Technoscience, Law and Society: Interrogating the Nexus

科学技术对社会越来越重要。与此同时，有争议的研究(如围绕干细胞和气候变化科学)出现在激烈的公共和政策辩论中。许多人对应该进行什么类型的研究，以及它可以接受的限度有强烈的感受。通常，法律被视为控制或塑造科学的一种方式。然而，其他人认为监管是刺激创新的一种手段。无论如何，科学技术的进步与法律和法律程序密切相关，因此它们在社会中的角色正在发生变化。这项建议是为了创建一个新的“法律和科学学者”网络。它建立在我们2011年在肯特法学院举办的一次早期活动的基础上，那次活动得到了《社会与法律研究》杂志的资助。讲习班探讨了将对法律和科学都有共同兴趣的不同传统的研究人员聚集在一起的可行性，并取得了极大的成功。随后，我们的许多与会者敦促我们设法维持和进一步发展我们促成的对话和辩论。因此，我们建议的网络将把艺术和人文领域(特别是不同的法律领域)中来自不同传统的人聚集在一起，他们已经在法律和科学的特定方面工作，以激发对这些问题的新思维方式，并推动新种类的研究。该网络的中心目标是建立一个独特的平台，从中探索科学、技术和法律程序之间的关系。虽然已经有一些人在这个广泛的领域工作，但他们之间的互动长期以来过于有限。主要的问题是，所有这些不同的人相互交流和学习的机会很少。大多数活动迎合特定的传统(如关键的法律研究)，或集中于科学和技术中的特定法律或监管问题(如基因改造)。这意味着，跨越研究领域和学科的问题相对探索不足--这些可能是需要解决的一些关键问题。让我们的建议与众不同和有价值的是，我们刻意寻求将对法律和科学的不同问题感兴趣的各种不同类型的学者聚集在一起，以便在这一重要领域打造新的研究形式。因此，我们的网络将专注于科学技术如何影响法律和法律程序，以及这对社会有什么更广泛的影响。为此，我们将解决一系列交叉问题，包括关于法律的想法如何影响科学创新，以及这反过来如何为监管发展创造新的可能性。此外，我们将研究治理和监管如何与更广泛的公众关切相关--法律如何应对和管理这些关切。最后，我们将探索法律和科学学者需要开发哪些新的方法和概念，以理解技术科学、法律和社会之间的联系(或交汇点)。该网络将通过五个活动进行，从一个创新的艺术活动开始，以一个大型国际会议为结束。我们小组的工作不仅会引起艺术和人文领域的研究人员的兴趣；相反，它还将为科学家以及科学机构和政策制定者带来相当大的好处。该网络的活动和成果也将引起更广泛的公众的兴趣，我们将积极寻求通过一次商议的公众参与活动来促进这一点，该活动将探讨感兴趣的非学者对监管有争议的科学领域的见解和态度。总而言之，这个网络将开辟新的天地，在其资金结束后很长一段时间内具有广泛的学术和社会意义。

Science and technology are increasingly important to society. At the same time, controversial research (such as around stem cells and climate change science) feature in fierce public and policy debates. Many people have strong feelings over what kinds of research should be undertaken, and what its acceptable limits are. Often, the law is looked to as a way to control or shape science. However, others see regulation as a means of stimulating innovation. Regardless, advances in science and technology are closely related to the law and legal processes, and the role of these in society is changing as a result.This proposal is to create a new network of 'law and science scholars'. It builds on an earlier event that we held in Kent Law School in 2011, which was funded by the journal Social and Legal Studies. The workshop explored the feasibility of bringing together researchers from different traditions who all share an interest in law and science, and was extremely successful. Subsequently, many of our participants urged us to look for ways of sustaining and further developing the dialogue and debates that we fostered. Thus, our proposed network will bring together people from different traditions in the arts and humanities (especially distinct areas of law) who are already working on particular aspects of law and science, in order to stimulate new ways of thinking about these issues and to push forward novel kinds research. The central aim of the network is to create a unique platform from which to explore the relationships between science, technologies, and legal processes.Whilst there are already some people working in this broad area, interaction between them has long been too limited. The primary problem is that opportunities for all these different people to interact with - and learn from - one another are rare. Most events cater for particular traditions (e.g. critical legal studies), or are focussed on a particular legal or regulatory problem in science and technology (such as genetic modification). This means that questions that cut across research areas and disciplines are relatively under-explored - and these may be some of the key matters that need to be addressed. What makes our proposal different and valuable is that we deliberately seek to bring together a whole range of different kinds of scholars with interests in diverse issues around law and science, in order to forge new forms of research in this important area.Our network will therefore focus on how science and technology have affected law and legal processes, and what the broader implications of this are for society. To this end, we will address a range of cross-cutting questions, including how ideas about law influence scientific innovation, and how this in turn creates new possibilities for developments in regulation. Furthermore, we will examine how governance and regulation is related to wider public concerns - both how law reacts to and manages these. Finally, we will explore what new methods and concepts law and science scholars need to develop in order to make sense of the nexus (or meeting points) between technoscience, law and society.The network will proceed over five events, beginning with an innovative arts event and culminating with a major international conference. The work of our group will not just be of interest to researchers in the arts and humanities; rather, it will also afford considerable benefit to scientists, as well as scientific institutions and policymakers. The activities and outcomes of the network will also be of interest to a range of wider publics - and we will actively seek to foster this through a deliberative public engagement event that will explore the insights and attitudes of interested non-academics in relation to the regulation of controversial areas of science.In sum, this network will break new ground, and be of wide academic and social relevance long after the funding for it has come to an end.