The overarching theme of the seminar series is technological and institutional convergence as a defining feature of European HL&T.
The convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive sciences, in the first place, blurs the lines between the artificial and the living, raising unparalleled legal and ethical challenges for individual rights and societal interests. Secondly, novel forms of cooperation among researchers and patients enabled by technological convergence call into question the disconnection between public and private health rooted in mainstream theories of autonomy, privacy and consent. Finally, European law itself can be seen as the outcome of the convergence of several legal orders and institutions, each of them with different and only partially overlapping rationale and agenda.
The ELaTe seminar series will work out the implications of this convergence of convergences in European HL&T. To convey the institutional and disciplinary complexity generated by the interaction of law and technology in European health law, the seminars are organised in three thematic sections: Institutions, Identity, and Justice.