Difference between revisions of "Team:UNSW Australia/Human Practices/Law"

Overview

The legal frameworks surrounding synthetic biology are critically important because they determine what type of research can be undertaken, by selecting for research that is both legally allowable and has potential commercial implications. However, scientists often fail to most effectively lobby for frameworks that support what their research actually needs, instead acquiescing to government policy that bows to vested commercial interests.

As a result UNSW iGEM 2018 has created a scientist’s guide to writing a policy proposal for government change, and written an example submission. We have also documented our discussions with various stakeholders in the process, such as normal scientists and the government departments who receive the submissions. UNSW iGEM 2018 also collaborated with other student organisations, including the UNSW Law Society.

UNSW iGEM 2018 discovered, as part of our foray into commercialisation, that patent law for pieces of genetic information is hard to comprehend from the scientific perspective. This is particularly important for scientists, as without patents, it can make commercialisation of their discoveries hard, and thus dis-incentivise funding of their research. It is further complicated by the international nature of research meeting individual countries’ patent law regimes.

Relevance

The legal sphere may seem divorced from the practice of science in the laboratory, but in reality, they are closely intertwined, with three key points of intersection.