Location: UNL City Campus Student Union
Auditorium (C/D 7.5 on this map)
PLEASE NOTE! Registration for the Symposium will close on Thursday April 10th, at noon Central time. Anyone is still allowed to attend the Symposium as a walk-on.
Announcement and Call for Posters
Coordinated by: Brian H. Bornstein and Richard L. Wiener
The last decade has seen burgeoning interest in issues at the intersection of emotion and law. Given the longstanding interest in emotion among social (and other) psychologists, most of this research has come from a psychological perspective, but it also includes scholars from law, sociology, philosophy, and neuroscience. The issues are theoretical as well as practical, influencing both psychological theories of emotion and legal practice and policy.
The law adopts a double standard in its treatment of emotion. In some areas, the law explicitly addresses emotion as a legitimate consideration, but in other areas, the law denies emotion any role in legal decision-making. For example, legal analysis requires decision makers to consider the emotion of others when weighing the credibility of eyewitnesses, classifying certain offenses as "hate crimes," classifying crimes for purposes of criminal culpability (e.g., "crimes of passion"), awarding damages for emotional injuries (e.g., mental suffering, emotional distress), and allowing jurors’ moral response to influence such consequential decisions as punitive damages, capital sentencing, and jury nullification. At the same time, the courts make what may be an untenable presumption when they require jurors to evaluate certain kinds of evidence dispassionately.
The 2008 Nebraska Symposium on Motivation will include distinguished speakers who are working at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary psycholegal scholarship that examines the role of emotion in the law (click on Speakers for 2008).
The Symposium will include a poster session and will be followed by a published volume. Submit a poster