Biolaw: Law At The Frontiers Of Biology

The Kansas Law Review 2007 Symposium - Biolaw: Law at the Frontiers of Biology

The past several years have presented a bewildering array of legal issues raising more questions than answers. Should the Food and Drug Administration approve cloned meat for consumption? Are humans patentable? Is it legal for patients to have access to developmental drugs? Should the law allow parents to halt their daughter’s growth using modern scientific techniques? What is the legal status of partial-birth abortion? Are stem cell research and genetic human enhancement legal? How can the current devastating loss of biodiversity be reversed?

The recent explosion of the life sciences and biotechnology has challenged traditional laws, and public opinion concerning proper solutions is far from uniform. Part of the challenge is to approach these unparalleled issues head-on in spite of varying beliefs and tough scientific inquiry. Law, science, and policy, however, should also anticipate future challenges as research and development continue to flourish.

The Kansas Law Review’s 2007 Symposium, Biolaw: Law at the Frontiers of Biology, features world-renowned experts in biolaw, who will address the above questions by exploring such issues as the scope of the field of biolaw, patentability of human life, FDA regulation, laws concerning genetic and non-genetic human enhancement, practical biolaw issues, and biotechnology and bioethics.

The event will begin at 9:00 AM with an introduction and welcome followed by panel presentations. Speakers will present their findings and then open the floor for questions and discussion. The Kansas Law Review will publish the speakers’ papers. Each paper will identify and analyze issues critical to practitioners, policymakers, and the public as a whole.

Schedule of Symposium Speakers
9:00 to 10:00 AM – Biolaw: Cracking the Code (describing the emerging field of biolaw)
Jim Chen, J.D., M.A., Dean, University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law

· Founder and administrator of the Jurisdynamics Network, which includes the popular blog entitled Biolaw: Law and the Life Sciences (with Professor Andrew W. Torrance);

· Faculty, University of Minnesota Law School, 1993 to 2007;

· Coauthor of Disasters and the Law: Katrina and Beyond (Aspen Publishers, 2006);

· Dean Chen has lectured in fourteen countries, on four continents, and in three languages. He held a chaire départementale in the Faculté de Droit et des Sciences Politiques of the Université de Nantes; He became the first American law professor appointed at Heinrich-Heine Universität in Düsseldorf

10:00-11:00 AM – Patents & the Future of Human Evolution
Andrew W. Torrance, J.D., Ph.D., Professor, University of Kansas School of Law

· Lecturer at Harvard University from 1999–2005;

· Visiting Professor at Harvard University in 2003;

· Chairs the Scientific and Creative Board of the Darwin Project, a major biodiversity institution planned for downtown Boston;

· Practiced law at the firm of Fish & Richardson LLC; In-house Counsel at Inverness Medical Innovations, a leading multinational medical diagnostics company

11:00-12:00 PM – State of the Art in Food & Drug Law
Peter Barton Hutt, LL.B., LL.M., Professor, Harvard Law School; Senior Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP

· Chief Counsel for the Food and Drug Administration from 1971 to 1975;

· Coauthor of the leading food and drug law text book Food and Drug Law: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press, 1st edition 1980, 2d edition 1991, 3d edition 2007);

· Recipient of numerous prestigious awards and recognition, including the title of the “unofficial dean of Washington food and drug lawyers”;

· Served as a member and participant of many committees, including but not limited to, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, IOM Executive Committee and other NAS and IOM committees, the FDA Science Board Working Group, various groups at the National Institute of Health, and Panels for White House Conferences; Twice been a councilor of the Society for Risk Analysis and presently Legal Counsel to the Society as well as the American College of Toxicology

12:00-2:00 PM – Lunchtime Address: Against All Odds: The Creation of the United States Virgin Islands Territorial Park System
Senator Adlah Donastorg, Four-Term Senator of the United States Virgin Islands


2:00-3:00 – Law & Human Biological Enhancement
Henry T. Greely, J.D., Professor, Stanford Law School; Courtesy appointment with Stanford University Department of Genetics

· Directs both the law school’s Center for Law and the Biosciences and the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics’ Program on Stem Cells in Society, and serves on the leadership council for the university’s interdisciplinary Bio-X Program;

· Specializes in the legal implications of biomedical technologies;

· Frequently serves as an advisor for California, national, and international bioscience policy issues;

· Made partner at the firm of Tuttle & Taylor, and served as staff assistant to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy

3:00-4:00 – Cutting Edge Legal Issues in Biotechnology
Rudolf H. Beese [Panel Moderator], Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, a symposium sponsor along with the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation ("KTEC"), has generously organized a panel of attorneys with deep expertise in biolaw. Moderated by Rudolf H. Beese, a leading attorney in the areas of life sciences and climate change, this expert panel will offer their valuable insights on how best to meet the challenges of the many complex and complicated legal issues arising from advances in biological sciences and biotechnology.

4:00-5:00 PM – Maybe Medicines: Dealing with the "Uncontroversial" Right to Cutting-Edge Unproven Treatments (discussing unproven technologies overlooked by the court in the Abigail Alliance case, which rejected a constitutional right to unproven treatment)
Jerry Menikoff, J.D., M.P.P., M.D., Director, Office of Human Subjects Research, National Institute of Health; Director, Institute for Bioethics, Law and Public Policy at the University of Kansas School of Medicine

· Professor, University of Kansas School of Medicine and School of Law;

· Authored several books, including the leading textbook of legal bioethics, entitled Law and Bioethics: An Introduction (Georgetown University Press 2001);

· Served as chairperson of the Institutional Review Board at KU

Reception
Following the symposium, the Kansas Law Review invites everyone to attend a reception, in honor of our speakers, in the commons at Green Hall. Jonathan Chester, one of the world’s preeminent polar photographers and explorers, will present some of his breathtaking photography, a presentation you will not want to miss! Refreshments and snacks will be provided.

Publication
Topics presented at this symposium will be published in the Kansas Law Review, Volume 56, Issue 4, April 2008.

For more information about the articles or to order a copy of the April 2008 edition of the Kansas Law Review, please contact Jonathan Grossman, Law Review Symposium Editor, at (785) 864-3463 or grossman.jon@gmail.com .

Reservations
No reservations are necessary to attend the symposium. There is no fee for attending the symposium or the reception.

CLE Credit
This conference will provide 6.5 hours of continuing legal education (CLE) credit in Kansas and 7.2 hours in Missouri. Persons wishing to receive CLE credit can register at the door and obtain materials.

To confirm CLE credit approval prior to the symposium date, please contact Todd Rogers at (785) 864-9257 or by e-mail at tarogers@ku.edu.