Biolaw Today. A Comment on 'Principles of international biolaw' by Roberto Andorno

Literature Review from the year 2013 in the subject Law - Miscellaneous, , language: English, abstract: In recent years, biolaw has received a lot of attention on the international as well as on the regional level and has arrived in both legal practice and academia - and its practical importance is growing. The practical importance of biolaw is widespread as the discipline not only relates to cutting edge biotechnology but also to fundamental questions with regard to human nature and identity as well as issues which ought to be of interest to everybody, such as universal access to health care. While biolaw often touches related disciplines such as human rights, bioethics, medical and healthcare law, malpractice law, criminal law and welfare law, to name just a few, it also often has to deal with highly controversial issues such as the legality of abortion, stem cell research, euthanasia and the like. Currently, many have little or no access to even the most basic health care services while on the other hand patients in developed countries can benefit from medical procedures which just a few years ago belong to the realm of science-fiction.

Docent Dr. Stefan Kirchner, Assessor jur., MJI is Associate Professor for Arctic Law at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland, and Adjunct Professor of Fundamental and Human Rights at the same university. His work focuses on the crossroads of human rights, the environment, shared areas, in particular the oceans and outer space, and international business and trade. Prior to joining the Arctic Governance Research Group at the Arctic Centre he taught public law, international law and civil rights as Visiting Professor for Transitional Justice at the University of Turin (Italy), University Lecturer and Associate Professor for Fundamental and Human Rights, with a Special Focus on Indigenous Rights, at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi (Finland), Assistant Professor for International Law and Associate Professor for the Law of the Sea at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas (Lithuania), scientific employee in the Department of Public Law of the Faculty of Law of Georg-August-University in Göttingen (Germany), and Visiting Lecturer at the Institute of International Relations at Tars Shevchenko National University in Kyiv (Ukraine) and at the Faculty of Law Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen (Germany). Formerly a practising lawyer (Rechtsanwalt) in Germany for over a decade, he has worked on international trade law, corporate law, the law of the sea and human rights law, including cases at the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht), the German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof), the German Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) and the European Court of Human Rights. In addition, he served as legal agent for Germany's Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, working on international shipping law, oil pollution and seafarer training issues. Dr. Kirchner is active in a number of professional organizations and is a regular reviewer for a number of academic publishing houses and academic journals, a member of editorial boards for several international academic journals and has written over one hundred academic articles and book chapters. He has been an evaluator of research projects for the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters. Prior to his legal career he worked as a freelance journalist in Germany, as an emergency medical technician (Rettungssanitäter) for the German Red Cross and as a factory worker for a company producing transformers.