Neuro law: Validity and limits of a neuroscientific approach to problems relating to law and justice

Abstract

In a not too far past, the so-called cognitive neuroscience started to spread its influence also over issues regarding law and justice, arousing a general interest. As a consequence, a new expression, neurolaw has been coined. The author used to point out that an imprecise generalization should not be applied to the ontological problems of law and justice and that they instead should be kept separated. Starting from the basis of Descartes' thought, the author underlies how this construction was challenged about a century ago by the psychoanalysis, which demonstrated that human actions are strongly conditioned by the unconscious impulses.The essay continues to throw some light on the paths leading to both the comprehension and the use of single disciplines, first, the different branches of law.Thus, the author shows how difficult it is today to deal with the subject of the interpretation which-together with the efficiency of the juridical system-is still now the core of the legal world and in particular in the fields of the philosophy of law, in the general theory and in the so-called juridical dogmatic.