header-logo header-logo

NLJ this week: Neuro-marketing & neuro-politics: are our thoughts our own?

14 February 2025
Issue: 8104 / Categories: Legal News , Technology , Human rights , Health
printer mail-detail
208049
Welcome to the brave new world of neuropolitics! In this week’s NLJ, Harry Lambert, Outer Temple Chambers, continues his fascinating series on the fast-emerging area of neurorights with a look at free will, our sense of self, individual agency and freedom of thought.

Neuro-marketing and neuro-politics use strategies that sway us subconsciously without overt awareness. How do we regulate to protect the individual and wider society? The ‘capacity to manipulate consumer behaviour by exploiting subconscious responses’ threatens the ability to make informed choices.

Lambert, founder and head of the Centre for Neurotechnology & Law, writes: ‘Every interaction we have with the world is via the medium of the electrical impulses we refer to as “thought”. For that reason, we need to tread very carefully before we add a silicone intermediary in that process—one that has worked pretty well for hydrocarbon-based life for a few million years.’ 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Muckle LLP—Rachael Chapman

Muckle LLP—Rachael Chapman

Sports, education and charities practice welcomes senior associate

Ellisons—Carla Jones

Ellisons—Carla Jones

Partner and head of commercial litigation joins in Chelmsford

Freeths—Louise Mahon

Freeths—Louise Mahon

Firm strengthens Glasgow corporate practice with partner hire

NEWS
One in five in-house lawyers suffer ‘high’ or ‘severe’ work-related stress, according to a report by global legal body, the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC)
The Legal Ombudsman’s (LeO’s) plea for a budget increase has been rejected by the Law Society and accepted only ‘with reluctance’ by conveyancers
Overcrowded prisons, mental health hospitals and immigration centres are failing to meet international and domestic human rights standards, the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) has warned
Two speedier and more streamlined qualification routes have been launched for probate and conveyancing professionals
Workplace stress was a contributing factor in almost one in eight cases before the employment tribunal last year, indicating its endemic grip on the UK workplace
back-to-top-scroll