The Human Conditioning: International Law and Science-Fiction

Law, Culture and the Humanities (2013, Forthcoming)

66 Pages Posted: 23 Oct 2013

See all articles by Orna Ben-Naftali

Orna Ben-Naftali

T; The Emile Zola Chair for Human Rights

Zvi H. Triger

Striks Faculty of Law, College of Management

Date Written: September 22, 2013

Abstract

This article introduces the subject-matter of a symposium on international law and science fiction. The impact of new technologies on human rights, humanitarian issues and indeed on what it means to be human in a technological age, suffers from a paucity of international legal attention. The latter has been attributed to various factors ranging from technophobia and technological illiteracy, inclusive of an instrumentalist view of technology, to the sense that such attention is the domain of science-fiction, not of international law. The article extends an invitation to pay attention to the attention science-fiction has given to the man-machine interaction and its impact on the human condition. Placing this invitation in the context of the 'Law and Literature' movement, the article exemplifies its value with respect to two technologies, one directed at creating life or saving it (cloning and organ donation) and the other at ending life (lethal autonomous robots).

Keywords: Law and Literature, Law and Technology, Regulation of Reproductive Technologies, Cloning, Organ Donation, Lethal Autonomous Robots, Impact of Technology on War, Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

Suggested Citation

Ben-Naftali, Orna and Triger, Zvi H., The Human Conditioning: International Law and Science-Fiction (September 22, 2013). Law, Culture and the Humanities (2013, Forthcoming), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2343601

Orna Ben-Naftali (Contact Author)

T ( email )

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The Emile Zola Chair for Human Rights ( email )

7 Yitzhak Rabin Boulevard
PO Box 25072
Rishon L’Tzion, 75190
Israel

HOME PAGE: http://www.colman.ac.il/English/TeachingResearch/research_institutes/Zola_Human_Rights/Pages/default

Zvi H. Triger

Striks Faculty of Law, College of Management ( email )

7 Yitzhak Rabin Blvd.
P.O. Box 25072
Rishon LeZion, 75190
Israel
972-3-963-4138 (Phone)

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