Conference to explore how developments in cognitive science and studies of the mind impact on the law

Developments in cognitive science are transforming our understanding of the mind. Little of this new learning, however, has penetrated discussions and analysis of the law. What does emerge from our learning of the human mind is profoundly different and substantially more complex than the one that engages our everyday thinking about the law. How do lawyers and judges actually reason? What does it mean to decide according to precedent? How do rules work?

On Friday and Saturday, October 26 and 27, eminent scholars, psychologists and linguists will gather at Brooklyn Law School to explore these questions. The two-day Conference: COGNITIVE LEGAL STUDIES: CATEGORIZATION AND IMAGINATION IN THE MIND OF THE LAW at BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL is being held in conjunction with the publication of Brooklyn Law School PROFESSOR STEVEN L. WINTER'S book, "A CLEARING IN THE FOREST: LAW, LIFE AND MIND, published this fall by University of Chicago Press. Professor Winter has been in the forefront of applying cognitive theory to understand issues of legal theory.

Panelists participating in the Conference, including Professors Frank I. Michelman, the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard; George Lakoff, Professor of Linguistics at University of California at Berkeley; and Patricia J. Williams, Professor of Law at Columbia University of Law and a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow, will offer critical analyses on how studies of the human mind has implications for:

Law, legal reasoning, and legal theory
Issues of racial and gender justice
The relationships between law, culture, and ideology

The Conference is sponsored by the Brooklyn Law School Center for the Study of Law, Language and Cognition. It will be held in the Subotnick Center at Brooklyn Law School, 250 Joralemon Street.

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For further information, please contact the Office of Special Events: 718-780-7966 or visit the website at www.brooklaw.edu/cognitive

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