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Somsen, Han --- "The Regulatory Challenge of Biotechnology" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007) [2007] ELECD 107

Editor(s): Somsen, Han

Title: The Regulatory Challenge of Biotechnology

Sub-title: Human Genetics, Food and Patents

Series: Biotechnology Regulation series

Topics: Environmental Economics; Biotechnology; ; Environmental Law; Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Law; Intellectual Property Law; Regulation and Governance

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Date of Publication: 26 January 2007

Number of pages: 296

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845424893

EISBN: 9781847204417

Abstract/Description:

Biotechnology has prompted a revolution in science and society in the truest sense of the word. For what superficially appears to be a revolution in biotechnology, in effect touches upon the fundamentals of life and the way in which humans relate to it. This book will make a significant contribution to the debate surrounding the effective regulation of biotechnology.

The contributing authors assess how regulatory regimes can accommodate the many different and often conflicting issues to which biotechnology is giving rise to (including a very tainted public image). The book’s ultimate aim is to explore ways of designing a regulatory regime that takes heed of these different demands whilst, at the same time, answering to the imperatives of effectiveness and efficiency.

The book synthesizes three fields of legal analysis; the first focuses on the risk-dominated regulation of GM food and bio-agriculture; the second involves human genetics as a field dominated by considerations of ethics. Finally, patent law has been chosen as an area captured by notions of property.

With its holistic approach, The Regulatory Challenge of Biotechnology will be of great interest to academics, policymakers and regulators as well as biotechnology and law students.