Dan Kahan Courses & Materials (Select)
Law & Cognition. The goal of this seminar will be to deepen participants' understanding of how legal decisionmakers--particularly judges and juries--think. We will compile an in-depth catalog of empirically grounded frameworks, including ones founded in behavioral economics, social psychology, and political science; relate these to historical and contemporary jurisprudential perspectives, such as "formalism," "legal realism," and the "legal process school"; and develop critical understandings of the logic and presuppositions of pertinent forms of proof--controlled experiments, observational studies, and neuroscience imaging, among others. Students will write short response papers on weekly readings. (Offered at Harvard Law School in Fall 2011.)
Information & reading list
Readings
Neuroscience & Law. Neuroscience has made substantial recent advances in identifying regions of the brain associated with different aspects of decisionmaking and behavior. The goal of this seminar is to examine the significance of this research for law. We will progress through a series of topics designed to acquaint us with the basic methods, assumptions, and findings to date of neuroscience and decisionmaking research; to familiarize ourselves with existing and developing criticisms of this line of work; and to explore its potential application in a variety of legal and regulatory domains. (Offered at Yale Law School in Fall 2009, Profs. Huang & Kahan)
Information & reading list
Readings
Cognition & Law: Reading Group. The goal of this reading group is to supply you with a “sampler” of works that exemplify distinct theoretical frameworks (broadly conceived) for predicting and influencing the perceptions of legal decisionmakers (primarily judges and juries). (Offered at Harvard Law School in Spring 2009)