Chapter 1. Some current aspects of the relations between science and law

Abstract

What we do not really realise is the extent to which science influences our elementary tendencies, the extent to which it rules our fundamental instincts, the vital habits of our species, the need for food, sleep, the need for movement, communication, appropriation, the reproductive instinct. Our whole behaviour is conditioned by science, to the most personal, the humblest level of our existence. Yet, we are sociable animals. We live in organised, structured groups, in communities that meet certain standards which are rules of social behaviour, which in the final analysis define rights and obligations. These standards that constitute Law are the components of our legal civilisation. They apply to everyone: what then will be the attitude of the law when faced with the conquests of contemporary times which so profoundly upset the most stable, best acquired, most traditional facts of human relations? When confronted with scientific progress, what will be the attitude of the legislator, the jurist, the one who interprets the law and who applies it? Will the legislator, the jurist, manifest deliberate hostility? Will they show themselves to be indifferent, passive? On the contrary will they show understandable sympathy for active interventionism?