Law and Ethics of Innovation: Rethinking Progress in Crises

Societies need innovation to meet current challenges such as climate change and digitalization. At the same time, new technological developments are also causing concern, and skepticism toward science appears to be on the rise. In the fields of technology ethics and law, the principle of innovation, which focuses on progress, conflicts with the principle of precaution, which emphasizes risk avoidance. Recently, the principle of innovation has been given greater weight in EU law, but on closer inspection, the concept of the principle of innovation remains unclear and stands on shaky ground. Our research project assumes that the principle of innovation cannot be understood from a purely legal perspective since it refers both to philosophical (ethical and scientific-theoretical) foundations and to necessary debates in society about progress, its promises, and its risks. In this project, we therefore aim to examine the innovation principle as an emerging principle of (EU) law from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining perspectives and methods from legal studies and philosophy. The questions we would like to clarify or answer are: What is the legal basis of the innovation principle, especially in the EU, and how does innovation relate to fundamental rights and other principles, such as the precautionary principle? What are the potentials and limits of the innovation principle? To what extent could the innovation principle support societal transformations with regard to climate change and digitalization? In view of specific technologies, how could an appropriate relationship look like between the innovation principle and, in particular, the precautionary principle? This is a joint project by the University of Graz (Univ.-Prof. Maria Bertel, Department of Public Law and Political Science) and the University of Innsbruck (Univ.-Prof. Marie-Luisa Frick, Department of Philosophy).