“…human legal behavior is both facilitated and constrained by our biological nature”
Dr. jur. Margaret Gruter, J.S.M
ADVANCING INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION TO IMPROVE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN INSTITUTIONS AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR
The Gruter Institute is a research community that fosters collaboration across disciplines in order advance our understanding of the interplay between law, institutions and human behavior. The goal of the Institute is to build a richer understanding of the underlying behaviors at the heart of society’s most pressing problems and to improve our understanding of how law and other institutions facilitate or hinder those behaviors. To that end, the Institute brings together academics and practitioners from diverse fields ranging from evolutionary biology, economics, anthropology, finance and law to exchange knowledge from the diverse disciplines, collaborate on core questions, and develop tangible outputs, including publications, policy recommendations and the architecture of innovative institutional and legal regimes.
Education and communication among law professors, judges, lawyers, economists, scholars from numerous other social sciences, and behavioral biologists, including evolutionary biologists and neuroscientists, are a primary aim of the Institute.
Since 1981, the Gruter Institute has organized scores of workshops, symposia, conferences, and interdisciplinary working teams continue to be organized to carry out the goals of the Institute. Results of these efforts are disseminated in written form in scholarly journals, books, and in special publications of the Institute. The Gruter Institute has developed and refined theoretical frameworks for understanding relationships between law, economics, and behavioral biology. Institute associates have also found new ways of integrating biological theories and findings in law and public policy. Three ideas have guided the Institute’s activities and compelled it to place a strong emphasis on the need for teaching:
1. the realization that biology and other life sciences are making rapid advances in its understanding of human behavior;
2. that these findings have significant implications for law and public policy; and
3. that in many instances there are no established processes for incorporating biological findings into our legal and
educational institutions.
A non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, the Gruter Institute is centered around a group of Research Fellows and participating scholars comprised of some of the finest scientists educators and practitioners from around the world, including the United States, Great Britain, Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Austria, who are active in organizing and implementing specific research projects. The Institute is administered by its Board of Directors, which is assisted by the Planning and Programming Committee and the Advisory Board.