Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Houston Law Review
Publication Date
2010
ISSN
0018-6694
Page Number
665
Keywords
technological innovations, technology and state, precautionary principle, unintended consequences
Disciplines
Law | Law and Economics | Science and Technology Law
Abstract
In this Essay, I explain why and how certain technologies I refer to as "inchoate" defeat regulatory interventions. I examine the "law" of unintended consequences and the role of regulatory ideologies. I suggest that traditional policymaking models, when applied to inchoate technologies, do not adequately reflect the risk of regulatory failure, which is proportional to the level of inchoateness of the technology. I also consider whether the regulation of inchoate technologies should take into account that, and may in fact be undesirable because, some technologies (or the use thereof) tend to self-regulate. Finally, I suggest lessons that can be drawn from this analysis and present the basic structure of an approach to the regulation of inchoate technologies.
Recommended Citation
Daniel J. Gervais,
The Regulation of Inchoate Technologies, 47 Houston Law Review. 665
(2010)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/837