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Full-Text Articles in Law
Synthetic Science: A Response To Rabinow, David S. Caudill
Synthetic Science: A Response To Rabinow, David S. Caudill
Working Paper Series
Rabinow’s description of the unique collaborative goal of synthetic biology at Berkeley, to foster a coproduction among multiple disciplines and perspectives from the outset (as opposed to downstream reflection upon ethical, legal, and social implications), is somewhat misleading. While that particular assemblage is represented as coproductive, the inevitability of science as a coproduction is eclipsed. That shortcoming may well be a strategic compromise to ensure effective collaboration, but it could backfire. Idealized images of science, which might be termed synthetic or artificial, have had adverse consequences in legal and administrative assessments of reliable science.
Book Review: Carl Cranor, Toxic Torts: Science, Law, And The Possibility Of Justice, David S. Caudill
Book Review: Carl Cranor, Toxic Torts: Science, Law, And The Possibility Of Justice, David S. Caudill
Working Paper Series
Carl F. Cranor’s Toxic Torts: Science, Law, and the Possibility of Justice is a sustained, comprehensive argument that the Daubert gatekeeping regime has tilted the playing field against injured plaintiffs in toxic tort litigation. More generally, Cranor joins those who argue that the Daubert regime has not fared well in practice. Complex scientific evidence is not handled well in trials because scientific methods, data, and inferential reasoning are not well understood by gatekeeping judges. Cranor’s goal is to help solve this problem by offering a detailed description of the patterns of reasoning, evidence collection, and inference in nonlegal scientific settings. …
Application Of Cascade Theory To Online Systems: A Study Of Email And Google Cascades, April M. Barton
Application Of Cascade Theory To Online Systems: A Study Of Email And Google Cascades, April M. Barton
Working Paper Series
Why do markets boom and crash? Why do fads and social norms start and end? The answer is found in a branch of social science literature called “cascade theory.” Cascade theory explains the observable human behavior of imitation: following the actions of someone else simply because one has observed that behavior, rather than following one’s own intuition. This article discusses cascade theory in the context of online systems, namely e-mail and Google. E-mail cascades parallel their offline cascade counterparts as information and misinformation is spread from person to person. However, e-mail cascades also exhibit an amplified herd effect and an …