Title: The impact of neuroscience in criminal law: The concept of culpability

Abstract

On the basis of clinical examples and experiments, neuroscientist have argued that the human mind – its emotions and its thoughts – develops according to positive and deterministic laws that occur before the consciousness of a decision. The search for consciousness is explained by neuronal causal mechanisms. Consciousness of a certain decision thus appears as a lengthy process which essentially escapes control and is causally determined. In this sense, all human behavior and decisions are predetermined and caused by unconscious neurological processes and networks. Decisions are necessary consequences of neuronal courses]. In a subsequent and extreme step, the knowledge of these laws would enable us to predict or determine human behavior, giving rise to a new form of determinism, “a neurodeterminism conception”.