European Health Law and Technology (ELaTe) addresses the interplay of regulation and technology in the health sector from the vantage point of European law. It identifies key principles, concepts, objectives of health law, seen as a wider, more complex field than medical law; considers how the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (CoE) approaches to the matter differ, and what they add to national legislations; analyses the interaction of law, science and technology in health risks management across the EU; discusses the perspectives of the law of health-related technologies beyond risk management, as the EU morphs from a chiefly economic into a full-fledged political enterprise, embracing the protection of individual rights and societal interests.

European health law is an emergent field of research and teaching, which does not squarely fit into existing academic taxonomies, and is virtually uncharted in Italian law schools. By placing the emphasis on the interplay of the European with the technological dimension we add a further layer. As the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive sciences (NBIC) rises a tide of biomedical innovation, there is a pressing need to understand its social implications, and how the law affects them. European law—in the broad sense outlined above—is arguably the most appropriate level of analysis, as risk management and protection of human rights in biomedicine are nested in a matrix of several legal orders and institutions interacting at European level.
To avail itself of an array of perspectives and tools, ELaTe will bring lawyers together with philosophers, economists, bioengineers, biologists, and data scientists. Our aim is to promote innovative teaching, research, technological transfer, and lay the foundations of a European Center of Health Law and Technology.
The action includes Courses open to students at the Law and Information Engineering Departments, PhD Seminar Series, Crash Courses in Technology Transfer for university spinoffs, legal professionals, SME.