TechEthos D4.1: Analysis of International and EU Law and Policy

This report was developed as part of TechEthos, a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. TechEthos aims to facilitate “ethics by design” by bringing ethical and societal values into the design and development of new and emerging technologies with a high socio-economic impact. The technology families selected for the project are climate engineering, neurotechnologies, and digital extended reality (XR). These three technology families present many significant legal issues that impact socio-economic equality and fundamental rights.

This report explores and analyses relevant international and EU laws and policies for their relevance and applicability to the three technology families. Based on the analysis of the characteristics, applications and ethics and socio-economic impacts of these technologies, as emerged in previous phases of the TechEthos project, the report served different purposes:

• To review the legal domains and related obligations at international and EU levels.
• To identify potential implications for fundamental rights and principles of democracy and rule of law, considering both enhancements and interferences.
• To reflect on issues and challenges of existing legal frameworks to address current and future implications of the technologies.