Minds, Freedoms and Rights - On Neurorehabilitation in Criminal Justice

Recent developments in the cognitive sciences, particularly the emergence of neurotechnologies and their potential applications in a variety of contexts, have prompted a debate on what freedoms and rights people have in relation to their brains and minds. Lawyers and philosophers are especially interested in the possibilities offered by the neurosciences in conducting risk assessments and risk management. Minds, Freedoms and Rights deepens our understanding of these legal issues by investigating the human rights that relate to the mind and by exploring their implications for possible uses for neurotechnology for criminal rehabilitation or 'neurorehabilitation'. By harnessing and integrating both legal and ethical perspectives, the authors establish possible uses of neurorehabilitation that are cutting-edge yet simultaneously protect and respect human rights and freedoms. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.

List of contents

Acknowledgments; 1. Neurorehabilitation in Criminal Justice; 1.1 Introduction; 1.2 Setting the Stage: Criminal Justice, Crime Prevention, and Rehabilitation; 1.3 Neuroprediction and Neurointervention; 1.4 Freedoms and Rights; Part I. The Negative Dimension: 2. The Right to Personal Identity; 2.1 Introduction; 2.2. Normative Concerns about Brain Stimulation and Personal Identity; 2.2.1 Psychological Continuity; 2.2.2 Narrative Identity; 2.3 Human Rights Protection of Personal Identity: The Case of Neurorehabilitation; 2.3.1 Introduction; 2.3.2 Psychological Continuity; 2.3.3 Narrative Identity; 2.3.4 Implications for Neurorehabilitation; 2.4 Concluding Remarks; 3. The Right to Personal Integrity; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 Human Rights Protection of Personal Integrity; 3.2.1 The Right to Security of Person; 3.2.2 Privacy Rights; 3.2.3 The Prohibition of Torture, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment; 3.2.4 The Right to Freedom of Thought and Freedom of Opinion; 3.2.5 Brief recap; 3.3 Constructing the Right to Mental Integrity: Scope and Permissible Limitations; 3.3.1 Meaning and Scope; 3.3.2 Permissible Limitations; 3.4 Concluding Remarks; 4. The Right to Mental Privacy; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 The Protection of Mental Privacy in Human Rights Law; 4.2.1 The Right to Privacy; 4.2.2 The Right to Freedom of Expression; 4.2.3 The Right to Freedom of Thought; 4.3 Towards a Threshold for the Right to Freedom of Thought?; 4.3.1 Characteristics of the privacy interference: means and targeted mental phenomena; 4.3.2 Context of the privacy interference; 4.3.3 Characteristics of the victim: vulnerability; 4.3.4 Brief Recap; 4.4 Concluding Remarks; Part II. The Positive Dimension: Arguments for Offering Neurorehabilitation; 5. The Right to Mental Self-Determination; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 Legal and Moral Rationales for a Human Right to Mental Self-Determination; 5.2.1 Introduction; 5.2.2 A Right to Mental Self-Determination as Implicit in Law; 5.2.3 A Right to Mental Self-Determination as Protected by the Right to Freedom of Thought; 5.2.4 A Right to Mental Self-Determination as Protected by the Right to Privacy; 5.2.5 A Moral Argument for a Right to Mental Self-Determination; 5.3. A State Duty to Provide Neurorehabilitation?; 5.4 Concluding Remarks; The Right to Mental Health; 6.1 Introduction; 6.2 Legal and Moral Bases of a Right to Mental Health; 6.2.1 Legal Bases; 6.2.2 Moral Bases; 6.3 What is Mental Health? Considering the Scope of a Right to Mental Health; 6.3.1 Positive and Negative Conceptions of Mental Health; 6.3.2 Mental Health in Human Rights Law; 6.4 A State Duty to Provide Neurorehabilitation?; 6.5 Concluding Remarks; 7. The Right to Rehabilitation; 7.1 Introduction; 7.2 Obligation to Enable Rehabilitation in Human Rights Law; 7.3 Rationales for a Right to Rehabilitation; 7.3.1 The Right Against Cruel, Inhuman and/or Degrading Punishment; 7.3.2 The Right to Socially Contribute; 7.3 A State Duty to Provide Neurorehabilitation?; 7.4 Concluding Remarks; 8. Synthesis and Conclusion; 8.1 Introduction; 8.2 Plausibly Permissible Interventions; 8.3 Interventions of which the Permissibility is Unclear; 8.4 Plausibly Impermissible Interventions; 8.5 Closing Remarks; References; Index.

About the author

Sjors Ligthart is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Law at Tilburg University and postdoctoral researcher in the Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology of Utrecht University. He is the author of Coercive Brain-Reading in Criminal Justice: An Analysis of European Human Rights Law (Cambridge University Press 2022) and co-editor of Neurolaw: Advances in Neuroscience, Justice and Security (Palgrave MacMillan 2021).Emma Dore-Horgan is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Philosophy, VU University Amsterdam, working on the research project 'Law and Ethics of Neurotechnology in Criminal Justice'. She is an honorary research associate of the Uehiro Oxford Institute for Practical Ethics and has published research with Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Criminal Law and Philosophy, Bioethics, AJOB Neuroscience and the Journal of Law and the Biosciences.Gerben Meynen is Professor of Ethics, in particular bioethics, in the Department of Philosophy, VU University Amsterdam, and Professor of Forensic Psychiatry in the Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology of Utrecht University. He is the author of Legal Insanity: Explorations in Psychiatry, Law, and Ethics (Springer, 2016) and he co-edited Neurolaw: Advances in Neuroscience, Justice and Security (Palgrave MacMillan 2021) and Brain and Crime (Elsevier 2023).

Product details

• Authors: Emma Dore-Horgan, Sjors Ligthart, Sjors (Utrecht University) Dore-Horgan Ligthart, Meynen Gerben
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 30.11.2025
• EAN: 9781009486330
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0948633-0
• No. of pages: 280
• Series: Law and the Cognitive Sciences
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; LAW / Criminal Law / General, Human rights & civil liberties law, Ethics & moral philosophy, Ethics and moral philosophy, Law: Human rights and civil liberties