Professor Norman J. Finkel earned his Ph.D. at the University of Rochester in 1971, with his major area being Clinical Psychology, and he has been at Georgetown University ever since. His scholarly interests are in the area of psychology, public policy, and law, looking at ordinary citizens' (jurors') views of the justice, fairness, and the law, what he calls "commonsense justice," and how these views compare and contrast with black-letter law. His empirical work has focused on such areas as insanity, infanticide, self-defense, capital felony-murder, juvenile death penalty, manslaughter, and rights and duties.

Dr. Finkel's books include Insanity on Trial (Plenum, 1988), Commonsense Justice: Jurors' Notions of the Law (Harvard University Press,1995), and Not Fair!: The Typology of Commonsense Unfairness (American Psychology Association, 2001). He and a colleague are currently working on an edited volume entitled Human Rights and Duties: Psychology's Contributions, the Law's Commentary (to be published by the American Psychological Association). He is a Co-Editor of Law and Public Policy/Psychology and the Social Sciences, a book series published by the American Psychological Association.