Overview[]
The multidisciplinary Research Group of the Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS) was created in 2003 as an independent entity within the Faculty of Law & Criminology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. With more than 30 researchers at all levels of experience, LSTS has become a prominent European research institute in the area of technology regulation.
LSTS has five major research areas:
- (a) Privacy and data protection. LSTS researchers also operate the Brussels Privacy Hub, an internationally-focused privacy research centre, the Privacy Salon, an NGO aiming at public awareness of privacy and other social and ethical consequences of new technologies, and the Brussels Laboratory for Data Protection & Privacy Impact Assessments;
- (b) The impact of technologies and surveillance on fundamental rights in the Information Society;
- (c) E-Health (including e-Aging) and human body related questions raised by technology;
- (d) Intellectual property rights as they relate to the use of ICTs;
- (e) The changing nature of law (digital legal theory) and the role of law in relation to science, technology and politics. The focus of LSTS on legal theory and philosophy and the proper role of law in relation to other sciences and disciplines is one of the things that makes it unique.