Mission

2. THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN LAW AND THE OTHER BRANCHES OF KNOWLEDGE

Since technologies exploit the advancements of sciences, in order to study in depth the relationship between law and technologies it is unavoidable to establish a dialogue between law and the other branches of knowledge (biology, medicine, neurosciences, computer science, engineering, economics, philosophy, sociology, history).

Consequences:

a)     it is important to build up a common frame of references or, at least, to be aware of the specificities of the jargon or lexicon of the other sciences;

b)    it is impossible to study the relationship between law and technology if we do not grasp the logic and functioning mechanisms which lay behind the technology we are examining;

c)     it is crucial to imagine tools for the representation of knowledge designed in a way which enables experts of a given science to understand in a easy and quick way the outcomes of other sciences and vice versa;

d)    the teaching techniques of each discipline should encompass the mission to foster mindsets enabling students to master different and transversal branches of knowledge.

In this sense it is interesting the opinion expressed by the United District Court for the Southern District of New York, Association for Molecular Pathology et. Al. v. United States Patent and Trademark Office, et. Al., 09 Civ. 4515, march 29, 2010. The judge writes first as a biologist, then as an economist and eventually as a lawyer.