Self-Spreading Biotechnology and International Law

Self-Spreading Biotechnology and International Law
Author: Felix Beck
Publisher: Nomos Verlag
Total Pages: 808
Release: 2022-11-22
Genre: Law
ISBN: 3748913524

Wer haftet, wenn sich selbst ausbreitende Gentechnik grenzüberschreitende Schäden verursacht? Mit Gene Drives und ähnlichen Verfahren wird es bald möglich sein, das Erbgut wild lebender Arten, Keime und Nutzpflanzen direkt in der Umwelt zu verändern. Dies könnte helfen, drängende Probleme in der öffentlichen Gesundheit, im Naturschutz und in der Ernährungssicherheit zu lösen. Allerdings bergen diese Verfahren auch das Risiko einer unkontrollierten Ausbreitung über Staatsgrenzen hinweg. Anhand einer grundlegenden Untersuchung der einschlägigen Verträge und des Völkergewohnheitsrechts zu Prävention und Haftung für grenzüberschreitende Schäden wird aufgezeigt, dass das derzeit geltende Völkerrecht dieser Herausforderung noch nicht gewachsen ist.

The International Law of Biotechnology

The International Law of Biotechnology
Author: Matthias Herdegen
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 208
Release:
Genre: Biotechnology
ISBN: 1786435969

Biotechnology is a field that inspires complex legal and ethical debates on an international scale. Taking a fresh approach to the subject, Matthias Herdegen provides a comprehensive assessment of the regulation of biotechnology processes and products from an international and comparative perspective.

Biotechnology and International Law

Biotechnology and International Law
Author: Francesco Francioni
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 486
Release: 2006-06-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1847312691

As with any rapid technological development, the biotechnology revolution is putting great strains on the ability of law to adapt to new challenges and threats. Although there is general agreement on the need to regulate biotechnology in many different fields of human activity (agriculture, life sciences, forensic science) domestic law remains deeply divided over the best approach to take. This book is the first attempt at covering the most pressing legal issues raised by the impact of biotechnologies on different categories of international norms. Through the contribution of a selected group of international scholars and experts from international organizations, the book addresses 1) the international status of genetic resources, both in areas of national jurisdiction and in common spaces such as the international sea bed area and Antarctica; 2) the relevance of environmental principles in the governance of modern biotechnologies; 3) the impact of biotechnologies on trade rules, including intellectual property law; 4) the human rights implications, especially in the field of human genetics; and 5) the intersection between general international law and regional systems, especially those developed in Europe and Latin America. The overall objective of the book is to provide an up-to-date picture of international law as it stands today and to stimulate critical reflection and further research on the solutions that will be required in years to come.

The Regulatory Challenge of Biotechnology

The Regulatory Challenge of Biotechnology
Author: Han Somsen
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1847204414

. . . a compilation of 12 invaluable contributions on this issue by internationally known experts in their respective fields. . . a valuable resource for academic professionals, policy makers and legislators, advocacy groups and scholars in legal and development studies. It is a storehouse of learning and practical knowledge for anyone interested in environmental policy, biosafety issues, biotechnology processes and associated regulatory constraints. Marcelin Tonye Mahop, Review of European Community and International Environmental Law For bioethicists, legal scholars and regulators struggling with what controls to place on biotechnology, this is required reading. John Avellanet, Journal of Commercial Biotechnology Biotechnology has prompted a revolution in science and society in the truest sense of the word. For what superficially appears to be a revolution in biotechnology, in effect touches upon the fundamentals of life and the way in which humans relate to it. This book will make a significant contribution to the debate surrounding the effective regulation of biotechnology. The contributing authors assess how regulatory regimes can accommodate the many different and often conflicting issues to which biotechnology is giving rise to (including a very tainted public image). The book s ultimate aim is to explore ways of designing a regulatory regime that takes heed of these different demands whilst, at the same time, answering to the imperatives of effectiveness and efficiency. The book synthesizes three fields of legal analysis; the first focuses on the risk-dominated regulation of GM food and bio-agriculture; the second involves human genetics as a field dominated by considerations of ethics. Finally, patent law has been chosen as an area captured by notions of property. With its holistic approach, The Regulatory Challenge of Biotechnology will be of great interest to academics, policymakers and regulators as well as biotechnology and law students.

Biotechnology Research in an Age of Terrorism

Biotechnology Research in an Age of Terrorism
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2004-03-02
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0309089778

In recent years much has happened to justify an examination of biological research in light of national security concerns. The destructive application of biotechnology research includes activities such as spreading common pathogens or transforming them into even more lethal forms. Policymakers and the scientific community at large must put forth a vigorous and immediate response to this challenge. This new book by the National Research Council recommends that the government expand existing regulations and rely on self-governance by scientists rather than adopt intrusive new policies. One key recommendation of the report is that the government should not attempt to regulate scientific publishing but should trust scientists and journals to screen their papers for security risks, a task some journals have already taken up. With biological information and tools widely distributed, regulating only U.S. researchers would have little effect. A new International Forum on Biosecurity should encourage the adoption of similar measures around the world. Seven types of risky studies would require approval by the Institutional Biosafety Committees that already oversee recombinant DNA research at some 400 U.S. institutions. These "experiments of concern" include making an infectious agent more lethal and rendering vaccines powerless.

International Governance of Biotechnology

International Governance of Biotechnology
Author: Catherine Rhodes
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2010-11-30
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1849660778

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. The significant media coverage recently given to issues such as the international impacts of biofuel production policies, advances in synthetic biology, and the ethical implications of research involving embryonic stem cells, is indicative of the high-level of interest - among policy-makers, academics and the public - in the biotechnology revolution, its applications, impacts and control. There is also significant interest in international regulatory processes as a form of governance, and international regulation is a vital part of efforts to manage the impacts of the biotechnology revolution, since many of these are global in their nature. The book establishes the need for international regulation of biotechnology, identifying the roles it needs to play, and the issues it needs to cover. Having outlined the importance of coherence to the effective functioning of international regulatory sets, a model of coherent international regulation is established, against which the biotechnology regulations can be assessed. This book approaches the subject from an international relations perspective but also draws from, and will contribute to, literature in the fields of international law, global governance, technological governance, and science-society relations.

The Intersection of International Law, Agricultural Biotechnology, and Infectious Disease

The Intersection of International Law, Agricultural Biotechnology, and Infectious Disease
Author: Meredith T. Mariani
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2007-08-30
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9047431324

The Intersection of International Law, Agricultural Biotechnology, and Infectious Disease is an indispensable resource for practitioners and scholars interested in public health, food safety, or biotechnology. It provides a comprehensive overview of the science behind, and the general environmental frameworks addressing, GMOs. The book examines legal frameworks and perspectives for infectious disease and GMOs, as well as public health legislation, international trade legislation, and regulatory regimes. Finally, it provides critiques and proposals, arguing for a more connective approach for future regulation.

Global Biopiracy

Global Biopiracy
Author: Ikechi Mgbeoji
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2011-11-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0774840250

Legal control and ownership of plants and traditional knowledge of the uses of plants (TKUP) is a vexing issue. The phenomenon of appropriation of plants and TKUP, otherwise known as biopiracy, thrives in a cultural milieu where non-Western forms of knowledge are systemically marginalized and devalued as "folk knowledge" or characterized as inferior. Global Biopiracy rethinks the role of international law and legal concepts, the Western-based, Eurocentric patent systems of the world, and international agricultural research institutions as they affect legal ownership and control of plants and TKUP.

Biotechnologies and International Human Rights

Biotechnologies and International Human Rights
Author: Francesco Francioni
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 438
Release: 2007-02-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1847313507

This book follows and complements the previous volume Biotechnology and International Law (Hart 2006) bringing a specific focus on human rights. It is the result of a collaborative effort which brings together the contributions of a select group of experts from academia and from international organisations with the purpose of discussing the extent to which current activities in the field of biotechnology can be regulated by existing human rights principles and standards, and what gaps, if any, need to be identified and filled with new legislative initiatives. Instruments such as the UNESCO Declaration on the Human Genome (1997) and on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005) are having an impact on customary international law. But what is the relevance of these instruments with respect to traditional concepts of state responsibility and the functioning of domestic remedies against misuse of biotechnologies? Are new legislative initiatives needed, and what are the pros and cons of a race toward the adoption of new ad hoc instruments in an area of such rapid technological development? Are there risks of normative and institutional fragmentation as a consequence of the proliferation of different regulatory regimes? Can we identify a core of human rights principles that define the boundaries of legitimate uses of biotechnology, the legal status of human genetic material, as well as the implications of the definition of the human genome as 'common heritage of humanity' for the purpose of patenting of genetic inventions? These and other questions are the focus of a fascinating collection of essays which, together, help to map this emerging field of inquiry.