Since its creation in 1999, the Center has held several interdisciplinary conferences and symposia, bringing leading scholars and specialists from around the world to Brooklyn Law School.

A Cross-Disciplinary Look at Scientific Truth: What’s the Law to Do?
Friday, March 2, 2007

Science and the legal system have been facing off for some time, with no end in sight. For example, every time a consumer sues a pharmaceutical company or a manufacturer for injuries, a complex mixture of scientific and legal constructs and values comes into play. How do you know that this product really caused this particular injury? What constitutes proof? How much information should we require before we can say that our best theory is good enough? Who should decide? What inferences should be drawn from a lack of information? Read more.

Coming to America: An Evaluation of Expedited Removal and Credible Fear Referrals at Ports of Entry
March 11, 2005

Speakers
Barry Rosenfeld
Department of Psychology, Fordham University

Andrew Rasmussen
NYU School of Medicine

This program focused on the speakers' report concerning how immigrants seeking asylum are treated as they attempt to enter the U.S. This work, sponsored by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, has been receiving considerable attention by the press.

Read the authors’ report (part one and part two). (PDF)

View video from the event.

Corporate Misbehavior by Elite Decision-Makers
Perspectives from Law and Social Psychology
Conference co-sponsored by the Center for Law, Language and Cognition and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

On November 12, 2004, Brooklyn Law School co-sponsored a day-long conference with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation on Corporate Misbehavior by Elite Decision-Makers. The conference explored ways in which corporate misconduct and scandals result not from the presence of a few “bad apples” among corporate executives and directors, but from systematic and predictable aspects of group behavior and corporate organization. Prominent social psychologists and organizational and management specialists presented and discussed their research findings and theories of group behavior. Corporate law scholars then commented upon the implications of the findings for policy making. Read more.

3 Perspectives on Criminal Justice Panel Discussion January 30, 2004 On January 30, 2004, three distinguished scholars presented their views on the criminal justice system in a panel discussion sponsored by the Center for Law, Language and Cognition. John Darley, Warren Professor of Psychology, Princeton University, Scholar in Residence, Brooklyn Law School presented "Retribution or Deterrence?" Larry Heuer, Associate Professor, Chair, Department of Psychology, Barnard College, Columbia University, presented "Procedural Justice -- Getting a Fair Shake" Erin O'Hara, Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University Law School, presented "From the Victim's Point of View -- Punishment or Forgiveness?" Speakers were introduced by Brooklyn Law School's Professor Lawrence M. Solan, Director of the Center for the Study of Law, Language and Cognition, and Professor Michael Cahill served as moderator. Read More about the symposium. Read articles published in the Journal of Law & Policy

Creating and Interpreting Law in a Multilingual Environment
September 19, 2003
Co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of International Business Law and The Brooklyn Journal of International Law

As law has increasingly evolved to address issues that cross national borders, one of the most important frontiers has been its harmonization and unification. How can we be sure that a concept, expressed in one language and applied to the legal system of a particular country, will be similarly understood in another language, applied to a different legal system? Indeed, in multilingual states, such as Canada, Belgium and India, among others, the same issues arise within national borders. Moreover, even when the difficulties with language are surmountable, difference in meaning persist because of nuanced differences between legal systems, both internationally and even within the same country. The conference assembled an international array of scholars who brough a diverse set of perspectives to these important issues.

Read articles published in the Journal of Law & Policy

Responsibility and Blame:
Psychological and Legal Perspectives
Symposium
October 18, 2002

Prominent scholars and experts gathered for a day-long symposium on psychological and legal issues related to the topics of responsibility and blame. Presenters included Dan Kahan, Yale Law School; Leonard V. Kaplan, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Law; Anthony J. Sebok, Brooklyn Law School; Valerie P. Hans, University of Delaware; Jennifer K. Robbennolt, University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law; John M. Darley, Princeton University; Robert MacCoun, University of California at Berkeley School of Law; Jefferey J. Rachlinski, Cornell Law School; Lawrence M. Solan, Brooklyn Law School; Neal R. Reigenson, Quinniqiac University School of Law; and Susan Bandes, DePaul University College of Law. Brooklyn Law School professors Lawrence M. Solan, Margaret A. Berger, Bailey H. Kuklin and Susan N. Herman will moderate sessions.

View video of the event.

Read articles published in the Brooklyn Law Review.

Cognitive Legal Studies:
Categorization and Imagination in the Mind of the Law
Symposium in Celebration of the Publication of Professor Steven L. Winter’s book A Clearing in the Forest
(University of Chicago Press, 2001)
October 26 & 27, 2001

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. Influential scholars, psychologists and linguists gathered for a two-day conference to offer critical analyses on how studies of the human mind have implications for: Law, legal reasoning, and legal theory; Issues of racial and gender justice; and the relationships between law, culture, and ideology.

Among the panelists joining Professor Steven L. Winter in the Conference were Frank I. Michelman, the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School; Jonathan Simon, University of Miami School of Law; George Lakoff, Professor of Linguistics at University of California at Berkeley; Claire A. Hill, Chicago-Kent College of Law; Patricia J. Williams, Columbia University School of Law and a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow; Jeremy Paul, University of Connecticut School of Law; Lawrence Joseph, St. John’s University School of Law; Donald Jones, University of Miami School of Law; and Dan Simon, University of Southern California Law School. Articles from the symposium will be published in the Brooklyn Law Review, Volume 67, #4 (2002). Read More about the symposium (PDF). Read articles.

The Jury in the Twenty-First Century
Interdisciplinary Conference,
co-sponsored by the National Institute of Justice
October 6, 2000

The first academic conference of the Law School’s Centennial year brought together eminent legal scholars, judges, psychologists, and linguists for a day-long conference to examine the viability of traditional law governing the jury in light of recent and significant advances in the fields of psychology and linguistics. These advances explain, among other things, how people make decisions and respond to instructions. The collection of papers published in the Brooklyn Law Review Volume 66, # 4 (2001) provides a multi-disciplinary view of the jury and adds immeasurably to the body of law on juries. Read articles.

Cognitive Bases of Gender Bias
Roundtable Discussion
October 22, 1999

Psychology and Linguistics Professor Virginia Valian, Hunter College of the City of New York Graduate Center, and author of the highly acclaimed book Why So Slow? The Advancement of Women (M.I.T. Press) led a distinguished panel of professors in a discussion on “Cognitive Bases of Gender Bias.” The panel included: Marianne LaFrance, Psychology, and Women’s and Gender Studies at Yale University; Marc R. Poirier, Seton Hall University School of Law, and Brooklyn Law School Professor Elizabeth Schneider, renowned expert on gender and law. Articles from the Roundtable were published in the Brooklyn Law Review, Volume 65, # 4 (1999). Read article (PDF).

Causation, Mental Models, and the Law Lecture
March 26, 1999

Eminent cognitive psychologist Professor Philip N. Johnson-Laird, the Stuart Professor of Psychology at Princeton University, delivered a lecture entitled “Causation, Mental Models, and the Law,” in which he outlined his theory of mental models as they apply to legal concepts. Professor Johnson-Laird's paper was published in the Brooklyn Law Review, Volume 65, #1 (1999). Read article (PDF).