DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL

LAW UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW

2021-22

Law, Science and Technology

FINAL DRAFT ON
Relationship between Law, Science and Technology

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

DR. SHASHANK SHEKHAR FAIZAN AHMAD (ROLL NO. 57)

ASST. PROFESSOR (LAW) SEM. IX (B.A. LL.B(HONS.))

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………..4
2. Relationship between science, technology, and law……………………………….4
3. Effects of science and technology on law…………………………………………5
4. Effects of law on science and technology…………………………………………5
5. Division of the field into three primary standards………………………………..6
6. The critical role played by law in managing the impacts of science and technology…6
7. Controlling risks of modern scientific technologies ………………………………….6
8. Benefits of new technologies…………………………………………………………..7
9. Ethical implications of technology…………………………………………………….8
10. Legal v. scientific standards……………………………………………………………8
11. New technologies v. old laws…………………………………………………………...8
12. Challenges faced by law in the field of science and technology………………………9
13. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….10
14. Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………..11

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The importance of projects in Academics cannot be emphasised enough. While classroom

teaching helps a student with understanding the fundamental concepts of a subject, research for
projects like this push one towards the detailed analysis of particular topics. The fundamentals
of my understanding of this topic were established with the classroom lectures of Dr.
Shashank Shekhar Associate Professor (Law) at this University. He has since guided me on
this topic for which I am very grateful. I am also grateful to Dr. Madhu Limaye Library, Dr.
Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow which provided me with the
required support both in the form of books and online database which has been of immense
value to this project.
I acknowledge the support of my peers, the blessings of my parents and the never ending
grace of the almighty which has been the driving force of everything good in my life
including this project.

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 Introduction

Law plays an essential part in the regulation of science and technology and concerning the
ethical consequences of scientific research along with modern technologies. This field of law,
science, and technology attempts to study systematically the diverse ways in which law interacts
with science and technology. It has been defined as “the discipline that deals with how our legal
system can and must adjust to accommodate the problems created by the ever more urgent and
ubiquitous impact of technology on society.”

With the growth of the internet, technology, genomics, telecommunications, etc. legal scholars
and law schools emphasized on the intersection of the law with science and technology. The
United States Supreme Court Justice, Stephen Breyer stated, “scientific issues now permeate the
law.” There has been immense growth in the study of law, science, and technology interactions
including the incorporation of the subject in the syllabus, courses, journals, conferences, etc.
Apart from this, there has been a growing awareness of the importance of scientific and
technological developments amongst legal scholars and practitioners.

Relationship between science, technology, and law

Law and science have a complicated relationship. Science is the systematic approach that builds
and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Law, on the other hand, refers to the system of rules which have been laid down by the social
institutions to regulate the actions of members and it may enforce such behaviour by the
imposition of penalties. However, with the growth of scientific and technological advances, law,
and science, the two disciplines became interdependent on each other. The legislature of various
nations has laid down numerous laws to manage the impacts of science and technology on
society. For example, in the era of the internet, the legislature has laid down laws and provisions
which deal with cybercrimes. Law seeks to curb the impacts of science and technology which
revolve around aspects such as risks, benefits, and ethical implications.

The judicial system also seeks to provide remedies to the aggrieved party that has been wronged
due to the harmful implications of scientific and technological developments. Science on the flip
side has aided the legal system with modern technologies such as polygraph tests, collection of
evidence in a scientific manner, electronic recordings which can be used as evidence before the
court, etc. Science also helps in the court proceedings with the admission of evidence, autopsy
reports, etc. Therefore science and law are codependent on each other despite being two different
disciplines in modern society with the advances in science and technology.

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Effects of science and technology on law
 Science and technology have substantive as well as the procedural effect on the law.
On the substantive side, new scientific evidence and methodology can change the
course of legal claims and their outcomes, i.e. forensic science has opened new
avenues in criminal law while creating a myriad of legal, ethical, and social issues.
 And on the procedural aspect of the law, it lays down how DNA samples should be
collected and stored, how genetic information may be used, when are convicted
criminals allowed to reopen their cases, etc.
 In the early twenty-first century, digital evidence has improved the quality and
availability of trial evidence while raising concerns about tampering and fabricating
digital pieces of evidence. This led to a massive change in the law.

Effects of law on science and technology

Law affects science and technology, individuals who have been aggrieved by scientific
misconduct tries to seek judicial remedies. Advocates have even served non-party subpoenas on
scientists who are doing research potentially pertinent to the lawsuit. This exposes the scientists
to intrusive searches and they often have to disclose before the court about their research
activities. Legislature also subjects scientists to new legal requirements, for example when any
scientific project is based on government funding then it is important to take required legal steps
to ensure absolute protection of the scientists and the general public. In 2000, the United States
Congress enacted the Data Quality Act which imposes a series of substantive and procedural
requirements on scientific methodology. These developments indicate a trend of growing legal
intrusion on science and technology.

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Division of the field into three primary standards
Despite the growing interests and awareness that states science and technology present a unique
angle of law; different formulations exist for examining the law, science, and technology. There
exist three primary standards of the division of the field.

1. The first concerns the role of the law in managing the impacts of science and
technology which includes controlling the risks, promoting the benefits, and
addressing ethical implications.
2. Secondly, the institutions of law and science examine how the law affects the practice
of scientific research as well as the reciprocal relationship that determines how
science and technology influence the law.
3. The third standard involves a more general inquiry into the problems and tensions
which emerge from the intersection of law with science and technology.

The critical role played by law in managing the impacts of science

and technology
Law plays a crucial role in managing the impacts of science and technology on
society. Law seeks to curb the impacts of science and technology which revolve
around aspects such as risks, benefits, and ethical implications.

 Controlling risks of modern scientific technologies

The law is the principal societal institution for controlling these risks through the legislature and
the judiciary. Risk regulation involves two key aspects of scientific and legal interaction. Firstly,
the part played by law in regulating risks from science and technology and secondly, the use of
science by law to assess risk from new and existing technologies. The parliament of different
nations tries to reduce risk before it imposes a greater threat to society. Most industrialized
nations have comprehensive statutory or regulatory programmes which try to reduce potential
risks from technologies such as industrial chemicals, pesticides, natural resource extraction,
pharmaceutical, etc. These legislations predict potential harms and attempts to curb that.

Apart from major legislations law also tries to prevent risks through litigation and liability.
Individuals who have been injured by technologies may bring tort or product liability lawsuits

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seeking compensation and science, on the other hand, plays the critical role of providing
evidence of such cases.

In a leading case of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., it was stated by the court
that federal courts are required to perform a gatekeeping function to affirm that scientific
testimony is relevant and reliable before it can be admitted. This judgment has involved judges
being proactive and knowledgeable in screening prospective scientific testimony and has also
stimulated scientific organizations to seek and educate judges and also provide experts to aid in
the proceedings which involve science and technology.

Benefits of new technologies

The law also plays an essential role in the development of innovation and promoting
technologies through legal doctrines and mechanisms. The most important aspect relates to
intellectual property, by which the law gives the investors and creators a time-limited exclusive
right to commercially exploit the output of the work of their workers. The main objective of
protecting intellectual property is to promote innovation, by giving researchers, and authors
economic incentives which will aid them to create new inventions and works. New technologies
cause fundamental challenges to traditional doctrines.

For example, digital information might not be adequately protected by old traditional laws and it
requires the copyright owner to bring a lawsuit alleging infringement. Because unlimited copies
can be made by simply uploading material on the internet and thereafter, legislatures and courts
have extended more copyright protection for digital data.

There also exist challenges in adapting patent law to genetic discoveries. Patenting genes have
raised numerous scientific, legal, ethical, and practical complexities that established patent law is
not equipped to address. Such as the traditional distinction between non-patentable products and
patentable inventions and discoveries has been dimmed by technology.

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Ethical implications of technology
The law also seeks to resolve the ethical implications of technology on the society which arise
due to modern inventions. Society heavily relies on legislatures and courts to develop and apply
appropriate legal principles. The law attempts to resolve moral issues in a socially acceptable
manner. In various cases, courts have considered their authority while giving a decision in ethical
aspects of controversial technological developments. Even when courts exclude ethical
considerations they often remain the primary reason for litigation which is fought before the
court in socio-legal grounds.

Legal v. scientific standards

A heated debate topic in the field of law, science, and technology states whether the law should
apply scientific standards and methods of proof, or apply its standards to scientific evidence. An
example is the concept of statistical significance, where the standard scientific convention is that
a result will be considered statistically significant if the probability of the result being observed
by chance alone is less than five percent. Legal experts argue that law should apply a more
lenient standard in cases of civil litigation where the standard of proof is predominant of the
evidence.

However, it is essential for the court to understand scientific methodologies while deciding on
cases that involve science and technology. In the case, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals,
Inc., the United States Supreme Court held that courts must guarantee that scientific testimony
must have grounding methods of science and procedures which have derived from scientific
methods.

New technologies v. old laws

Another issue on this aspect is whether new technologies require new legal frameworks or
whether they can work within the ambit of old laws. This could be answered by the incorporation
of eminent legislation in the legal framework of the society which addresses issues on the
internet such as privacy, copyright, etc. These issues also arise in other technological contexts.
Existing laws have generally been applied in the United States, while new enactments have been
promulgated in Europe and other jurisdictions.

One of the examples; is patent law, where to date existing rules have been applied even in the
case of new technologies in genes and other biomedical discoveries.

Some of the legal luminaries have argued that new laws, in particular new approaches that move
away from the one-size-fits-all approach of current law, are needed to provide optimal patent
protection for certain new and emerging technologies.

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Challenges faced by law in the field of science and technology
In modern society, science and technology are developing rapidly. One of the examples of such
development is Moore’s Law, which predicts that the number of transistors on microchips will
double every two years. The law, on the contrary, is less dynamic in nature as it has to go
through a technical statutory process in order to keep up with the scientific developments.
Statutes can easily become outdated and case laws are also slow to adapt to the scientific and
technological developments due to the binding effect of past precedents. Therefore, it results in
the law being based on outdated scientific assumptions or fails to adapt to recent scientific and
technological knowledge. It is essential for the law to adapt to advancing science and technology
and incorporate adaptive legal regimes to keep up with science and technology.

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 Conclusion

Law and science are codependent on each other despite being different disciplines. Law interacts
with science and technology on different levels and diverse ways. These interactions proliferate
in the future with advancing technologies that present risks, benefits, and ethical implications on
society. The field of law, science, and technology attempt to bridge the gap between these two
fields of study and also tries to tackle the challenges faced by law, science, and technology. It
also seeks to provide a systematic treatment of the actions and problems that would eventually
help these subjects evolve in parallel and at pace with subject matter.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/509/579/

https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/science-
technology-and-law

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