Nanotechnology, the new frontier among the “emerging technologies”, will become in short time a fact of everyday life with which to confront our future: important innovations promised by manipulation at the nanoscale will affect each of the elements that compose the environment as a system of legal relationships (pollution and recovery, energy, agriculture, food, health, et alia). However, little is known about the properties of nanoparticles and, consequently, about the potential negative impacts from the use of devices that contain them. This state of scientific uncertainty inevitably influences the sphere of Law: legal operators have no point of reference about the provision of a legal regulation appropriate to the needs of nanotechnologies and to the development of a good system of risk management. This essay, on the basis of a preliminary investigation highlighting some of the pros and cons of nanotechnology perspective, aims to problematize some regulation proposals under discussion at EU level by comparing them with various examples of legal frameworks being applied in some European and non-European countries, and to offer some thoughts about the current lack of regulation for nanotechnology in Italy.
Minima curat praetor? La sfida di una disciplina giuridica delle nanotecnologie
MONTEDURO, MASSIMO
2014-01-01
Abstract
Nanotechnology, the new frontier among the “emerging technologies”, will become in short time a fact of everyday life with which to confront our future: important innovations promised by manipulation at the nanoscale will affect each of the elements that compose the environment as a system of legal relationships (pollution and recovery, energy, agriculture, food, health, et alia). However, little is known about the properties of nanoparticles and, consequently, about the potential negative impacts from the use of devices that contain them. This state of scientific uncertainty inevitably influences the sphere of Law: legal operators have no point of reference about the provision of a legal regulation appropriate to the needs of nanotechnologies and to the development of a good system of risk management. This essay, on the basis of a preliminary investigation highlighting some of the pros and cons of nanotechnology perspective, aims to problematize some regulation proposals under discussion at EU level by comparing them with various examples of legal frameworks being applied in some European and non-European countries, and to offer some thoughts about the current lack of regulation for nanotechnology in Italy.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
