Mission Statement

The Center for Law, Science & Innovation is the first and largest academic center focused on the intersection of law and science. The Center bridges law and science by fostering the development of legal frameworks for new technologies and advancing the informed use of science in legal decision making. The Center facilitates transdisciplinary study and dialogue among policy-makers, academics, students, professionals and industry. It is committed to principles of balance, innovation, competitiveness and sustainability. 

History

The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law first addressed the special legal problems arising from rapid developments in science and technology in a programmatic fashion in 1981 with the founding of the Arizona Law and Technology Institute (ALTI), which primarily provided continuing legal education programs for lawyers involved in computer law and related fields. 

The Center for the Study of Law, Science, & Technology was approved by the Board of Regents in 1984 to embrace a considerably broader subject matter and scope than ALTI and to focus primarily on research. That focus has since expanded to accommodate a commitment to students enrolled at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and active involvement in policy debates within the region and across the nation. The Center was a logical initiative for a law school with an unusually large number of faculty members who not only recognized the critical importance of law's relationship to advances in science and technology, but who themselves had graduate training and ongoing research interests in scientific and technical fields.
 

Into the future

On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, in January 2010, the Center was renamed to reflect its expanded role in national public policy debates. The new Center for Law, Science & Innovation is a national conduit for innovative discussion and policy dialogue in the areas of public health law and policy, law and sustainability, emerging technologies, personalized medicine, healthcare entrepreneurship, post-conviction DNA issues and other developments in law, policy, ethics, science, technology and culture. The Center also is home to The Prevail Project: Wise Governance for Challenging Futures, a new global think tank created to collect the early warning signs that a future where technologies change not just environments, but people, their minds, metabolisms and children, is on the horizon.

The Center contributes to the legal system's response to the pervasive challenges posed by new scientific discoveries and their technological applications. It aims to improve the quality of law and public policy affecting science and technology, and supports work in the scientific study and understanding of law, legal institutions and legal process. The Center encourages interdisciplinary research; promotes development and review of the curriculum at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law; and provides service and support for law students, attorneys and others. The Center embraces a broad vision of the relations between law, science and technology. The legal system must deal with a wide range of important, and shifting, science-based policy problems. The flexibility to identify and explore those most pressing, or otherwise appropriate for study, is greatly reduced where the focus is narrower (e.g., exclusively upon intellectual property law, environmental law, computer law, health law, etc.). The Center strongly supports the virtues of its broad jurisdiction.

As a direct result of the Center's creation and of the College's strength in and commitment to this field of inquiry, the American Bar Association Section of Science and Technology selected the College from among several highly competitive applicants to co-edit its quarterly publication, Jurimetrics: The Journal of Law, Science, and Technology. First published in 1959, Jurimetrics , a refereed journal, is the oldest and, with a circulation of nearly 12,300, the most widely read and prestigious periodical specializing in law and science.


Administration

The Center staff includes its  Faculty Director, Professor Gary Marchant, who focuses primarily on policy and planning issues, and its ExecutiveDirector, Josh Abbott, will manage the Center's operations. Debbie Relph is the Center's Program Coordinator.

From 1984 to 1990, the Center directorship alternated among two law faculty members and one full-time administrator. In July 1990, Daniel S. Strouse joined the College of Law as Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Center. Strouse served as director for 11 years (excluding his sabbatical year of 1998-99, during which Regents' Professor David H. Kaye, the Center's founding Director, served as acting Director) until July 2001, when Center management was restructured.

The management of Jurimetrics, in addition to its student editors, includes its Editor, a position that rotates among the Center Faculty Fellows, and its Managing Editor, Deborah Pogson. 
 

Learn about the superb faculty participants

To contact the Center, call (480) 965-5386.