RICERCA ITALIANA     

Innovation, science, technology, rules and liability. Legal and economic perspectives

Scuola Superiore di Studi Universitari e Perfezionamento S. Anna di Pisa

Abstract

The research is grounded on the necessity the necessity of reasoning critically on the role that tort liability systems, and in general private law rules, could have in managing risks coming from the technological and scientific progress in the strategic sectors of biotechnology, communication technologies and in particular information technologies. The aim of the project is verfying the possibility of using liability as a mean of social regulation, considered as a part of a normative policy referred to the protection of consumers, users and all people affected/interested by the development dynamics.
The research will focus on the following items:
a)biotechnology (GMO, drugs and medical devices);
b)exposure to magnetic fields;
c)advanced digital technologies, such as systems of Digital Rights Management (DRM), platforms for automated management of privacy preference, Trusted Computing and "secure" architectures, semantic web and intelligent software agents;
d)"electronic document", "digital signature", "electronic signature" and qualified signature;
e) e-commerce, focusing mainly on privacy, limitation of freedom of contract and control over unsolicited commercial e-mail.
For instance, referring to the last item, but as a method generally used in the whole project, the analysis will focus on the aspects related to the process of European legal harmonization. Particular attention will be given to the choice between maximum and >>>

Principal Investigator

Giovanni COMANDE' Scuola Sup. di Studi Univ. e Perfezionamento S.Anna di PISA

Research Objectives

The general goal of the project is at first an analysis of the role that liability systems could have as a mean of risk allocation, promotion and deterrence of the social relevant conducts. The project then will focus on the analysis of how the use of different liability models can bring to a fair management of risks which come from the technological progress, in other words how liability systems and private law in general can be used as a regulation policy in order to protect users, consumers and all people concerned with the scientific and technological progress dynamics.
The analysis will focus on the following items:
a)biotechnology (GMO, drugs and medical devices);
b)exposure to magnetic fields;
c)advanced digital technologies, such as systems of Digital Rights Management (DRM), platforms for automated management of privacy preference, Trusted Computing and "secure" architectures, semantic web and intelligent software agents;
d)"electronic document", "digital signature", "electronic signature" and qualified signature;
e) e-commerce, focusing mainly on privacy, limitation of freedom of contract and control over unsolicited commercial e-mail.
In the first phase of the project, the general goal will be to rebuild the scientific and legal debate on the topics indicated, trying to recollect and analyse the scientific, legal and information/computer doctrine about them, with the purpose of defining the level of consciousness >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

The interest of the contemporary societies for the so-called "topics of modernity" - above all the scientific and technological research and its effects on the protection of the health - are in continuous expansion. The reason of that is above all the crisis of the paradigm of an infallible science, confirmed from cases like thalidomide and the Creutzfeld-Jacob disease, that for a long time have occupied the first pages of newspapers.
Today's attention, therefore, is mainly devoted to products safety (also to food products), environmental, drugs and medical devices safety.
These fields more and more conquer importance in the context of the civil liability, limiting the importance of traditional fields like the working activities and the circulation of the vehicles.
Despite the positive and vital effects of these technological progresses, it has been risen the issue of the physical and biological impact on human beings of these inventions, particularly of these magnetic fields originating from non-ionising radiations.
With reference to the low frequency magnetic fields (50 Hz), epidemiological studies suggest an association between exposition to them and a modest, but significant, increase in the children leukaemia. However, no correlation between these fields and cancer appears to be known.
The scientific debate is even more intense on long-term effects of radio frequency and microwaves (100 kHz- 300 GHz).
We should then devote >>>