Law and Ethics of Neuroscience and Emerging Neurotechnologies

SW 12 Law and Ethics of Neuroscience and Emerging Neurotechnologies

Convenors: Elif Küzeci-Ecem Çoban Bilici

Contact: elif.kuzeci@bilkent.edu.tr or ecem.cobanbilici@bau.edu.tr.

 

Neuroscience and emerging neurotechnologies are rapidly transforming how human cognition, emotion and behavior can be observed, interpreted and influenced. Brain computer interfaces,

neurostimulation devices, neural data analytics, attention and affect tracking tools and AI supported inference techniques now operate across clinical, educational, occupational and consumer contexts. These developments promise significant benefits for communication, diagnosis and treatment, rehabilitation and human flourishing. At the same time, they raise profound ethical and legal questions concerning dignity, cognitive autonomy, mental privacy, freedom of thought, personal integrity and the protection of neural data that is exceptionally sensitive.

Neurotechnological developments exemplify the changing problems of the world because they reflect technological, epistemic and social shifts that place pressure on long standing assumptions in law and ethics. By altering the relationships between mind, behavior and data, these technologies compel a reconsideration of the concepts through which law identifies persons, interprets agency, structures rights and assigns responsibility. As neural data enable inferences beyond individual awareness and as these technologies circulate through everyday

environments, foundational ideas concerning privacy, consent, manipulation, responsibility and vulnerability become strained. These tensions intensify when neural systems intersect with artificial intelligence, raising concerns regarding discrimination, accountability, behavioral and cognitive influence and surveillance.

In this light, the workshop aims to examine how neurotechnologies challenge the concepts that guide legal and ethical reasoning, and to consider what resources legal philosophy and ethical analysis can offer in response. Legal philosophy is central to this discussion because it clarifies the foundations of personhood, rights, responsibility and normative authority. As technological change affects the categories on which legal reasoning depends, philosophical reflection becomes essential for determining how these categories should be interpreted and revised.

Building on this analysis, the workshop will also explore how the ability to access, infer or modulate neural processes challenges the privacy of inner thought and reshapes familiar ethical categories. It will investigate broader societal consequences, including inequality, surveillance, pressure to perform, behavioral steering and new forms of vulnerability across workplaces, schools, digital platforms and consumer environments. Finally, it will consider the legal and governance challenges raised by neural data, cognitive inference and neurotechnological intervention, including the adequacy of human rights protections, data protection norms, research ethics principles and the growing importance of international guidelines, soft law instruments and constitutional proposals for neuro rights. This discussion also reflects recent international developments, including UNESCO’s adoption of the first global normative framework on the ethics of neurotechnology, which establishes safeguards to ensure that emerging applications are aligned with human rights, dignity and social benefit.

 

Scope and Thematic Areas

The workshop adopts a broad interdisciplinary frame, uniting ethical analysis, legal theory and

governance studies. Discussions may include:

• Ethical and human-rights foundations: autonomy, dignity, mental privacy, freedom of thought and cognitive influence.
• Neural data and inference: conceptual limits of privacy, opacity of neural information, cognitive enhancement and affect recognition.
• Social justice and inequality: discrimination, vulnerability, structural inequality and the distribution of risks and benefits.
• Regulation and governance: gaps in existing frameworks, accountability, soft-law approaches and international standards (UNESCO, OECD and neuro-rights initiatives).
• Philosophical implications: agency, personhood, identity and the inner sphere of mental life.
• Posthuman and cultural imaginaries: transformations of embodiment and selfhood, and the narrative, literary and representational dimensions of neurotechnologies.

 

Participation

Researchers wishing to contribute are invited to submit a title and an abstract of up to 500 words by 30 April 2026 to: elif.kuzeci@bilkent.edu.tr or ecem.cobanbilici@bau.edu.tr.

 

We warmly welcome contributions from scholars, practitioners, policymakers, research ethics committee members and professionals involved in governance or oversight of neurotechnological and data-driven systems, as well as others working on the philosophical, ethical, legal or societal dimensions of neurotechnology. The workshop aims to foster an open, interactive and intellectually generous environment that supports interdisciplinary engagement, critical reflection and the development of new perspectives on this evolving field.