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Full-Text Articles in Science and Technology Law
Discovery, Learning And Adoption Of New Techniques: Choosing Specialization To Optimize Technical Progress, James Bessen
Discovery, Learning And Adoption Of New Techniques: Choosing Specialization To Optimize Technical Progress, James Bessen
Faculty Scholarship
Why is it that adopting new technologies takes so long and costs so much? Clearly, firms do not know all the details necessary to implement a complex technology efficiently; learning these details requires extensive search. However, this explanation has a problem: even limited search may be so costly that newly discovered techniques will not be tried. We find that specialization solves this problem. If a complex process is divided into many small components, each searched in parallel, then discoveries are readily tested. Moreover, specialized search can perform surprisingly well even for processes of indefinite complexity. We measure the returns to …
Truth, With A Small "T", David L. Faigman
Conflicts Of Interest In Scientific Expert Testimony, Mark R. Patterson
Conflicts Of Interest In Scientific Expert Testimony, Mark R. Patterson
Faculty Scholarship
Conflicts of interest have significant implications for the reliability of scientific expert testimony. However, the courts' treatment of conflicts is not always in accord either with the treatment of conflicts in scientific practice or with the particular problems that scientists' conflicts present in court. In response, this Article proposes two basic changes in the treatment of scientific expert testimony. First, courts should strive to separate issues of bias from issues of scientific validity-the two sets of issues are now conflated at times. Second, courts should pay more attention to biases of scientists who perform the research underlying expert testimony, whereas …
Transgenic Agriculture: Biosafety And International Trade, Michael S. Baram, Calestuous Juma, Sheldon Krimsky, Rufus King
Transgenic Agriculture: Biosafety And International Trade, Michael S. Baram, Calestuous Juma, Sheldon Krimsky, Rufus King
Faculty Scholarship
We stand at the threshold of a new century that will bring novel methods of producing foods, industrial materials, pharmaceuticals, and other products important to society and industry.2 Today's session will, therefore, address a subject of great importance: the introduction of genetically modified crops, livestock, micro-organisms, and other substances into agriculture and related fields, made possible by American and foreign corporate biotechnology.
Can Patents Deter Innovation? The Anticommons In Biomedical Research, Michael Heller, Rebecca S. Eisenberg
Can Patents Deter Innovation? The Anticommons In Biomedical Research, Michael Heller, Rebecca S. Eisenberg
Faculty Scholarship
The "tragedy of the commons" metaphor helps explain why people overuse shared resources. However, the recent proliferation of intellectual property rights in biomedical research suggests a different tragedy, an "anticommons" in which people underuse scarce resources because too many owners can block each other. Privatization of biomedical research must be more carefully deployed to sustain both upstream research and downstream product development. Otherwise, more intellectual property rights may lead paradoxically to fewer useful products for improving human health.