The Impact of the Progressive Brain Science and Neuroscience on Due Process of Law

Abstract

Within two decades US supreme court ruled some remarkable decisions concerning the mitigation of juvenile sentences with adopting the new knowledge about the development of Brain Science and Neuroscience. And after those remarkable decisions many states revised their juvenile laws and practices toward the softened and mitigated juvenile sentencing. Though US supreme court ruled not only the decisions concerning juvenile sentencing but also the decision about the due process of law in the juvenile proceeding with reference to the medical findings and knowledge. J.D.B. v. North Carolina (2011) is the leading case that juvenile age must be included in the decision about the 　［in custody ］situation that Miranda v. Arizona (1966) found the objective requirement, police officers must give the caution about right to privilege against self-incrimination and right to counsel. Under the basic notion about ［juveniles are different from adults］, J.D.B. implicates that the essential of due process of law for juveniles is to complement the vulnerability of the cognitive regulatory system which proper to the juveniles. These implications must be referred even in Japan.