Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book embraces distinct procedural and evidential issues in the courtroom for vulnerable defendants through a neuroscientific lens to discuss the relevance of neuroscience at trial and how neuroscience is currently benefiting and impacting vulnerable defendants in global criminal trials. It analyses of issues related to vulnerable defendants from legal academics, philosophers, and legal practitioners based in the United States, the Netherlands, Italy, England, Norway, and Germany. The book engages with legal and ethical concepts, including coercion and a defendant's fundamental legal rights, to consider whether vulnerable defendants should be offered neurotechnologies in legal contexts. It discusses factors that may influence decision-making processes in cases involving vulnerable defendants and how the potential introduction of new technologies into the legal system, especially artificial intelligence. The book explores the relevance and necessity of bringing neuroscientific understandings of trauma into sentencing processes.