Governing Nanotechnologies in Europe: Human Rights, Soft Law, and Corporate Social Responsibility

摘要

Starting from the case of nanotechnology, the paper intends to shape a possible rights-oriented model for governance of emerging technologies. The model for governance that has been emerging in Europe is characterized by the interplay of hard legislation and soft law,involving public and private actors. In this framework, human rights, to the extent they are expressed by legal norms, can represent a drawbridge between hard and soft rules and realize, also thanks to the CSR paradigm, a significant convergence between the protection of individual and corporate interests.