SYMPOSIUM: Topics from experimental philosophy of law

A movement under the label of experimental philosophy has brought together scholars from different disciplines (e.g., philosophy, psychology, linguistics, and law) to shed light on philosophical questions by empirical means. A subdiscipline within this movement is devoted to studying the intuitions of laypeople and legal experts on topics at the heart of legal theory. For instance, some scholars have investigated people’s attribution of concepts relevant for legal (criminal) judgments such as intentional action, causation, consent, and reasonableness. The findings of these studies, it has been argued, carry major implications for the law and have been used by some scholars to forward different interpretations of phenomena relevant for legal theory.

The goal of the proposed symposium is then two-fold: We aim to (i) explore the influences on people’s and experts’ intuitions with regards to legally relevant concepts and the underlying psychological processes; and (ii) investigate the implications for the law and legal theory.