Personhood, Law, and Relationality Amidst the New Biosciences I

Session Submission Type: Open Panel

Abstract

The 21st century is witnessing a profound transformation in law and society because of the implications of the new biosciences and biotechnologies. New technologies are emerging that radically challenge our conceptions of nature and law and that demand new tools in the humanities and social sciences to adequately respond and analyze these practices. This panel starts with the premise that these developments provide novel opportunities to thinking anew about the nature and structure of personhood and relationality. Bioscientific advances in the field of postgenomics, neuroscience, research on the microbiome, and immunology are encouraging thought provoking problems for the foundational cultural and legal principles of personality as well as their attendant notion of personal rights. Complex issues arise in the intersection of law, biology, and society, and the panel aims to explore these problems of what can be called emerging issues in “biolegality”—the coming together of biology and legality—and to revisit the concept of personhood in posthuman and relational ways.

Sub Unit

• Papers for Open Panels / Personhood, law and relationality amidst the new biosciences

Chair

• Marc De Leeuw, The Universityof New South Wales

Discussant

• Torsten H Voigt, RWTH Aachen University

Individual Presentations

• Kins, Chimeras, Controversies: The Challenges of Public Debate and Engagement over Interspecies Id/entities - Myra Cheng

• Where is the genomic person? biolegal platforms, boundaries, unmoored persons - Samuel Taylor-Alexander, Monash University

• Can Nonhuman Author? Challenges for Anthropocentric Copyright Laws - Shun-Ling Chen, Institutum Iurisprudentiae, Academia Sinica

• Midata.coop And The Transactional Legalities Of Precision Medicine - Declan Liam Kuch, UNSW; Georgia Miller, UNSW; Matthew Kearnes, Environmental Humanities Progarmme, School of Humanities and Languages, University of New South Wale

• 'The proof is in my chromosomes': Translating radiation exposure into legal liability and state culpability. - Catherine Trundle, Victoria University of Wellington

Session Organizer

• Sonja Van Wichelen, University of Sydney