Chapitre 9. International Law and Life sciences: A New Battlefield of Power or a New Temple for Justice and Peace?

Abstract

The Power resulting from the development of the new biomedical technologies, which is mainly in the hands of the physicians and the scientists, but also the Power deriving from the industrial applications of biotechnology, should be considered globally for their social impact on Law.
In particular, we should examine the capacity of the Law both to organise the social diversity, acknowledging in some way the subordination of rules to fundamental principles, and to serve as a common system of references such as the Roman law or the Civil Law did. In doing so, we will have a special interest for the contribution of the legal system in being a counterweight to existing power and for promoting individual and common justice.