethics, Harvard…
Does Brain Difference Affect Legal and Moral Responsibility?
Brains create behavior. Yet we hold people, not brains, morally and legally responsible for their actions. Under what conditions could - or should - brain disorder affect the ways in…
The Policeman at the Elbow: The Neuroscience of Addiction, Self-Control, and Criminal Responsibility
Couldn't join us? Watch the full event online! Do criminal penalties have any deterrent effect on drug addicts - people who already are willing to throw away their jobs,…
Neuroscience in court: The painful truth
[...] "But some scientists and ethicists are concerned about where the increasing acceptance of pain imaging might lead. Pustilnik worries that it could become a sort of pass–fail test,…
A Dialogue on Agency, Responsibility, and the Brain: with Stephen Morse
Couldn't join us? Watch the full event online! Professor Stephen J. Morse, JD, PhD, former MacArthur Foundation Law & Neuroscience Project, discussed how – or whether – new knowledge…
Third Annual Health Law Year in P/Review collaborative blogging with Health Affairs
The Third Annual Health Law Year in P/Review was a big success! Video will be posted on our website shortly, but our presenters will be posting on their respective…
Third Annual Health Law Year in P/Review
Couldn't make it in person? Check out the individual sessions in the videos linked above and the collaborative blog series on the Health Affairs Blog (links below)! The Third…
Senior Fellow for Law & Neuroscience Amanda Pustilnik Guest Lecturing in HLS Seminar
As part of her work with the Petrie-Flom Center and Center for Law Brain and Behavior at MGH's Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience, Senior Fellow Amanda C. Pustilnik…
Doctors pushed to reject role in executions
Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show to discuss his recent opinion piece in JAMA, coauthored with Robert D. Truog and Mark A. Rockoff (both of…
Doctors assist in executions despite ethics rules
[...] A group of legal experts called the Death Penalty Committee of the Constitution Project recently recommended that doctors or other medical personnel supervise all medical aspects of executions, even when…
Physicians, Medical Ethics, and Execution by Lethal Injection
Petrie-Flom Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen has coauthored a new opinion piece now available through JAMA. From the article: In an opinion dissenting from a Supreme Court decision to deny…
NEW Joint "Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience" for 2014-2016
Official Press Release Wednesday, April 16, 2014 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The MGH Center for Law, Brain and Behavior and Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center announce joint “Project on…
Facilitating Offender Re-entry to Reduce Recidivism: Federal Judicial Center Workshop
This Federal Judicial Center (FJC) workshop focused on facilitating offender re-entry to reduce recidivism, a major priority for Attorney General Eric Holder in his review of federal sentencing and corrections…