Looping effects of neurolaw, and the precarious marriage between neuroscience and the law

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toma Strle ◽  
Olga Markič ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Legal Decision ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Law ◽  
Legal Contexts

In the following article we first present the growing trend of incorporating neuroscience into the law, and the growing acceptance of and trust in neuroscience’s mechanistic and reductionistic explanations of the human mind. We then present and discuss some studies that show how nudging peoples’ beliefs about matters related to human agency (such as free will, decision-making, or self-control) towards a more deterministic, mechanistic and/or reductionistic conception, exerts an influence on their very actions, mentality, and brain processes. We suggest that the neuroscientific view of the human mind exerts an influence on the very cognitive phenomena neuroscience falsely believes to be studying objectively. This holds especially when we consider the systematic integration of neuroscience into the public domain, such as the law. For, such an integration acts as a reinforcement of the public’s and legal decision-makers’ endorsement of and trust in neuroscience’s view of human nature that further changes how people think and act. Such looping effects of neurolaw are probably inevitable. Accordingly, we should be aware of the scope of neuroscientific explanations and be careful not to overstate neuroscientific evidence and findings in legal contexts.

scholarly journals A Social Judgment? Extralegal Contrast Effects in Hypothetical Legal Decision Making

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Edward Butterfield ◽  
Alexandra N. Bitter
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Social Judgments ◽  
Contrast Effects ◽  
Legal Decision ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Case Comparison ◽  
Legal Contexts ◽  
Parole Boards

Social judgments in ambiguous situations often rely on heuristics and biases, and legal decision makers are often faced with evidence that does not clearly favor one decision over another. Across two studies, we tested whether one extralegal factor, contrast cases, influenced decision making when judicial factors were held constant. In Study 1, participants (n = 100) evaluated whether an imagined prosecutor had sufficient evidence to send the same three target cases to trial. Before deciding these cases, though, the participants first evaluated cases with either relatively stronger or weaker evidence than the targets. Those in the weak-case comparison group were significantly more likely to send target cases to trial, and they believed the prosecutor had a stronger case. In Study 2, all participants (n = 100) evaluated hypothetical parole applications, but the method was otherwise the same as that used in Study 1. The same contrast-oriented pattern emerged. Participants who first viewed weaker parole applications rated the identical targets as significantly more rehabilitated. Taken together, the results of these two studies suggest that contrast effects may be one extralegal factor involved in shaping individual-level social judgments made in legal contexts such as grand juries and parole boards.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 187-196
Author(s):  
Allison D. Redlich ◽  
Vanessa A. Edkins
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Plea Bargaining ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Legal Decision ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Law

This volume has gathered together research from multiple disciplines, integrated into one overall picture of the current state of our justice system. The system of pleas that defendants inhabit means that while plea bargaining is thoroughly entrenched in our present-day notion of justice, the law has not caught up. In this concluding chapter of the book, our goal is twofold. First we highlight two major themes that cut across the chapters. Although there were many possible themes to choose among, we focus on Innocence (with a capital ‘I’) and plea decision-making. Second, we summarize chapter authors’ suggestions for future research—that is, to delineate what the next generation of plea-related scholarship may look like, so that scholars and legal decision-makers alike may continue to move forward.

Framing Information Technology Governance in the Public Sector: Opportunities and Challenges

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 89-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalifa Al-Farsi ◽  
Ramzi EL Haddadeh
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
It Governance ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Technology Governance ◽  
Support Organizations ◽  
Information Technology Governance ◽  
Decision Making Processes

Information technology governance is considered one of the innovative practices that can provide support for decision-makers. Interestingly, it has become increasingly a de facto for organizations in seeking to optimise their performance. In principle, information technology governance has emerged to support organizations in the integration of information technology (IT) infrastructures and the delivery of high-quality services. On the other hand, decision-making processes in public sector organisations can be multi-faceted and complex, and decision makers play an important role in implementing technology in the public sector. The aim of this paper is to shed some light on current opportunities and challenges that IT governance is experiencing in the context of public sector services. In this respect, this paper examines the factors influencing the decision-making process to fully appreciate IT governance. Furthermore, this study focuses on combining institutional and individual perspectives to explain how individuals can take decisions in response to institutional influences.

scholarly journals Why hasn’t evolution selected for perfect self-control?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Hayden
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Subjective Feeling ◽  
Obvious Reason ◽  
Control Failures

Self-control refers to the ability to deliberately reject tempting options and instead select ones that produce greater long-term benefits. Although some apparent failures of self-control are, on closer inspection, reward maximizing, at least some self-control failures are clearly disadvantageous and non-strategic. The existence of poor self-control presents an important evolutionary puzzle because there is no obvious reason why good self-control should be more costly than poor self-control. After all, a rock is infinitely patient. I propose that self-control failures result from cases in which well-learned (and thus routinized) decision making strategies yield suboptimal choices. These mappings persist in the decision-makers’ repertoire because they result from learning processes that are adaptive in the broader context, either on the timescale of learning or of evolution. Self-control, then, is a form of cognitive control and the subjective feeling of effort likely reflects the true costs of cognitive control. Poor self-control, in this view, is ultimately a result of bounded optimality.

Emergency water supply decision-making of transboundary river basin considering government–public perceived satisfaction

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 381-401
Author(s):  
Weiwei Wang ◽  
Haiwei Zhou ◽  
Lidan Guo
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Transboundary Water ◽  
The Public ◽  
Transboundary Water Resources ◽  
Perceived Satisfaction ◽  
Emergency Water Supply

The emergency supply of transboundary water resources is a prominent problem affecting the social and economic development of basin countries. However, current water supply decisions on transboundary water resources may ignore the psychological perception of multi-stakeholders, and the evolution of emergencies increases the uncertainty of decision making. Both factors would lead to the low acceptance of water-related decisions. Utility satisfaction, perceived losses, and quantity satisfaction were selected in this paper to identify the perceived satisfaction of upstream governments, downstream governments, and the public, respectively, over multiple decision-making stages. A modeling framework combining prospect theory and the multi-stage multi-objective programming methodology was then developed to measure the perceived satisfaction of different stakeholders in a watershed under emergency. A two-stage NSGA-II and TOPSIS based approach was adopted to find the optimal compromise solution to solve the model. The framework was applied in the Lancang–Mekong River basin to provide suggestions to decision makers. Upstream decision makers must choose a moderate proportional fairness degree when making emergency decisions to maximize the perceived satisfaction of all stakeholders. Meanwhile, the perceived loss of downstream countries with low water demand should be considered first in the formulation of emergency water supply plans. Furthermore, although water supply from upstream countries can improve perceived water quantity satisfaction of downstream publics, additional actions must still be taken to change the traditional concepts of the public.

Health Impacts of Large-Scale Floods: Governmental Decision-Making and Resilience of the Citizens

2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (S2) ◽  
pp. s70-s73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dick Q.P. Fundter ◽  
Bas Jonkman ◽  
Steve Beerman ◽  
Corsmas L.P.M. Goemans ◽  
Rosanna Briggs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Chronic Illnesses ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Natural Resistance ◽  
First Year ◽  
The Public ◽  
Life Saving

AbstractDuring the 15th World Congress on Disaster and Emergency Medicine in Amsterdam, May 2007 (15WCDEM), a targeted agenda program (TAP) about the public health aspects of large-scale floods was organized. The main goal of the TAP was the establishment of an overview of issues that would help governmental decision-makers to develop policies to increase the resilience of the citizens during floods. During the meetings, it became clear that citizens have a natural resistance to evacuations. This results in death due to drowning and injuries. Recently, communication and education programs have been developed that may increase awareness that timely evacuation is important and can be life-saving. After a flood, health problems persist over prolonged periods, including increased death rates during the first year after a flood and a higher incidence of chronic illnesses that last for decades after the flood recedes. Population-based resilience (bottom-up) and governmental responsibility (top-down) must be combined to prepare regions for the health impact of evacuations and floods. More research data are needed to become better informed about the health impact and consequences of translocation of health infrastructures after evacuations. A better understanding of the consequences of floods will support governmental decision-making to mitigate the health impact. A top-10 priority action list was formulated.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICING UNITS AS A CENTRAL CONTRACTING AUTHORITY

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (XX) ◽  
pp. 111-121
Author(s):  
Kamila Żmuda-Matan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Shared Services ◽  
The Public ◽  
Joint Activities ◽  
The Law ◽  
Special Provision

The scope of tasks entrusted to the servicing units, the so-called shared services centres, as part of the joint service results from the resolution of the decision-making body of the local government unit or from an agreement concluded between units, with restrictions resulting from the local government laws. By means of a special provision of the public procurement law, the legislator granted the competence to indicate or appoint an entity performing central contracting tasks or to specify the method of appointing such entities to the decision-making body of the local government unit. The competences of the commune council also include determining the scope of activities of these entities in accordance with Art. 15c of the Public Procurement Law. The perspective of providing by the commune of the joint service of the commune’s organisational units may therefore include joint activities in the scope of the procurement procedures, but then it is necessary to apply both the provisions of the law on commune government and the public procurement law. The indication or appointment of a central contracting authority by the decision-making body of the local government unit must be the activity preceding the transfer of specific tasks in the field of public procurement to this entity.

DEMOCRACY AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN RUSSIA

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (02) ◽  
pp. 161-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICOLE KOVALEV ◽  
JOHANN KÖPPEL ◽  
ALEXANDER DROZDOV ◽  
ECKHARDT DITTRICH
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Democratic Deficit ◽  
Approval Process ◽  
The Public ◽  
Environmental Decision Making ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Russian Federation

Since 1988, the Russian Federation has required that laws, plans, programs and all kind of projects undergo an environmental assessment. A mandatory component of the EIA in Russia is public participation. In this paper different case studies are used to find out to what extent public could influence environmental decision making processes from the early eighties until 2002. The cases selected include several where the public was passive or where it had limited activities, but also some where the participation was strong and projects were improved or stopped. As far as these case studies highlighted, the civil society in Russia can be described as an organized and sometimes strong factor in the approval process. The behaviour displayed by decision-makers, however, revealed at times a remarkable democratic deficit.

scholarly journals Axiology of Judicial Application of Enforcement Law: View on the Bailiff’s Discretion

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 149
Author(s):  
Piotr Szczekocki
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Application Process ◽  
Important Place ◽  
The Public ◽  
General Clause ◽  
The Law ◽  
And Function

<p class="Standard">In the article, the author focused on three theoretical and philosophical issues of the judicial enforcement law in Poland, connected with the new enforcement acts which entered into force on 1 January 2019. First, the judicial enforcement proceedings were presented as an element of the law application process. The axiological dimension of this law, the place and function of a court bailiff in the law application process and the introduction of general clauses, combined with the basic values of the court enforcement law in the form of efficiency, effectiveness and reliability, form the new picture of the judicial enforcement law. Secondly, the problem of a general clause as a “carrier” of extralegal criteria was discussed, which takes an important place in the process of enforcement law application in the new bailiff’s law. There is the special role of the “public interest” and the “interest of justice” clauses as normative constructions introduced by the legislator to judicial enforcement. Thirdly, an attempt was made to answer the question about the presence and possible limits of discretion (free decision-making) of a court bailiff in the surrounding of the new axiology of enforcement law, and especially the formulation of this issue in the process of operative interpretation of law by a court bailiff.</p>

scholarly journals Perancangan Sistem Kepuasan Masyarakat Terhadap Pelayanan Publik Dengan Metode Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-35
Author(s):  
Petrus Sokibi ◽  
Nurul Bahiyah
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Analytical Hierarchy Process ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Satisfaction Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Hierarchy Process ◽  
Government Institution

Talun sub-district is a government institution that provides public services to the public, which at this time there is no assessment of service satisfaction from the community so that the District Talun cannot know the assessment or complaints from the public to public services provided. The research aims to determine the level of public satisfaction of Public Service in Talun Sub-district. AHP is a complex multi-criteria decision-making method, in an unstructured situation into sections that are then shaped into functional hierarchies to present problems to be solved and then build a priority sequence for alternatives by pairwise alternative comparisons based on judgments of decision makers against a system. The appraisal application yields the value of the public satisfaction level and the eigenvector ranked according to the highest data as the final value of the AHP calculation so that the eigenvector value obtained can facilitate the Camat to see which elements of service are not good.

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