Can the Law Track Scientific Risk and Technological Innovation? : The Problem of Regulatory Definitions and Nanotechnology

The functioning of a regulatory regime often turns on what is defined to be included in the scope of regulation and what is defined to be outside. In constructing the definitions of what is regulated, two key challenges are to align the definitions with the risks that motivated the establishment of the regulatory regime and to build in dynamism into the definitions so that they adapt to changes in scientific understanding and technology. This Chapter of a forthcoming book from Cambridge University Press (David Dana, ed., The Nanotechnology Challenge), explores these challenges in the context of nanotechnology