Neuroscience and the “Mute Law”

Abstract

Thischapterinvestigateshowtheneuroscientificstudiescouldbeusedto unveil the “mute” dimension of law and determine its “appearance”. It is not a coincidence that a sensible anthropologist such as Roderick MacDonald imagined the law as an iceberg where its emerged peak, visible above the water, represents the written law, while the most substantial submerged part represents all the implicit and inferential aspects of the law. Looking at the historical reality, the full picture is far from being completely defined. After re-elaborating some of Rodolfo Sacco’s reflections about the existence of “mute law”, here the following considerations attempt to highlight the importance that neurosciences could have in forming the theoretical basis of the sources of law by better defining the physiology of the regulatory production processes