Andrea Monti

What happens to law when the human body becomes replicable, the mind readable, and identity programmable?This book investigates how artificial intelligence, neurotechnology, and synthetic biology are dismantling the legal foundations of personhood. From biometric doubles and cognitive extraction to bodyoids—human bodies grown without consciousness—the author reveals how legal categories struggle to keep pace with technological realities.Blending legal theory, philosophy, and science, the book exposes a profound crisis: law no longer knows what a “person” is. This timely and provocative work is essential for scholars in law, bioethics, and technology studies seeking to understand how the post-human era challenges the very structure of the legal order. The future is no longer science fiction. It is a legal vacuum.The book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of law, public policy, AI, and ethics. It will also be a handy guide for practicing lawyers.

What happens to law when the human body becomes replicable, the mind readable, and identity programmable?This book investigates how artificial intelligence, neurotechnology, and synthetic biology are dismantling the legal foundations of personhood. From biometric doubles and cognitive extraction to bodyoids—human bodies grown without consciousness—the author reveals how legal categories struggle to keep pace with technological realities.Blending legal theory, philosophy, and science, the book exposes a profound crisis: law no longer knows what a “person” is. This timely and provocative work is essential for scholars in law, bioethics, and technology studies seeking to understand how the post-human era challenges the very structure of the legal order. The future is no longer science fiction. It is a legal vacuum.The book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of law, public policy, AI, and ethics. It will also be a handy guide for practicing lawyers.

This book examines the ever-increasing impact of technology on our lives and explores a range of legal and constitutional questions that this raises. It considers the extent to which concepts such as 'cyberspace' and 'digital rights' advance or undermine our understanding of this development and proposes a number of novel approaches to the effective protection of our rights in this rapidly evolving environment. Finally, it shows how the abuse of the adjective digital has demoted legal rights into subjective and individual claims.The work will be of particular interest to scholars of privacy, artificial intelligence and free speech, as well as policymakers and the general reader.

This book examines the ever-increasing impact of technology on our lives and explores a range of legal and constitutional questions that this raises. It considers the extent to which concepts such as 'cyberspace' and 'digital rights' advance or undermine our understanding of this development and proposes a number of novel approaches to the effective protection of our rights in this rapidly evolving environment. Finally, it shows how the abuse of the adjective digital has demoted legal rights into subjective and individual claims.The work will be of particular interest to scholars of privacy, artificial intelligence and free speech, as well as policymakers and the general reader.

This important new book explores contemporary concerns about the protection of national security. It examines the role, influence, and impact of Big Tech on politics, power, and individual rights. The volume considers the manner in which digital technology and its business models have shaped public policy and charts its future course. In this vital text for legislators and policymakers, Andrea Monti and Raymond Wacks draw on several case studies to analyse the changing nature of national security and revisit the traditional idea of the sovereignty of the State. They highlight some of the limitations of the conventional understanding of public policy, national security, and the rule of law to reveal the role of digital technology as an enabler as well as discriminator in governance and social disorder. Further, the chapters in the book explore the tenuous balance between individual freedom and national security; the key role of data protection in safeguarding digital data; Big Tech’s appropriation of national security policy; the debate relating to datagathering technologies and encryption; and offers an unsettling answer to the question ‘what is a leak?’A stimulating read, this key text will be of immense interest to scholars of politics, cyberculture, and national security, as well as to policy analysts, lawyers, and journalists.

This important new book explores contemporary concerns about the protection of national security. It examines the role, influence, and impact of Big Tech on politics, power, and individual rights. The volume considers the manner in which digital technology and its business models have shaped public policy and charts its future course. In this vital text for legislators and policymakers, Andrea Monti and Raymond Wacks draw on several case studies to analyse the changing nature of national security and revisit the traditional idea of the sovereignty of the State. They highlight some of the limitations of the conventional understanding of public policy, national security, and the rule of law to reveal the role of digital technology as an enabler as well as discriminator in governance and social disorder. Further, the chapters in the book explore the tenuous balance between individual freedom and national security; the key role of data protection in safeguarding digital data; Big Tech’s appropriation of national security policy; the debate relating to datagathering technologies and encryption; and offers an unsettling answer to the question ‘what is a leak?’A stimulating read, this key text will be of immense interest to scholars of politics, cyberculture, and national security, as well as to policy analysts, lawyers, and journalists.

COVID-19 and Public Policy in the Digital Age explores how states and societies have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and their long-term implications for public policy and the rule of law globally. It examines the extent to which existing methods of protecting public safety and national security measure up in a time of crisis. The volume also examines how these ideas themselves have undergone transformation in the context of the global crisis.This book:Explores the intersection of public policy, individual rights, and technology;Analyzes the role of science in determining political choices; Reconsiders our understanding of security studies on a global scale arising out of antisocial behaviour, panic buying, and stockpiling of food and (in the United States) arms;Probes the role of fake news and social media in crisis situations; andProvides a critical analysis of the notion of global surveillance in relation to the pandemic. A timely, prescient volume on the many ramifications of the pandemic, this book will be essential reading for professionals, scholars, researchers, and students of public policy, especially practitioners working in the fields of technology and society, security studies, law, media studies, and public health.

COVID-19 and Public Policy in the Digital Age explores how states and societies have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and their long-term implications for public policy and the rule of law globally. It examines the extent to which existing methods of protecting public safety and national security measure up in a time of crisis. The volume also examines how these ideas themselves have undergone transformation in the context of the global crisis.This book:Explores the intersection of public policy, individual rights, and technology;Analyzes the role of science in determining political choices; Reconsiders our understanding of security studies on a global scale arising out of antisocial behaviour, panic buying, and stockpiling of food and (in the United States) arms;Probes the role of fake news and social media in crisis situations; andProvides a critical analysis of the notion of global surveillance in relation to the pandemic. A timely, prescient volume on the many ramifications of the pandemic, this book will be essential reading for professionals, scholars, researchers, and students of public policy, especially practitioners working in the fields of technology and society, security studies, law, media studies, and public health.

The concept of privacy has long been confused and incoherent. The right to privacy has been applied promiscuously to an alarmingly wide-ranging assortment of issues including free speech, political consent, abortion, contraception, sexual preference, noise, discrimination, and pornography. The conventional definition of privacy, and attempts to evolve a ‘privacy-as-a-fence’ approach, are unable to deal effectively with the technological advances that have significantly altered the way information is collected, stored, and communicated. Social media such as Facebook pose searching questions about the use and protection of personal information and reveal the limits of conceiving the right to privacy as synonymous with data protection. The recent European Union's GDPR seeks to enforce greater protection of personal information, but the overlap with privacy has further obscured its core meaning. This book traces these troubling developments, and seeks to reveal the essential nature of privacy and, critically, what privacy is not.