The Nanotechnology Challenge: Creating Legal Institutions for Uncertain Risks

Description

Nanotechnology is the wave of the future, and has already been incorporated into everything from toothpaste to socks to military equipment. The safety of nanotechnology for human health and the environment is a great unknown, however, and no legal system in the world has yet devised a way to reasonably address the uncertain risks of nanotechnology. To do so will require creating new legal institutions. This volume of essays by leading law scholars and social and physical scientists offers a range of views as to how such institutions should be formed. It is essential reading for anyone who may wonder how we can continue to innovate technologically in a way that both delivers the benefits and sustains human health and the environment.

David A. Dana is Associate Dean for Faculty Research and the Stanford Clinton Sr. and Zylpha Kilbride Clinton Research Professor of Law at Northwestern University. He is the co-founder and co-director of the Northwestern University Institute for Sustainable Practices (NISP) and a Faculty Fellow at the Kellogg School of Business, Northwestern University. Dana is the author of more than thirty articles on environmental law and policy and has been published in numerous journals, including Harvard Environmental Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Ecology Law Journal and University of Pennsylvania Law Review. He is a former litigator for the US Department of Justice and at Wilmer and Hale (formerly Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering).