Neurotechnology to reduce recidivism: Ethical and legal challenges

Effects of psychological torture and cybertorture with emerging digital technologies under anti-torture legal obligations in China: A mixed methods research in risks and remedies

International norms and domestic law-making and decision-making often underestimate the effects of psychological torture and the challenges posed by digital technologies like artificial intelligence, neurotechnology, and cybertechnology, such as cybertorture, used in interrogation techniques. This article focuses on how anti-torture legal measures, both in the international context and in their domestic implementation in China, respond to the contemporary challenges in the prevailing legal framework posed by the emergence of digital technologies and the effects of psychological torture. These challenges need to be considered from medico-legal perspectives in risk evaluation and remedies for the intertwined concept of neurorights and cybertorture and the effects of psychological torture, as well as introducing the argument that neurorights as an integral concept of human rights should be placed in the architecture of the human rights legal framework regarding cybertorture as a theoretical basis for legal reasoning in specific cases. This article aims to examine these challenges in the evolutionary interpretation of existing international conventions to combat torture by examining the changing trends in the interpretation of these instruments and the role played by soft law in them. It also examines how China, as a Convention's State party, provides judicial remedies for individual claims by psychological torture victims. It highlights that vagueness in the definition of concepts and the high threshold for the effects of psychological torture increase the risk of the victim suffering and act as a barrier to grant redress within medico-legal support. Using a mixed research method, it first analyzes two types of cause-of-action cases study regarding psychological torture of state compensation and involuntary admission procedures in Mental health Law. Quantitative analysis was also used to support the soundness of the exploratory conclusions drawn by the case study section. The empirical findings suggest that certain significant risk factors in China's law-making and judicial decision-making affect the fairness and availability of judicial remedies for individual claims.

Right to mental integrity and neurotechnologies: implications of the extended mind thesis

The possibility of neurotechnological interference with our brain and mind raises questions about the moral rights that would protect against the (mis)use of these technologies. One such moral right that has received recent attention is the right to mental integrity. Though the metaphysical boundaries of the mind are a matter of live debate, most defences of this moral right seem to assume an internalist (brain-based) view of the mind. In this article, we will examine what an extended account of the mind might imply for the right to mental integrity and the protection it provides against neurotechnologies. We argue that, on an extended account of the mind, the scope of the right to mental integrity would expand significantly, implying that neurotechnologies would no longer pose a uniquely serious threat to the right. In addition, some neurotechnologies may even be protected by the right to mental integrity, as the technologies would become part of the mind. We conclude that adopting an extended account of the mind has significant implications for the right to mental integrity in terms of its protective scope and capacity to protect against neurotechnologies, demonstrating that metaphysical assumptions about the mind play an important role in determining the moral protection provided by the right.