Nanotechnology Oversight and Regulation--Just Do It

December 2006

Citation:

ELR 10913

Issue

Author

Jennifer Kuzma

Editors' Summary: The emergence of nanotechnology in the early part of this century has presented a host of regulatory challenges. Effective governance is complicated by the range of materials and methods implicated in nanotechnology itself, as well as a lack of political will to devise regulatory strategies for this new technology. In this Article, Prof. Jennifer Kuzma explains the particular complications of nanotechnology regulation and suggests that creating new laws and institutions might not be the best solution to nanotechnology regulatory reform. Rather, she argues, nanotechnology regulation must be prioritized, and may be accomplished using legal structures that are already in place.

Jennifer Kuzma is an Assistant Professor and Interim Director at the Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. For correspondence, she can be reached at kuzma007@ umn.edu. The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy and Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota for her research time on this Article. In addition, the author would like to thank her colleagues, Profs. Sally Kenney and Elizabeth Wilson at the Humphrey Institute, and David S. Anderson of McGrann Shea Anderson Carnival Straughn & Lamb, Chartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for discussions that greatly benefitted the Article.

Nanotechnology Oversight and Regulation--Just Do It

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Nanotechnology Oversight and Regulation--Just Do It