Law Commons^™

Deliberative Public Engagement With Science: An Empirical Investigation, Lisa M. Pytlikzillig, Myiah J. Hutchens, Peter Muhlberger, Frank J. Gonzalez, Alan Tomkins

Lisa PytlikZillig Publications

The purpose of this book is to share some results and the data from four studies in which we used experimental procedures to manipulate key features of deliberative public engagement to study the impacts in the context of deliberations about nanotechnology. In this chapter, we discuss the purpose of this book, which is to advance science of public engagement, and the overarching question motivating our research: What public engagement methods work for what purposes and why? We also briefly review existing prior work related to our overarching goal and question and introduce the contents of the rest of the book. …

Nanotechnology, Environmental Risks, And Regulatory Options, Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

Nanotechnology today is viewed by many as a great advance in the quest for stronger and lighter materials, more effective pharmaceuticals, and better medicine. The critical question—largely unanswered—is whether this kind of science harbors destructive powers which, if fully understood, would call for restrictions or a ban on the use of certain types of nanotechnology. Current regulations in the United States and Europe cover chemicals that may be produced in nanoform. However, those regimes are not well designed to detect the risks posed by nanotechnology because they often fail to appreciate what is unique about nanomaterials. It is unlikely that …

The Irrelevance Of Nanotechnology Patents, Emily M. Morris

Faculty Publications

Although scientists have for decades now had the ability to manipulate matter at the atomic level, we have yet to see the nanotechnological revolution that these scientists predicted would follow. Despite the years of effort and billions of dollars that have been invested into research and development thus far, nanotechnology has yielded surprisingly few end-user applications. A number of commentators have blamed this lack of progress on the Bayh-Dole Act and other changes to patent law, arguing that, although these laws are supposed to stimulate technological development, they have in fact had the exact opposite effect when it comes to …

The Right To Regulate (Cooperatively), Alexia Brunet Marks

Publications

The growing number of new technologies in food production— such as nanotechnology, genetic modification, animal cloning, and irradiation—are garnering different regulatory responses around the world. Based on their threshold for tolerating risk, countries are asserting their national right to regulate at home using labeling, quarantine, and outright bans on foods. But domestic regulation has its limits in a free trade environment. Countries that are not mindful of treaty obligations could face legal liability, as seen in the recent litigation between Uruguay and Philip Morris International. In short, traditional models of international regulatory cooperation (IRC) are failing to provide countries with …

Regulating In Uncertainty: Animating The Public Health Product Safety Net To Capture Consumer Products Regulated By The Fda That Use Innovative Technologies, Including Nanotechnologies, Genetic Modification, Cloning, And Lab Grown Meat, Katharine A. Van Tassel

Faculty Publications

The past several decades have seen the creation of transformative new technologies that are being used to design innovative consumer product ingredients never seen before in nature. Examples include the use of nanotechnology and genetic modification, and, right around the corner, cloning and lab grown meat. These innovative technologies are harbingers of more pioneering consumer product ingredients to come. The remarkable pace of the development of ground-breaking new technologies means that the population is being steadily exposed to novel ingredients with unknown health risks.

Optimally, the Food & Drug Administration ("FDA") should be regulating these innovative, novel ingredients in consumer …

Can The Law Track Scientific Risk And Technological Innovation?: The Problem Of Regulatory Definitions And Nanotechnology, David A. Dana

Faculty Working Papers

The functioning of a regulatory regime often turns on what is defined to be included in the scope of regulation and what is defined to be outside. In constructing the definitions of what is regulated, two key challenges are to align the defintions with the risks that motivated the establishment of the regulatory regime and to build in dynamism into the defintions so that they adapt to changes in scientific understanding and technology. This Chapter of a forthcoming book from Cambridge University Press (David Dana, ed., The Nanotechnology Challenge), explores these challnegs in the context of nanotechnology.

When Less Liability May Mean More Precaution: The Case Of Nanotechnology, David A. Dana

Faculty Working Papers

The heart of the Article is an exploration of the possible role of common law tort liability in both encouraging and deterring voluntary, precautionary study of new products generally and nanotechnology products in particular. A key variable in considering liability's role as an incentive or deterrent to testing is the manufacturer's subjective assessment of the probability that any injuries from its product would be detected by the injured parties and successfully attributed to the product absent research by the manufacturer itself on the adverse effects of the product. Another key variable is the legal standard for tort liability, and specifically …

The Contextual Rationality Of The Precautionary Principle, David A. Dana

Faculty Working Papers

This article defines the precautionary principle (PP) primarily based on what it is not: it is not quantitative cost-benefit analysis (CBA) or cost-cost analysis of the sort we associate with the Office of Management and Budget in the United States and U.S. policymaking and policy discourse generally. In this definition, the PP is a form of analysis in which the costs of a possible environmental or health risk are not quantified, or if they are, any quantification is likely to be inadequate to capture the full extent of the costs of not taking regulatory measures to mitigate or avoid the …

Cultural Cognition Of The Risks And Benefits Of Nanotechnology, Donald Braman, Dan M. Kahan, Paul Slovic, John Gastil, Geoffrey L. Cohen

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

We conducted an experimental public opinion study of the effect of balanced information on nanotechnology risk-benefit perceptions. The study found that subjects did not react in a uniform, much less a uniformly positive manner, but rather polarized along lines consistent with cultural predispositions toward technological risk generally.

Biased Assimilation, Polarization, And Cultural Credibility: An Experimental Study Of Nanotechnology Risk Perceptions, Donald Braman, Dan M. Kahan, Paul Slovic, John Gastil, Geoffrey L. Cohen, Douglass A. Kysar

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

We present the results from the second in a series of ongoing experimental studies of public perceptions of nanotechnology risks. Like the first study, the current one found that members of the public, most of whom know little or nothing about nanotechnology, polarize along cultural lines when exposed to information about it. Extending previous results, the current study also found that cultural polarization of this sort interacts with the perceived cultural identities of policy advocates. Polarization along expected lines grew even more extreme when subjects of diverse cultural outlooks observed an advocate whose values they share advancing an argument they …

The Future Of Nanotechnology Risk Perceptions: An Experimental Investigation Of Two Hypotheses, Donald Braman, Dan M. Kahan, Paul Slovic, John Gastil, Geoffrey L. Cohen

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This paper reports the results of an experiment designed to test competing conjectures about the evolution of public attitudes toward nanotechnology. The rational enlightenment hypothesis holds that members of the public will become favorably disposed to nanotechnology as balanced and accurate information about it disseminates. The cultural cognition hypothesis, in contrast, holds that members of the public are likely to polarize along cultural lines when exposed to such information. Using a between-subjects design (N = 1,862), the experiment compared the perceptions of subjects exposed to balanced information on the risks and benefits of nanotechnology to the perceptions of subjects exposed …

Affect, Values, And Nanotechnology Risk Perceptions: An Experimental Investigation, Donald Braman, Dan M. Kahan, Paul Slovic, John Gastil, Geoffrey L. Cohen

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Despite knowing little about nanotechnology (so to speak), members of the public readily form opinions on whether its potential risks outweigh its potential benefits. On what basis are they forming their judgments? How are their views likely to evolve as they become exposed to more information about this novel science? We conducted a survey experiment (N = 1,850) to answer these questions. We found that public perceptions of nanotechnology risks, like public perceptions of societal risks generally, are largely affect driven: individuals' visceral reactions to nanotechnology (ones likely based on attitudes toward environmental risks generally) explain more of the variance …

The Second National Risk And Culture Study: Making Sense Of - And Making Progress In - The American Culture War Of Fact, Donald Braman, Dan M. Kahan, Paul Slovic, John Gastil, Geoffrey L. Cohen

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Cultural Cognition refers to the disposition to conform one's beliefs about societal risks to one's preferences for how society should be organized. Based on surveys and experiments involving some 5,000 Americans, the Second National Risk and Culture Study presents empirical evidence of the effect of this dynamic in generating conflict about global warming, school shootings, domestic terrorism, nanotechnology, and the mandatory vaccination of school-age girls against HPV, among other issues. The Study also presents evidence of risk-communication strategies that counteract cultural cognition. Because nuclear power affirms rather than threatens the identity of persons who hold individualist values, for example, proposing …

Nanotechnology And Regulatory Policy: Three Futures, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Scholarly Works

This Article outlines the basic characteristics of nanotechnology as it is currently understood and will briefly describe some of the technical - and social - consequences likely to arise as nanotechnology matures. Next, it examines three potential approaches for regulating nanotechnology and the likely consequences of each. The Article concludes with suggestions for further study, as well as a list of "dos" and "don'ts" for regulating nanotechnology.

Environmental Regulation Of Nanotechnology: Some Preliminary Observations, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.