Criminal Law and Human Behaviour
This book explores the challenges that recent advances in neuroscience, neurotechnology, and artificial intelligence pose for criminal law and the criminal justice system. Moving beyond the traditional debate on free will and criminal responsibility, it examines how these developments affect fundamental rights, the emergence of Neurolaw as an autonomous field, and the debate on so-called neuro-rights, whether understood as a reconceptualisation of existing human rights or as the recognition of new rights. Bringing together both general and specific perspectives, the volume addresses the relationship between criminal law and scientific progress; neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and criminal law; behavioural and forensic sciences; neuroprediction and the criminal justice system; and the protection of fundamental and human rights in the context of neurotechnological innovation. It also considers more specific areas, including the general theory of crime and economic criminal law.
Eduardo Demetrio Crespo is Full Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Toledo, Spain) and was a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at
the University of Cologne (Germany). He has undertaken research stays at several universities and research institutions in Germany, the United Kingdom (Institute of Criminology,University of Cambridge) and Italy (European University Institute, Florence). His current research focuses primarily on the interdisciplinary relationship between neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and criminal law. He has served as Principal Investigator of three national research projects in this field, most recently “Neuro-Human Rights and Criminal Law” (PID2023-149978NB-I00). He is a member of the Board of Springer’s Legal Studies in International, European and Comparative Criminal Law, the Expert Panel of the Centre for Neurotechnology and Law (London), and the International Research Center for Criminal Law Sciences LMU-Iberoamerika (Munich). He is also a founding member of the Ibero-American Network of Neurolaw and Neuroethics.
Mónica de la Cuerda Martín has a Ph.D. in Criminal Law from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, with an international distinction and a grade of “Cum Laude.” She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences in Toledo.
Throughout her academic career, she has completed several research stays at Italian universities, including the Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (2019) and the Università di Bologna (2024).
Although her research focuses primarily on economic and corporate criminal law, in recent years her research interests have expanded to include the study of the relationships between criminal law, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and cognitive biases. In this regard, she has participated in various national research projects and has served as a reviewer for scientific journals specializing in criminal law.
Faustino García de la Torre García is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), where he teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in criminal law and legal theory. He holds a PhD in Criminal Law from the same university and received the Extraordinary Prize for Academic Excellence for both his Law degree and Master’s Degree in Constitutional Law.
His research focuses on the relationship between criminal law and constitutional theory, particularly state duties to criminalize as an expression of the State’s positive obligations to protect fundamental rights. This work has resulted in a monograph on constitutional duties to criminalize and several related articles. He also works on the Responsibility to Protect and the legal foundations of the use of force, extending his broader interest in duties of protection beyond national borders. His current research examines neurocrimes and the role of criminal law in safeguarding the human mind against emerging neurotechnological forms of interference. He has published across these fields and presented his work at academic conferences, seminars, and international scholarly forums.
His international research experience includes stays at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg (2018), the Institute for International Peace and Security Law at the University of Cologne (2019, 2023, 2024, 2025), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (2023), the Uehiro Oxford Institute at the University of Oxford (2026), and the Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School (2026).