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S.E.A.L.

Society for Evolutionary Analysis in Law

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The Society for Evolutionary Analysis in Law is a network of law professors and others interested in exploring the relevance of evolutionary biology to law.

Its purpose is to discover how a deeper understanding of evolutionary processes might shed useful light on law-relevant human behavior (such as violence), the development of norms, patterns in jurisprudence, and the behavior of "complex adaptive systems" in legal processes.

The Society’s first national conference was held at Pace University School of Law October 16-17, 1998. Over 30 law professors and scientists from around the country participated in the conference.

The program for the first annual conference is set out below.

Program
of first Annual Conference
of the
Society for Evolutionary Analysis in Law

Pace University School of Law, White Plains, N.Y.
October 16-17, 1998

FRIDAY, October 16
Welcome--Dean Richard Ottinger (Pace); Owen Jones
John O. McGinnis (Cardozo) -- The Primacy of Nature in Political Theory
John Humbach (Pace)--Biology, Blame and Criminality
Owen Jones (Ariz.St.)--Sex, Culture and the Biology of Rape
PANEL on LAW AS A COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEM
J.B. Ruhl (George Washington): Introduction
David Post (Temple): Basic Theme of Complex Legal Systems
and what the future research agenda needs to be.
Tom Geu (South Dakota)--Complex Adaptive Systems and Business Law
J.B. Ruhl (George Washington)--An Application of Algorithm Theory to
Environmental Law
E. Donald Elliott (Yale)--Evolutionary Law, and Comments on presentations

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Neil Malamuth (UCLA)--An Evolutionary-based
Model of the Characteristics of Sexually Coercive Men: Integrating
Multiple Levels of Analysis

SATURDAY, October 17
Jeff Stake (Indiana U.)--Freedom of Speech and the Evolution of Memes
Michael Fried (Federal Trade Comm.)--Memetic Analysis of the Development
    of Legal Concepts
Kingsley Browne (Wayne State)--Gender and the Military
Shubha Ghosh (Georgia.St.)--Private Transfers Within the Family:
     Altruism, Agency, and Evolution
Oliver Goodenough (Vermont)--Law and Evolution vs. Law and Economics
Robert Ashford (Syracuse)--Evolutionary Biology and Socio-economics:
     The Complementary Relation to Law Teaching and Practice
PANEL on TEACHING LAW AND BIOLOGY TOPICS
     with Raymond Colletta (McGeorge) & Cheryl Hanna (Vermont)