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Biometrics, Crime and Security (Law, Science and Society)
by Marcus Smith Monique Mann Gregor UrbasThis book addresses the use of biometrics – including fingerprint identification, DNA identification and facial recognition – in the criminal justice system: balancing the need to ensure society is protected from harms, such as crime and terrorism, while also preserving individual rights. It offers a comprehensive discussion of biometric identification that includes a consideration of: basic scientific principles, their historical development, the perspectives of political philosophy, critical security and surveillance studies; but especially the relevant law, policy and regulatory issues. Developments in key jurisdictions where the technology has been implemented, including the United Kingdom, United States, Europe and Australia, are examined. This includes case studies relating to the implementation of new technology, policy, legislation, court judgements, and where available, empirical evaluations of the use of biometrics in criminal justice systems. Examples from non-western areas of the world are also considered. Accessibly written, this book will be of interest to undergraduate, postgraduate and research students, academic researchers, as well as professionals in government, security, legal and private sectors.
Biometrics, Surveillance and the Law: Societies of Restricted Access, Discipline and Control (Routledge Research in the Law of Emerging Technologies)
by Sara M. SmythThe use of biometric identification systems is rapidly increasing across the world, owing to their potential to combat terrorism, fraud, corruption and other illegal activities. However, critics of the technology complain that the creation of an extensive central register of personal information controlled by the government will increase opportunities for the state to abuse citizens. There is also concern about the extent to which data about an individual is recorded and kept. This book reviews some of the most current and complex legal and ethical issues relating to the use of biometrics. Beginning with an overview of biometric systems, the book goes on to examine some of the theoretical underpinnings of the surveillance state, questioning whether these conceptual approaches are still relevant, particularly the integration of ubiquitous surveillance systems and devices. The book also analyses the implementation of the world’s largest biometric database, Aadhaar, in detail. Additionally, the identification of individuals at border checkpoints in the United States, Australia and the EU is explored, as well as the legal and ethical debates surrounding the use of biometrics regarding: the war on terror and the current refugee crisis; violations of international human rights law principles; and mobility and privacy rights. The book concludes by addressing the collection, use and disclosure of personal information by private-sector entities such as Axciom and Facebook, and government use of these tools to profile individuals. By examining the major legal and ethical issues surrounding the debate on this rapidly emerging technology, this book will appeal to students and scholars of law, criminology and surveillance studies, as well as law enforcement and criminal law practitioners.
Biometrics, Surveillance and the Law: Societies of Restricted Access, Discipline and Control (Routledge Research in the Law of Emerging Technologies)
by Sara M. SmythThe use of biometric identification systems is rapidly increasing across the world, owing to their potential to combat terrorism, fraud, corruption and other illegal activities. However, critics of the technology complain that the creation of an extensive central register of personal information controlled by the government will increase opportunities for the state to abuse citizens. There is also concern about the extent to which data about an individual is recorded and kept. This book reviews some of the most current and complex legal and ethical issues relating to the use of biometrics. Beginning with an overview of biometric systems, the book goes on to examine some of the theoretical underpinnings of the surveillance state, questioning whether these conceptual approaches are still relevant, particularly the integration of ubiquitous surveillance systems and devices. The book also analyses the implementation of the world’s largest biometric database, Aadhaar, in detail. Additionally, the identification of individuals at border checkpoints in the United States, Australia and the EU is explored, as well as the legal and ethical debates surrounding the use of biometrics regarding: the war on terror and the current refugee crisis; violations of international human rights law principles; and mobility and privacy rights. The book concludes by addressing the collection, use and disclosure of personal information by private-sector entities such as Axciom and Facebook, and government use of these tools to profile individuals. By examining the major legal and ethical issues surrounding the debate on this rapidly emerging technology, this book will appeal to students and scholars of law, criminology and surveillance studies, as well as law enforcement and criminal law practitioners.
Bionik als Wissenschaft: Erkennen - Abstrahieren - Umsetzen
by Werner NachtigallDer Begriff „BIONIK“ wird gerne als Kunstwort gekennzeichnet, zusammengesetzt aus BIOlogie und TechNIK. Bionik stellt einerseits ein Fach dar, in dem geforscht und ausgebildet wird, und kennzeichnet andererseits eine Sichtweise, nämlich die des „Lernens von der Natur für die Technik“. Darüber sind in der Zwischenzeit neben populär wissenschaftlichen Werken eine Reihe von Fachbüchern erschienen. Werner Nachtigall hat darin mit der 2. Auflage seines bei Springer erschienenen Buchs „BIONIK – Grundlagen und Beispiele für Ingenieure und Naturwissenschaftler“ einen Meilenstein gesetzt. In diesem Buch kennzeichnet er die Untergliederung des Fachs und bespricht detailliert dessen Forschungsgegenstände. Dagegen fehlte bislang eine Darstellung, die sich mit den erkenntnistheoretischen Grundlagen wie mit der pragmatischen Vorgehensweise der Bionik systematisch befasst, die ja mit der ihr eigenen Prinzip-Abstraktion zwischen der belebten Welt als Vor-Bild und der technischen Umsetzung als Ab-Bild vermitteln will. Das vorliegende Werk schließt diese Lücke mit drei großen Abschnitten: Biologische Basis: Erforschen, Beschreiben, Beurteilen. – Abstraktion biologischer Befunde: Herausarbeiten allgemeiner Prinzipien. – Umsetzung in die Technik: Prinzipvergleich, Konzeptuelles, Vorgehensweise.
Bionomics in the Dragon Kingdom: Ecology, Economics and Ethics in Bhutan (Fascinating Life Sciences)
by Ugyen Tshewang Jane Gray Morrison Michael Charles TobiasThis compact and elegant work (equally fitting for both academic as well as the trade audiences) provides a readily accessible and highly readable overview of Bhutan’s unique opportunities and challenges; all her prominent environmental legislation, regulatory statutes, ecological customs and practices, both in historic and contemporary terms. At the same time, Bionomics places the ecological context, including a section on animal rights in Bhutan, within the nation’s Buddhist spiritual and ethical setting. Historic contextualization accents the book’s rich accounting of every national park and scientific reserve, as well as providing up-to-the-minute climate-change related hurdles for the country.Merging the interdisciplinary sciences, engineering and humanities data in a compelling up-to-date portrait of the country, the authors have presented this dramatic compendium against the backdrop of an urgent, global ecological time-frame. It thus becomes clear that the articulated stakes for Bhutan, like her neighboring Himalayan and Indian sub-continental countries (China, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar) are immense, as the Anthropocene epoch unfolds, affecting every living being across the planet. Because Bhutan’s two most rewarding revenue streams derive from the sale of hydro-electric power and from tourism, the complexities of modern pressures facing a nation that prides herself on maintaining traditional customs in what has been a uniquely isolated nation are acute.
Bioökonomie nachhaltig gestalten: Perspektiven für ein zukunftsfähiges Wirtschaften (Technikzukünfte, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft / Futures of Technology, Science and Society)
by Wilfried Konrad Dirk Scheer Annette WeidtmannIn diesem Sammelband werden die Herausforderungen und Potenziale einer zukünftig nachhaltig zu gestaltenden Bioökonomie interdisziplinär beleuchtet. Hierbei wird die Bioökonomie als sozio-technisches System aufgefasst, in dem die technische Ausgestaltung aufs Engste mit sozialen, ökonomischen und politischen Elementen verknüpft ist. Aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven wird die Transformation des herkömmlichen Wirtschaftens in Richtung einer bioökonomischen Wirtschaftsweise thematisiert. Aspekte von Umbau bzw. Transformation und Zukunftsgestaltung stehen dabei im Mittelpunkt.
Biopatent Law: European Patent Law Vs. Us Patent Law (SpringerBriefs in Biotech Patents)
by Ulrich Storz Martin Quodbach Scott D. Marty Derek E. Constantine Matthew ParkerSpringerBriefs in Biotech Patents presents timely reports on intellectual properties (IP) issues and patent aspects in the field of biotechnology. This volume focus on particular aspects of the US patent law, which can have tremendous differences compared to the European law. This includes questions of biopatent prosecution, novelty, inventive step, written disclosure and sufficiency of enablement as well as questions of law enforcement of biotech patents.
Biopatent Law: Patent Strategies and Patent Management (SpringerBriefs in Biotech Patents)
by Andreas Hübel Thilo Schmelcher Ulrich StorzPatents protecting biotechnological invention are becoming ever more important. Because biotechnology has many differences with respect to other technologies, lessons learned in other fields of technology cannot simply be transferred to adopt a suitable strategy for dealing with biotechnology inventions. In this volume, general aspects of biopatent law will be discussed. This involves questions of patentability, including ethical issues and issues of technicality, as well as questions of patent exhaustion in cases were reproducible subject matter, like cells or seeds, is protected. Moreover, active and passive patent strategies are addressed. Further, insight will be given into patent lifetime management and additional protective measures, like supplementary protection certificates and data exclusivity. Here, strategies are discussed how market exclusivity can be extended as long as possible, which is particularly important for biopharmaceutical drugs, which create high R&D costs.
Biopolitics After Neuroscience: Morality and the Economy of Virtue
by Jeffrey P. Bishop M. Therese Lysaught Andrew A. MichelThis book offers a provocative analysis of the neuroscience of morality. Written by three leading scholars of science, medicine, and bioethics, it critiques contemporary neuroscientific claims about individual morality and notions of good and evil. Winner of a 2021 prize from the Expanded Reason Institute, it connects moral philosophy to neoliberal economics and successfully challenges the idea that we can locate morality in the brain. Instead of discovering the source of morality in the brain as they claim to do, the popularizers of contemporary neuroscience are shown to participate in an understanding of human behavior that serves the vested interests of contemporary political economy. Providing evidence that the history of claims about morality and brain function reach back 400 years, the authors locate its genesis in the beginnings of modern philosophy, science, and economics. They further map this trajectory through the economic and moral theories of Francis Bacon, David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and the Chicago School of Economics to uncover a pervasive colonial anthropology at play in the neuroscience of morality today.The book concludes with a call for a humbler and more constrained neuroscience, informed by a more robust human anthropology that embraces the nobility, beauty, frailties, and flaws in being human.
Biopolitics After Neuroscience: Morality and the Economy of Virtue
by Jeffrey P. Bishop M. Therese Lysaught Andrew A. MichelThis book offers a provocative analysis of the neuroscience of morality. Written by three leading scholars of science, medicine, and bioethics, it critiques contemporary neuroscientific claims about individual morality and notions of good and evil. Winner of a 2021 prize from the Expanded Reason Institute, it connects moral philosophy to neoliberal economics and successfully challenges the idea that we can locate morality in the brain. Instead of discovering the source of morality in the brain as they claim to do, the popularizers of contemporary neuroscience are shown to participate in an understanding of human behavior that serves the vested interests of contemporary political economy. Providing evidence that the history of claims about morality and brain function reach back 400 years, the authors locate its genesis in the beginnings of modern philosophy, science, and economics. They further map this trajectory through the economic and moral theories of Francis Bacon, David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and the Chicago School of Economics to uncover a pervasive colonial anthropology at play in the neuroscience of morality today.The book concludes with a call for a humbler and more constrained neuroscience, informed by a more robust human anthropology that embraces the nobility, beauty, frailties, and flaws in being human.
Biopolitics and Resistance in Legal Education
by Thomas Giddens and Luca Siliquini-CinelliTaking up the study of legal education in distinctly biopolitical terms, this book provides a critical and political analysis of resistance in the law school. Legal education concerns the complex pathways by which an individual becomes a lawyer, making the journey from lay-person to expert, from student to practitioner. To pose the idea of a biopolitics of legal education is not only to recognise the tensions surrounding this journey but also to recognise that legal education is a key site in which the subject engages, and is engaged by, a particular structure—and here the particular structure of the law school. This book explores the resistance to that structure, including: different ways in which law’s pedagogic structures might be incomplete, or are being fought against; the use of less conventional elements of cultural discourse to resist the abstraction of the lawyer in students’ subject formation; the centralisation of queer and feminist discourses to disrupt the hierarchies of the legal curriculum; the use of digital technologies; the place of embodiment in legal education settings; and the impacts of posthuman knowledges and contexts on legal learning. Assembling original, field-defining essays by both leading international scholars and emerging researchers, this book constitutes an indispensable resource in legal education research and scholarship that will appeal to legal academics everywhere.
Biopolitics and Resistance in Legal Education
Taking up the study of legal education in distinctly biopolitical terms, this book provides a critical and political analysis of resistance in the law school. Legal education concerns the complex pathways by which an individual becomes a lawyer, making the journey from lay-person to expert, from student to practitioner. To pose the idea of a biopolitics of legal education is not only to recognise the tensions surrounding this journey but also to recognise that legal education is a key site in which the subject engages, and is engaged by, a particular structure—and here the particular structure of the law school. This book explores the resistance to that structure, including: different ways in which law’s pedagogic structures might be incomplete, or are being fought against; the use of less conventional elements of cultural discourse to resist the abstraction of the lawyer in students’ subject formation; the centralisation of queer and feminist discourses to disrupt the hierarchies of the legal curriculum; the use of digital technologies; the place of embodiment in legal education settings; and the impacts of posthuman knowledges and contexts on legal learning. Assembling original, field-defining essays by both leading international scholars and emerging researchers, this book constitutes an indispensable resource in legal education research and scholarship that will appeal to legal academics everywhere.
Biopolitics and Shock Economy of COVID-19: Medical Perspectives and Socioeconomic Dynamics (Contributions to Economics)
by Nezameddin Faghih Amir ForouharfarThis edited volume discusses the biopolitics and shock economy of COVID-19, emphasizing medical perspectives and the socioeconomic dynamics of the pandemic and the ensuing institutional responses. Written by an international, multidisciplinary group of academic and professional experts, chapters embrace a wide range of topics such as: medical perspectives on COVID-19; application of geospatial technology; infectivity, immunogenicity, and disease as important factors for adoption of relevant biopolitical measures; shock economy; COVID-19-induced transaction costs; social support and resilience of inhabitants of marginalized areas; business resilience factors; entrepreneurship; and digital transformation. Jointly addressing global examples of biopolitical governance and overarching macroeconomic effects of the pandemic, this volume will be of interest to academics across disciplines as well as policymakers and practitioners on the ground.
Biopolitics and Structure in Legal Education
by Luca Siliquini-Cinelli and Thomas GiddensTaking up the study of legal education in distinctly biopolitical terms, this book provides a critical and political analysis of structure in the law school. Legal education concerns the complex pathways by which an individual becomes a lawyer, making the journey from lay-person to expert, from student to practitioner. To pose the idea of a biopolitics of legal education is not only to recognise the tensions surrounding this journey, but also to recognise that legal education is a key site in which the subject engages, and is engaged by, a particular structure—and here the particular structure of the law school. This book explores that structure by addressing the characteristics of the biopolitical orders engaged in legal education, including: understanding the lawyer as a commodity, unpicking the force relations in legal education, examining the ways codes of conduct in higher education impact academic freedom, as well as putting the distinctly Western structures of legal learning within a wider context. Assembling original, field-defining essays by both leading international scholars and emerging researchers, it constitutes an indispensable resource in legal education research and scholarship that will appeal to legal academics everywhere.
Biopolitics and Structure in Legal Education
Taking up the study of legal education in distinctly biopolitical terms, this book provides a critical and political analysis of structure in the law school. Legal education concerns the complex pathways by which an individual becomes a lawyer, making the journey from lay-person to expert, from student to practitioner. To pose the idea of a biopolitics of legal education is not only to recognise the tensions surrounding this journey, but also to recognise that legal education is a key site in which the subject engages, and is engaged by, a particular structure—and here the particular structure of the law school. This book explores that structure by addressing the characteristics of the biopolitical orders engaged in legal education, including: understanding the lawyer as a commodity, unpicking the force relations in legal education, examining the ways codes of conduct in higher education impact academic freedom, as well as putting the distinctly Western structures of legal learning within a wider context. Assembling original, field-defining essays by both leading international scholars and emerging researchers, it constitutes an indispensable resource in legal education research and scholarship that will appeal to legal academics everywhere.
Biopolitik grenzenlos: Stimmen aus Polen (Beiträge zur gesellschaftswissenschaftlichen Forschung #23)
Polen ist eines unserer Nachbarländer und einer der zehn neuen Mitgliedstaaten, die am 1. Mai 2004 der Europäischen Union beitraten. Gen- und Reproduktionstechnologien werden seit 1987 dort angewandt. Polen ist ein slawisches Land, das demselben jüdisch-christlichen Kulturkreis wie Deutschland angehört, jedoch mit anderen sozialen Akteuren, einer anderen historischen Tradition und anderen Glaubensparadigmen. Wie aber stellen sich dort die zentralen Fragen nach Fluch oder Segen, Chancen und Risiken der neuen Reprotechniken?Der Sammelband bietet erstmals in deutscher Sprache einen Einblick in die bioethische Debatte in Polen, über die in der BRD nur wenig bekannt ist. Die Experten und Expertinnen aus Politik, Justiz und Philosophie zeigen in ihren Beiträgen, dass eine weltanschaulich pluralistische Diskussion in bezug auf Reprotechniken nicht existiert. Die öffentliche Auseinandersetzung über Embryonen beschränkt sich bisher auf den Schwangerschaftsabbruch.Im Unterschied zur BRD gibt es in Polen keine gesetzliche Regelung, welche Reprotechniken erlaubt und welche verboten sind. Normative Fragen zu Sexualität und Fortpflanzung werden vorwiegend essentialistisch mit bibeltheologischen Begründungen erörtert. An der zutiefst festgefahrenen „Kommunikation“ zwischen katholischer Kirche und Frauenbewegung wird exemplarisch das Fehlen einer Verständigung zwischen religiösen und säkularen Gruppen sichtbar.„Biopolitik. Grenzenlos. Stimmen aus Polen“ richtet sich an Fachhochschulen, Universitäten, Bildungseinrichtungen und an interessierte Laien, die sich mit Ethik/Bioethik, Feminismus, Osteuropaforschung und Kulturwissenschaften beschäftigen.
Biopolitiken – Regierungen des Lebens heute: Regierungen Des Lebens Heute (Politologische Aufklärung – konstruktivistische Perspektiven)
by Helene Gerhards Kathrin BraunDas Buch versammelt konstruktivistische Perspektiven auf das Konzept „Biopolitik“. Dadurch werden die Analysepotentiale für aktuelle Phänomene, die den Zusammenhang zwischen dem Leben und dem Lebendigen und der Regierbarmachung betreffen, ausgelotet. Im Fokus stehen die Strategien und die Objekte der Regierungs- und Regulierungsbemühungen: In welcher Weise werden gesellschaftliche Probleme konstruiert und bestimmten „Zielscheiben“ zugeschrieben? Welche Subjektivierungsformen lassen sich im Rahmen biopolitischer Zugriffe ausmachen? Inwiefern spielen spezifische sozialtheoretische Überlegungen und Konzeptionen von Zeit für biopolitische Strategien und Konflikte eine Rolle? An welchen Gegenständen sind die fortdauernden Konflikte, die sich im Spannungsfeld zwischen Medizin, Ethik und Politik ergeben, zu explizieren?
Biopolitische Neubestimmung des Menschen: Menschenwürde und Autonomie (Philosophische Herausforderungen der angewandten Ethik und Gesundheitswissenschaften/ Philosophical Challenges of Applied Ethics and Health Sciences)
Die Allgemeine Erklärung der Menschenrechte und das Grundgesetz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland haben die Menschenwürde als Höchstwert und oberstes Prinzip verankert. Biopolitischen Eingriffen durch den Staat sollte damit eine absolute Grenze gesetzt werden. Die Unbestimmtheit der Menschenwürde hat jedoch in den bioethischen Debatten der letzten Jahrzehnte dazu geführt, dass die Vorrangstellung der Menschenwürde in Frage gestellt wurde oder sich Vertreter entgegengesetzter Positionen beide gleichermaßen auf die Würde des Menschen berufen konnten. So stehen Eugenik und Euthanasie – in liberalem Gewande – als legitime Optionen wieder auf der Tagesordnung. Dies ist einerseits eine Problemanzeige und andererseits der Hinweis darauf, das unterschiedliche Lager unter Würde unterschiedliches verstehen. Der vorliegende Band diskutiert vorranging das Verhältnis von Menschenwürde und Autonomie als den zentralen Argumentationsgrundlagen dieser Debatte. Dabei wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwieweit es gerechtfertigt ist, den Würdebegriff durch den Autonomiebegriff zu ersetzen, bzw. ob der Würdebegriff Aspekte des Autonomiebegriffs integrieren oder ausschließen muss, um dem Grundanliegen der Allgemeinen Erklärung der Menschenrechte und des Grundgesetzes der Bundesrepublik Deutschland gerecht zu werden, ohne Abstriche am Grundsatz der Unverfügbarkeit zu riskieren.
Bioproperty, Biomedicine and Deliberative Governance: Patents as Discourse on Life
by Katerina SideriBiomedical patents have been the subject of heated debate. Regulatory agencies such as the European Patent Office make small decisions with big implications, which escape scrutiny and revision, when they decide who has access to expensive diagnostic tests, whether human embryonic stem cells can be traded in markets, and under what circumstances human health is more important than animal welfare. Moreover, the administration of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights by the World Trade Organization has raised considerable disquiet as it has arguably created grave health inequities. Those doubting the merits of the one size fits all approach ask whether priority should be given to serving the present needs of populations in dire need of medication or to promoting global innovation. The book looks in detail into the legal issues and ethical debates to ask the following three main questions: First, what are the ideas, goals, and broader ethical visions that underpin questions of governance and the legal reasoning employed by administrative agencies? Second, how can we democratize the decision making process of technocratic institutions such as the European Patent Office? Finally, how can we make the global intellectual property system more equitable? In answering these questions the book seeks to contribute to our understanding of the role and function of regulatory agencies in the regulation of the bioeconomy, explains the process of interpretation of legal norms, and proposes ways to rethink the reform of the patent system through the lens of legitimacy.
Bioproperty, Biomedicine and Deliberative Governance: Patents as Discourse on Life (Globalization And Law Ser.)
by Katerina SideriBiomedical patents have been the subject of heated debate. Regulatory agencies such as the European Patent Office make small decisions with big implications, which escape scrutiny and revision, when they decide who has access to expensive diagnostic tests, whether human embryonic stem cells can be traded in markets, and under what circumstances human health is more important than animal welfare. Moreover, the administration of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights by the World Trade Organization has raised considerable disquiet as it has arguably created grave health inequities. Those doubting the merits of the one size fits all approach ask whether priority should be given to serving the present needs of populations in dire need of medication or to promoting global innovation. The book looks in detail into the legal issues and ethical debates to ask the following three main questions: First, what are the ideas, goals, and broader ethical visions that underpin questions of governance and the legal reasoning employed by administrative agencies? Second, how can we democratize the decision making process of technocratic institutions such as the European Patent Office? Finally, how can we make the global intellectual property system more equitable? In answering these questions the book seeks to contribute to our understanding of the role and function of regulatory agencies in the regulation of the bioeconomy, explains the process of interpretation of legal norms, and proposes ways to rethink the reform of the patent system through the lens of legitimacy.
Bioprospecting: Success, Potential and Constraints (Topics in Biodiversity and Conservation #16)
by Russell Paterson Nelson LimaThis book considers all aspects of bioprospecting in 14 succinct chapters and a forward by David Hawksworth. The organisms addressed include plants, insects, fungi, bacteria and phages. Bioprospecting has never been more relevant and is of renewed interest, because of the extremely worrying rise in novel, resistant pathogenic microorganisms. The practices in pharmaceutical companies have failed to deliver novel antibiotics to control these infections. We need to look for new sources of drugs from the environment on a massive scale as drug discovery is “too important to fail”. Furthermore, the field can add great value to ecosystems in terms of economics, while providing additional reasons for maintaining associated services, such as food provision, benign climate, effective nutrient cycling and cultural practices. Bioprospecting provides another reason why climate change must be reduced in order to preserve relevant environments. Previous bioprospecting projects should be re-visited and established biodiversity centres have a major role. Many different ecosystems exist which contain unique organisms with the potential to supply novel antibiotics, enzymes, food, and cosmetics, or they may simply have aesthetic value. The book stresses the difficulties in obtaining successful products and yet describes why natural products should be investigated over combinatorial chemistry. Personal experience of bioprospecting projects are given significance. Issues such as how to share the benefits equitably with local communities are described and why pharmaceutical companies can be reluctant to be involved. Legal issues are discussed. Finally, there has never been a better time for a new book on bioprospecting, because of the need to preserve ecosystems, and from the emergence of resistant pathogenic microorganisms.
The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Disease: New Philosophical and Scientific Developments
by Derek Bolton Grant GillettThis open access book is a systematic update of the philosophical and scientific foundations of the biopsychosocial model of health, disease and healthcare. First proposed by George Engel 40 years ago, the Biopsychosocial Model is much cited in healthcare settings worldwide, but has been increasingly criticised for being vague, lacking in content, and in need of reworking in the light of recent developments. The book confronts the rapid changes to psychological science, neuroscience, healthcare, and philosophy that have occurred since the model was first proposed and addresses key issues such as the model’s scientific basis, clinical utility, and philosophical coherence. The authors conceptualise biology and the psychosocial as in the same ontological space, interlinked by systems of communication-based regulatory control which constitute a new kind of causation. These are distinguished from physical and chemical laws, most clearly because they can break down, thus providing the basis for difference between health and disease. This work offers an urgent update to the model’s scientific and philosophical foundations, providing a new and coherent account of causal interactions between the biological, the psychological and social.
Biosafety Measures, Technology Risks and the World Trade Organization: Thriving and Surviving in the Age of Biotech
by Alessandra GuidaThis book examines the work of the World Trade Organization (WTO), with a focus on the capacity of its judiciary to strike a reasoned balance between free trade in biotechnology and biosafety as to promote the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals. By adopting an innovative interpretation of the precautionary principle and proportionality analysis, the work offers normative suggestions to develop what the author terms “a constructive bridge of knowledge” between decision-makers, scientists, social experts and expert witnesses, which can support a judicial balance by design rather than by chance. Biotechnology is sometimes regarded as a panacea for modern-day challenges, such as feeding a growing world population and counteracting climate-change problems, and a means of offering significant economic opportunities. However, biotechnology can present uncertain, though serious, risks to human health and the environment (i.e., biosafety). Trading biotech products magnifies these risks and benefits globally. This book explores the topical, though still underexplored, question of how to find a point of equilibrium between the revolutionary advancement offered by technology and the need to safeguard biosafety from uncertain, though potentially irreversible, technology risks. It offers a thorough analysis of normative, judicial and epistemic issues hindering a reasoned balance between trade and non-trade interests under the WTO. The work offers practical relevance for the resolution of legal disputes in contexts of uncertainty, as well as innovative theoretical contributions. It will be a valuable resource for policymakers working on precautionary governance and management, scholars in the areas of trade law, human rights law and environmental law, law students and practitioners, as well as NGOs working in the field of new technologies, biosafety, sustainability and food safety.
Biosafety Measures, Technology Risks and the World Trade Organization: Thriving and Surviving in the Age of Biotech
by Alessandra GuidaThis book examines the work of the World Trade Organization (WTO), with a focus on the capacity of its judiciary to strike a reasoned balance between free trade in biotechnology and biosafety as to promote the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals. By adopting an innovative interpretation of the precautionary principle and proportionality analysis, the work offers normative suggestions to develop what the author terms “a constructive bridge of knowledge” between decision-makers, scientists, social experts and expert witnesses, which can support a judicial balance by design rather than by chance. Biotechnology is sometimes regarded as a panacea for modern-day challenges, such as feeding a growing world population and counteracting climate-change problems, and a means of offering significant economic opportunities. However, biotechnology can present uncertain, though serious, risks to human health and the environment (i.e., biosafety). Trading biotech products magnifies these risks and benefits globally. This book explores the topical, though still underexplored, question of how to find a point of equilibrium between the revolutionary advancement offered by technology and the need to safeguard biosafety from uncertain, though potentially irreversible, technology risks. It offers a thorough analysis of normative, judicial and epistemic issues hindering a reasoned balance between trade and non-trade interests under the WTO. The work offers practical relevance for the resolution of legal disputes in contexts of uncertainty, as well as innovative theoretical contributions. It will be a valuable resource for policymakers working on precautionary governance and management, scholars in the areas of trade law, human rights law and environmental law, law students and practitioners, as well as NGOs working in the field of new technologies, biosafety, sustainability and food safety.
Biosecurity, Economic Collapse, the State to Come: Political Power in the Pandemic and Beyond
by Christos BoukalasThis book offers an in-depth critical account of the state’s responses to the biosecurity and the economic crises. It is thus the first study to address both crises ensuing from the pandemic, and to synthesise the responses to them in a comprehensive account of political power. What kind of state emerges from the pandemic? The pandemic caused two crises, in biosecurity and in the economy. The state was forced to tackle both; but subduing one inevitably exacerbated the other. Emerging from the impossible task of handling two conflicting crises is a new form of state, the state to come. Addressing biosecurity, the book deciphers its key modalities, epistemic premises, its law, the threat it aims to oppose, and the ways in which it relates to public health and society —especially its extraordinary power to suspend society. Addressing the economic crisis, the book deciphers the actuality and prospects of both the economy and the state’s economic policy. It claims that economic policy is now dual: it adopts countercyclical measures to serve and entrench a neoliberal economy. The responses to the twin crises inform the outline of the emerging state: its structure, logic, and legality; its power and its relation to society. This is a state of extraordinary power; but its only purpose is to preserve the social order intact. It is a despotic state: powerful, and set to impose social stasis. This book offers groundbreaking analysis based on our pandemic experience. It is indispensable for critical scholars and students in Politics, Security Studies, Sociology, Law, Political Economy and Public Health.