NEUROMARKETING AND FREE WILL IN CIVIL LAW

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Abstract

The research is devoted to topical issues of law in the field of neuromarketing. The transition from commodity economy to economy of impressions is largely due to application of modern methods of monitoring brain functioning in order to increase efficiency of production and trading strategies. Due to the potential ability to influence the decision-making process of clients, neuromarketing attracts mixed opinions from lawyers and psychologists. The current legislation does not provide an appropriate level of regulation of neuroscience and their results in the market. At the same time, the precontractual impact on the consumer may contain signs of distorting the principles of freedom of contract, good faith, and reasonableness. The article proposes to consider the rational behavior of an individual - one of the main presumptions of civil law - from a new perspective, given the current results of neuropsychological research and ethical and legal aspects of social relations. The results of the work allow to speak about fundamental possibility of limiting the dynamic form of free will in a contractual obligation (up to the refusal of a transaction) if there are conditions related both directly to the psychophysiological characteristics of the counterparty and the pe-culiarities of neuromarketing effects under a specific contract. The relevance of hierarchical concepts of autonomy of will is noted; these are the situations when an individual choice is subject to legal protection, if it reflects a genuine will, consistent with the essential goals and values of the person. The absence of defects in awareness and voluntariness in such cases is a key aspect of principles of freedom of contract and reasonableness associated with a conscious decision when entering an obligation.

About the authors

Pavel L. Likhter

Penza State University

Author for correspondence.
Email: lixter@mail.ru

Candidate of Legal Sciences, associate professor the Department of Public and Private Law

40 Krasnaya str., 440026, Penza, Russian Federation

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Copyright (c) 2020 Likhter P.L.

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