KIIT School of Law Organizes 2nd International Webinar on “Law, Brain and Mind Sciences”
The Centre for Criminology, Victimology and Police Science (CCVPS), KIIT School of Law organized its 2nd International Webinar on “Law, Brain and Mind Sciences” on 2nd May 2021. Under the mentorship of Dr. Arpita Mitra, Associate Professor & Coordinator of the Society and guidance of Prof. (Dr.) Bhavani Prasad Panda, Director, KIIT School of Law, the webinar was organised by Faculty Convenor, Mr Sidhartha Sekhar Dash, Assistant Professor-II. Professor Panda underscored the importance of the topic and highlighted how Brain and Mind Sciences can engage with legal discipline for multidisciplinary researches more particularly in criminal law.
The key speaker Prof. Francis X. Shen, Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School spoke on “Introduction to the Research on Neuroscience and Law”, while Dr. Priyanka Kacker, Assistant Professor, Institute of Behavioral Sciences, Gujarat Forensic Science University spoke on “Jurisprudence Psychology: Bridging the Gap Between Psychology and Law”.
Introducing his Shen Neurolaw Lab punch line, “Every Story is Brain Story”, Professor Francis listed some of his empirical research works on Neuroscience and Law, like Mind Reading, Lie Detection, and Dementia issues. His lecture focused on past learning from the history of rain science and law, the recent and rapid rise of law and neuroscience and the future challenges of biomarkers. While the past 15 years of history of the discipline was more philosophical and how the brain works, the recent time has witnessed a rise in the use of CT Scan, MRI, fMRI, EEG findings in the Court of Law and also a rise of 45 per cent new cases and publications, in last six years. He highlighted a few illustrations like the capital punishment, i.e. death penalty case, insanity defence case, the addicted brain case to showcase the contribution of neuroscience in law. He also pointed out challenges faced in this field of research.
Dr. Priyanka Kacker focused on the Indian concept, i.e. finding and filling up the gaps by understanding the jurisprudence and psychology of law. She threw light on the role of forensic psychology experts in the legal aspect especially in the object of writing and presenting forensic reports as an expert witness. Dr. Kacker explained the procedure of Forensic Psychological Investigation and the techniques involved, namely Polygraph, Layered Voice Analysis, BEOS Profiling, Microexpressions, Narco Analysis and the like. Her deliberation further highlighted how criminal act may be a rational choice in a given situation for many offenders and also discussion entailed the use of BEOS and a study on the relevance of Forensic Psychological Tools on Lawyers. She also distinctly mentioned how different the concepts of Brain Mapping and BEOS were and clarified that BEOS does not violate Article 21.
The sessions were moderated by Ms. Maneesha Mishra, Faculty Associate and Dr. Deblina Majumder, Assistant Professor. Dr. Snidha Sarkar, Assistant Professor organized both the sessions. The deliberations concluded with engaging question and answer rounds. The webinar was participated by more than 80 students and scholars across India.