Rutba Eman, a student at Punjab University in Gujranwala, Pakistan, is the author of this article. This article discusses the complex interrelationships between law, science, and technology as well as how these fields are interdependent.
Introduction
Regarding the ethical ramifications of scientific research as well as contemporary technologies, law plays a crucial role in the regulation of science and technology. The various ways that law interacts with science and technology are being systematically studied in the field of law, science, and technology. According to its definition, it is “the discipline that deals with how our legal system can and must adapt to accommodate the problems created by the ever-urgent and pervasive impact of technology on society.”
Legal scholars and law schools have placed more emphasis on the intersection of law and science and technology as a result of the development of the internet, technology, genomics, telecommunications, etc. Stephen Breyer, a justice on the US Supreme Court, said that “scientific issues now permeate the law.” The study of interactions between law, science, and technology has advanced significantly, with the topic now being covered in courses, journals, conferences, and other academic settings. In addition, legal academics and practitioners are becoming more conscious of the significance of scientific and technological advancements.
Relationship between science, technology, and law
Science and law have a complex relationship. Science is a methodical approach to knowledge construction and organisation that results in testable universe-related explanations and predictions. On the other hand, law refers to a set of guidelines established by social institutions to control members’ behaviour and may be used to enforce such behaviour through the imposition of sanctions. Law and science, however, became more dependent on one another as scientific and technological developments grew.
Numerous laws have been established by various national legislatures to control how science and technology affect society. For instance, the legislature has established laws and provisions that address cybercrimes in the age of the internet. The goal of law is to limit the effects of science and technology, which revolve around issues like risks, rewards, and moral ramifications.
The legal system also aims to offer redress to the wronged party who has suffered because of the negative effects of scientific and technological advancements. On the other hand, science has benefited the legal system by providing cutting-edge technologies like polygraph tests, scientific evidence gathering, electronic recordings that can be used as evidence in court, etc. With the admission of evidence, autopsy reports, and other aspects of the legal process, science also assists. Therefore, despite being two distinct disciplines in modern society due to advancements in science and technology, science and law are interdependent on one another.
Effects of science and technology on law
- Technology and science have an impact on law that is both procedural and substantive. Forensic science has opened up new avenues in criminal law while generating a plethora of legal, ethical, and social issues. On the substantive side, new scientific evidence and methodology can change the course of legal claims and their outcomes.
- The law also specifies how genetic information may be used, when convicted criminals are permitted to reopen their cases, how DNA samples should be collected and stored, etc.
- Digital evidence has increased the reliability and accessibility of trial evidence in the early twenty-first century, but it has also raised questions about hacking and fabrication of digital pieces of evidence. This resulted in a significant change to the law.
Effects of law on science and technology
Technology and law are intertwined; those who have been wronged by scientific misconduct attempt to seek judicial redress. Even non-party subpoenas have been issued by attorneys to scientists conducting work that could be relevant to the lawsuit. As a result, the scientists are subject to invasive searches and frequently have to disclose their research activities in court.
Legislation also subjects scientists to new legal requirements. For instance, when any scientific project is supported by government funding, it is crucial to take the necessary legal precautions to guarantee the scientists’ and the public’s complete protection. The Data Quality Act, passed by the US Congress in 2000, imposes a number of substantive and procedural requirements on scientific methodology. These changes point to a growing trend of legal interference with science and technology.
Division of the field into three primary standards
There are various methodologies for examining law, science, and technology despite the growing interest in and awareness that states science and technology present a distinctive angle of law. There are three main criteria used to divide the field.
- The first focuses on how the law can be used to manage the effects of science and technology, including risk management, benefit promotion, and ethical considerations.
- Second, the institutions of law and science consider how the application of the law impacts scientific research as well as the reciprocal relationship that establishes how science and technology influence the law.
- The third standard entails a broader investigation into the issues and conflicts that result from the meeting point of law, science, and technology.
The critical role played by law in managing the impacts of science and technology
In managing how science and technology affect society, law is essential. The goal of law is to limit the effects of science and technology, which revolve around issues like risks, rewards, and moral ramifications.
Controlling risks of modern scientific technologies
Through the legislative and judicial branches of government, the law serves as the primary societal institution for managing these risks. Two crucial areas of interaction between science and law are involved in risk regulation. First, the role that law has played in regulating the risks associated with science and technology, and second, how the law uses science to evaluate the risk associated with both new and old technologies. Different countries’ parliaments work to lower risk before it becomes a bigger threat to society. The majority of industrialised countries have extensive legal or regulatory frameworks in place that aim to lessen risks associated with technologies like industrial chemicals, pesticides, resource extraction, pharmaceuticals, etc. These laws make an effort to prevent potential harms by anticipating them.
Law also works to reduce risks through litigation and liability in addition to major legislation. Science, on the other hand, plays a crucial role in providing evidence in such cases. People who have been harmed by technologies may bring tort or product liability lawsuits seeking compensation.
According to the court’s ruling in the landmark case of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., federal courts must perform a gatekeeping function to confirm that scientific testimony is reliable and relevant before allowing it to be admitted. This decision required judges to be proactive and knowledgeable when vetting potential scientific testimony. It also encouraged scientific organisations to seek out and acquaint judges with the law and to provide judges with experts to assist in cases involving science and technology.
Benefits of new technologies
Through legal doctrines and mechanisms, the law also plays a crucial part in the advancement of innovation and the promotion of technologies. The most significant factor has to do with intellectual property, which is how the law grants investors and creators the sole authority to commercially exploit the results of the labour of their employees. The main goal of intellectual property protection is to encourage innovation by providing researchers and authors with financial incentives that will help them produce new discoveries and works. Traditional doctrines are fundamentally challenged by new technologies.
In this case, outdated traditional laws may not adequately protect digital information, necessitating the copyright owner to file a lawsuit alleging infringement. Legislators and courts have expanded copyright protection for digital data because it is now possible to make an unlimited number of copies by merely uploading content to the internet and doing so afterwards.
Additionally, there are difficulties in adjusting patent law to genetic discoveries. Patenting genes has created a number of complex issues in science, law, ethics, and practise that conventional patent law is ill-equipped to handle. Technology, for instance, has dimmer the traditional distinction between non-patentable goods and patentable inventions and discoveries.
Ethical implications of technology
The ethical ramifications of technology on society that result from contemporary inventions are also addressed by law. In order to create and implement appropriate legal principles, legislatures and courts are heavily relied upon by society. The law makes an effort to settle moral disputes in a way that is acceptable to society. Courts have used their authority to decide on the moral implications of contentious technological advancements in a number of cases. Even when ethical issues are excluded by courts, they frequently continue to be the main cause of litigation that is fought in court on socio-legal grounds.
Legal v. scientific standards
The question of whether the law should use its own standards to evaluate scientific evidence or use scientific standards and methods of proof is a contentious one in the fields of law, science, and technology. As an illustration, consider the concept of statistical significance, which states that a result will be regarded as statistically significant if the probability of the result being observed solely by chance is less than 5%. Legal professionals contend that when there is a civil lawsuit and the standard of proof predominates over the evidence, the law should be applied more leniently.
However, when making decisions in cases involving science and technology, the court must be aware of scientific methodologies. In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the US Supreme Court ruled that courts must ensure that scientific testimony has a basis in scientific methods and practises that have been derivated from those methods.
New technologies v. old laws
Whether new technologies can operate within the constraints of existing laws or if they need new legal frameworks is a related question on this topic. This could be resolved by including important legislation that addresses issues on the internet, such as privacy, copyright, etc., in the society’s legal system. Additionally, these problems show up in other technological settings. While new laws have been promulgated in Europe and other jurisdictions, existing laws have typically been applied in the United States.
One such instance is patent law, where up until now, even in the case of new technologies in genes and other biomedical discoveries, the rules in place have been followed.
Legal experts have argued that new laws, specifically new methods that depart from the current law’s one-size-fits-all approach, are required to provide the best possible patent protection for some new and emerging technologies.
Challenges faced by law in the field of science and technology
Science and technology are evolving quickly in contemporary society. Moore’s Law, which states that the number of transistors on microchips will double every two years, is one example of such development. While the law must go through a technical statutory process in order to keep up with scientific advancements, it is less dynamic in nature.
Due to the stifling influence of prior precedents, laws are prone to becoming out-of-date and case law is also slow to change to reflect advances in science and technology. As a result, the law ends up being founded on out-of-date scientific theories or fails to reflect current scientific and technological knowledge. In order to keep up with science and technology, it is crucial for the law to adjust to new discoveries and developments in those fields.
Conclusion
Despite being different fields, science and law are interdependent. Science and technology and the law interact on various levels and in different ways. Future interactions will increase as technology develops, bringing with it risks, rewards, and ethical ramifications for society. The fields of law, science, and technology work to close the gap between these two areas of study and to solve the problems that these three fields share. It also aims to offer a methodical treatment of the actions and issues that will eventually enable these subjects to advance concurrently with and at the same rate as the subject matter.
