Giovanni Pascuzzi

Comparative Issues in the Governance of Research Biobanks

In the last few years, the boom in biobanking has prompted a lively debate on a host of interrelated legal issues, such as the Gordian knot of the ownership of biological materials, as well as privacy concerns. The latter are due to the difficulty of accepting that biological samples must be completely anonymous without making it practically impossible to exploit their information potential. The issues also include the delicate role and the changing content of the donors informed consent as the main legal tool that may serve to link the privacy and property interests of donors with the research interests and the set of principles that should be at the core of the biobanking practice. Lastly, the IP issues and the patentability of biological samples as well as the protection of databases storing genetic information obtained from the samples are covered. Collecting eighteen essays written by eminent scholars from Italy, the US, the UK and Canada, this book provides new solutions to these problems. From a comparative viewpoint, it explores the extent to which digital technology may assist in tackling the numerous regulatory issues raised by the practice of biobanking for research purposes. These issues may be considered and analyzed under the traditional paradigms of Property, Privacy, Informed Consent and Intellectual Property.

Valutazione dei prodotti scientifici nell'area giuridica e ruolo delle tecnologie digitali

Al fine di valutare i prodotti della scienza giuridica italiana e renderli confrontabili con i lavori di altre aree scientifiche, alcuni attori istituzionali hanno proposto di classificare generi letterari (ad es., monografia, articolo, nota a sentenza ecc.), sedi editoriali e riviste. Una parte delle associazioni scientifiche dell’area giuridica ha preso una posizione comune nel “documento sulla valutazione” del 1° ottobre 2010 su metodi e criteri che dovvrebbero essere applicati da vari organismi istituzionali per differenti scopi. La pagine che seguono sono dedicate a svolgere rilievi critici a margine del documento e a rilevare che le tecnologie digitali (in particolare, il sistema dell’Accesso Aperto alla scienza) possono giocare un ruolo di primo piano nella valutazione dei prodotti della scienza giuridica. ENGLISH ABSTRACT In order to evaluate the scientific products of the Italian legal scholarship and make them comparable with the outputs in other scientific areas, some institutional actors have proposed to classify different scientific works (monographs, articles, notes etc.), publishers and journals. Part of learned societies in legal area have published a joint “Document on evaluation” (October 1, 2010) about methods and criteria that should be applied by various institutional organizations for several purposes. The aim of this paper is to offer a critique of that document, as well as to suggest that digital technologies (in particular, Open Access to science) might play a prominent role in the evaluation of products in the legal science field. Questo paper

Cognitive Techniques of Legal Innovation

We can consider the law as a technology: a tool to answer the problems and the needs of human beings. We should not confuse legal certainty with the immutability of law. Changes are a common feature of law in the Western legal tradition. History abounds with examples of legal innovations driven by legislators, courts, lawyers, and scholars. Legal innovation often drives economic development. Behind these innovations, the learned hand of the lawyer is at work. This chapter is not about the legal techniques employed to change the law (for instance, legislative reforms). It looks instead at the cognitive techniques of innovation that lawyers employ. Using selected examples of the most significant legal changes that took place in the last decades in different fields of the law, this chapter tries to single out and describe the cognitive techniques employed when lawyers are called to answer old and new problems.

Introduction: A Law and Technology Approach to the Law of Biobanking

This book constitutes the proceedings of the International Conference entitled “Comparative Issues in the Governance of Research Biobanks: Property, Privacy, Intellectual Property, and the Role of Technology”, held in Trento, in May 2010. The Conference saw the participation of eminent scholars from Italy, US, UK, Canada, Germany, and France that gave rise to an engaging debate about the legal issue related to the biobanks.