About Us

Library Leadership

The CLBB NeuroLaw Library at the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior is committed to bringing together experts in neuroscience and the law to improve justice.

Stephanie Tabashneck, PsyD, JD

Founding Director, CLBB NeuroLaw Library

Robert Kinscherff, PhD, JD

Executive Director, CLBB

Judith G. Edersheim, JD, MD

Co-Founder, CLBB

DJ Patel

Managing Director, Monogram

Bruce H. Price, MD

Founding Co-Director, MGH Center for Law, Brain and Behavior

Library Advisors

Judge Nancy Gertner (ret)

Legal Advisor

Yasmin Hurd, PhD

Science Advisor

Alisha Moreland-Capuia, MD

Science Advisor

Francis Shen, PhD, JD

Science Advisor

District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden

District Attorney, Suffolk County, MA

Library Researchers

Kathryn Lamp, PhD

Resource Librarian & Senior Research Associate

Lily Reed, MA

Research Assistant

Edward Tie, MD

Research Assistant

CLBB NeuroLaw Library

“By making the findings of brain science available to all – and doing so for free – the CLBB NeuroLaw Library stands to level the courtroom playing field. It will be an especially invaluable resource for attorneys with heavy caseloads and limited budgets and for defendants and plaintiffs who lack financial means.” Judge Jay D. Blitzman, Massachusetts Juvenile Court (ret.).

The CLBB NeuroLaw Library is a one-of-a-kind information resource for people involved in the juvenile and adult criminal justice system. It provides free, open access to accurate and applicable neuroscience in order to bring about fairer, more effective and science-informed judicial outcomes.

The NeuroLaw Library can be used across the legal-judicial spectrum – by defense attorneys and prosecutors, judges, probation and parole officers, advocates and incarcerated persons and their families and friends.

A curated reservoir of journal articles, amicus briefs, and affidavits make up the core of the NeuroLaw Library. Other features include educational videos, a neurolaw dictionary, and toolkits for attorneys and incarcerated persons. Through the use of AI, complex materials in the archive can be adapted to five different reading levels, starting at the 6^th grade. This feature is geared specially to meet the needs of justice-involved persons who have limited time to do research in a prison library or who may have a lower level of education.

Currently, the NeuroLaw Library has one content module, an extensive collection of materials on Juvenile and Emerging Adult Justice. Five other modules will be released over the next two years:

Aging Brains/Elder Fraud Prevention: December 2024

Trauma, Memory and Asylum Law: June 2025

Sentencing Reform: December 2025

Addiction and the Law: June 2026

The Center for Law, Brain & Behavior

The Center for Law, Brain & Behavior (CLBB) is based in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, the largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. Our mission is to transform law, public policy, and professional practice in criminal justice through the use of neuroscience.

How does neuroscience – the study of the brain and central nervous system – further justice reform? By debunking pervasive myths about mental states and keep U. S. law anchored in 19^th century science and injustices. Criminal law is all about mental states and all too often relies on antiquated concepts of the human mind that perpetuate unjust, unsupportable, and racially biased practices regarding crime and punishment.

CLBB puts accurate and actionable neuroscience in the hands of lawyers, judges, probation staff and others who directly shape how the criminal justice system works. Our faculty write and disseminate briefs and white papers, give testimony to legislatures and government entities, and consult in criminal defense and prosecution cases. We also forge partnerships to mount demonstration projects, for example, a pre-arraignment diversion program for young adults, a sentencing diversion program, and a financial fraud protection program for older adults with cognitive impairment and vulnerability to undue influence.

The Center is led by accomplished experts—legal practitioners and scholars, neuroscientists, physicians and thought leaders—based at Harvard Law School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and other leading institutions of learning. CLBB works with partners as diverse as the Federal Judicial Center, the Sentencing Project, the National District Attorneys Association, the American Bar Association, and the Flaschner Judicial Institute.

Since CLBB’s founding in 2008, we have demonstrated the clear benefits of accurately applied neuroscience: better decisions aligned with science lead to better outcomes aligned with justice.

About Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital founded in 1811 is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The Mass General Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation with annual research operations of more than $1 billion and comprises more than 9,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers and departments. MGH is a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system.