Regulating Technologies
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Recorded:
30 March 2009
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Duration:
01:05:29
About this video
Roger Brownsword argues that the emergence of a raft of rapidly developing technologies (ICTs, biotechnologies, nanotechnologies and neurotechnologies), together with the prospect of significant convergence between some or all of these technologies, should be of major concern to the legal community.
One set of questions focuses on the regulatory environment in which these technologies first emerge before developing and moving on:
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What contribution can lawyers make to ensuring that the regulatory environment is fit for purpose?
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How well does law perform in controlling for the risks presented by these technologies?
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How well does it perform in supporting the research, development, and distribution of these technologies?
A second set of questions relates to the use by regulators of various kinds of technological fix, including fixing opportunities presented by developments in these emerging technologies. In addition to checking that technological fixes are legitimate and effective, what should the legal community make of the possibility that technology might displace law as an instrument of social control?
In short, lawyers should be concerned to contribute to debates about getting the regulatory environment right for emerging technologies, but they should also be concerned about the implications of technology and design replacing law as a channelling mechanism.
This lecture is part of a series organised in collaboration with the Society for
Computers and Law (SCL) to provide a platform for leading international scholars to address
emerging legal issues concerning the Internet: its use, governance and
regulation.
About the speaker
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Roger Brownsword
Professor of Law and Director of TELOS, King's College London; Honorary Professor in Law, University of SheffieldRoger Brownsword is a graduate of the London School of Economics. His first academic appointment, in 1968, was at the University of Sheffield with which university he retains a link as an Honorary Professor in Law. Since moving to King’s in 2003, Professor Brownsword has led the development of TELOS, an inter-disciplinary research centre focussing on law, ethics, and technology. Professor Brownsword is well-known as an advocate of a liberal legal education and this is reflected in his work as general editor of the Understanding Law series of texts as well as in his own contributions to the series. In recent years, Professor Brownsword has acted as a specialist adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on Stems Cells and the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee.
