BioLaw Journal - Rivista di BioDiritto (e-ISSN 2284-4503) is a peer-reviewed, online law journal focusing on the relationships between law and life sciences in a comparative perspective. According to its interdisciplinary nature, the Journal hosts contributions in the fields of law, life sciences, bioethics and artificial intelligence.
Civil Liability and Climate Adaptation: Criteria of Subjective Attribution in the Light of the Best Available Science
This article examines the role of tort law in addressing climate-related risks, with particular emphasis on the use of best available science as a benchmark for assessing due care and liability. Building on the distinction between mitigation and adaptation, it argues that civil liability primarily functions as an adaptive legal tool, shaping foreseeability and risk allocation. By analysing subjective and objective attribution criteria and recent European legislative developments, the article advances a model of tort liability capable of responding to the complexity and scientific uncertainty inherent in climate change-related harm.
Copyright (c) 2026 Alberto Jaci https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Climate Justice and Multinational Corporations: Challenges and the Role of Technical and Scientific Evidence in Transnational Civil Litigation
This article examines the role of scientific evidence in climate litigation brought against multinational corporations operating through global value chains. Building on the international scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic climate change, the paper explores how civil courts rely on climate science and attribution science to address causation between corporate conduct and climate-related harm. By analysing Milieudefensie v. Shell and Lliuya v. RWE, the contribution highlights both the potential and the limits of science-based adjudication.
Copyright (c) 2026 Clara Pastorino https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Controversial Relationship Between Scientific Expertise and Political Discretion in Times of Climate Crisis: Who Decides on Global Warming Policies?
This paper analyzes the relationship between political assessments by authorities responsible for climate governance and the constraints arising from scientific expertise and technical data available to public decision-makers, also in light of the way this relationship is addressed in case law. Taking as its starting point the freedom of political authorities to interpret and implement climate stabilization commitments stemming from climate change law, the stated intent here is to outline some lines of reflection on the limits of admissibility of scientific debate in public decision-making processes on climate change.
Copyright (c) 2026 Antonietta Lupo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Impact of Scientific and Technical Evidence on the Case Law of National Courts Concerning the Energy Transition
The energy transition represents an epochal imperative of contemporary times, central to the fight against climate change and balancing economic development with environmental protection, and constitutes a legal duty arising from the international commitments undertaken by States. A comparative analysis of European experiences highlights the complexity of the regulatory solutions and the jurisprudence’s role in ensuring energy policies comply with constitutional principles. Scientific knowledge serves as a standard of legitimacy for judicial action, as exemplified by Urgenda Foundation v. Netherlands and Neubauer v. Germany, where the courts recognized the binding force of climate obligations in light of scientific evidence.
Copyright (c) 2026 Diletta Sagliocco https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
“In Science We Trust”: Evidence-Based Judicial Innovation in Climate-Related Litigation
This article investigates the epistemic role of science in shaping judicial reasoning on states’ environmental and climate obligations. It argues that scientific knowledge functions not merely as auxiliary evidence but as an epistemic infrastructure through which courts construct, interpret and enforce climate-related duties. By examining jurisprudence from the Inter-American and European human rights systems, alongside landmark national and international precedents, the study argues that courts progressively embed scientific consensus into legal argumentation. This process enables them to translate empirical findings – particularly those consolidated by the IPCC – into normative benchmarks for assessing state responsibility in environmental and climate matters.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ludovica D’Apote https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Climate Governance: Science, Responsibility and Public Decision-Making
The article examines the relationship between climate justice, environmental democracy and law, highlighting the role of science as a foundation of public decision-making. Climate change is considered a systemic challenge affecting the structure of the rule of law and the legitimacy of public policies. By analyzing international climate soft law, the European legal framework, and Italian constitutional system, the paper illustrates the emergence of a science-based climate governance model grounded in institutional responsibility, epistemic transparency, and intergenerational justice, with an increasing role played by climate ligation and judicial dialogue.
Copyright (c) 2026 Monica Salvatore https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Climate Change and the Crisis of Representative Democracy: Is the Future in the Hands of Civil Society?
Traditional democratic structures are failing to adopt climate policies, despite the actions of some environmentalist parties. In this context, civil society is organising itself to define priority needs and demand action from the authorities. This article analyses the tools and methodologies adopted by civil society actors to influence the definition of public policies for adaptation to climate change, while also analysing the legal aspects of the most significant case studies. The aim is to contribute to the understanding of participatory dynamics in climate monitoring, highlighting how civic activism is now essential for guiding public action towards more ambitious climate goals.
Copyright (c) 2026 Sara Todeschini https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Climate and Environmental Governance: The National Nature Restoration Plan as a Participatory Decision-Making Instrument
This research examines the National Nature Restoration Plan (NRP), introduced by Regulation (EU) 2024/1991, as an innovative tool for environmental and climate governance. The Plan marks a significant shift in European policies, defining a binding framework for ecosystem restoration based on measurable objectives and a pre-established timeline. The analysis goes beyond the regulatory aspect, considering the NRP as a testing ground for new decision-making models based on scientific knowledge, interinstitutional coordination, and social participation. The paper delves into the legal framework, administrative challenges, and the potential for multilevel integration, with a focus on transparency, democratic legitimacy, and policy effectiveness.
Copyright (c) 2026 Luigi Servadei https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Participation Models and Climate Governance: Perspectives for Reforming Political Representation
The paper, through a comparative analysis of participation models in climate governance adopted in Ireland, France, and Italy, aims to identify the most effective ways to make public participation effective, rather than merely consultative. In a context characterized by a crisis in political representation and citizens’ distrust of institutions, civil society participation emerges as a key element as a mechanism for democratic rebalancing and a key instrument for the effectiveness of climate policies.
Copyright (c) 2026 Alessandra Vanacore https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Climate Advisory Bodies and the Law-Science Interface: Evidence from the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Germany
The use of technical and scientific data is central to climate law, shaping policy objectives and strategies at national and international levels and reflecting the broader debate on the relationship between law and science. A science-based approach permeates European and supranational climate law, including the European Climate Law, national framework legislation, EU treaties incorporating the precautionary principle, and climate litigation. This paper explores how Climate Advisory Bodies can enhance dialogue between law and the hard sciences. Acting as independent “knowledge brokers”, these bodies monitor climate data and advise policymakers. Focusing on the UK’s Committee on Climate Change, and comparing it with Irish and German counterparts, the study highlights evolving institutional dynamics between advisory bodies and governments.
Copyright (c) 2026 Giulia Fontanella https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Technical Bodies Established through Climate Framework Laws in EU Member States: The Criteria for a Credible Climate Governance
Following the pioneering approach of the UK Climate Change Act, the framework laws on climate change adopted by EU Member States include the best available science into the climate policy-making process through the establishment of specific technical bodies. This paper analyses, from a comparative view, whether and how these technical bodies satisfy the requirements of independence and exercise advisory and monitoring functions on programmes to reduce GHG emissions as well as on their adequacy for reaching national climate objectives. The outcome of the research will be used to identify which emerging solutions in European Comparative Law are most consistent with a credible climate governance.
Copyright (c) 2026 Lorenzo Maspero https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Between Scientific Indicators and Regulatory Choices: Science and Law in the Nature Restoration Regulation for Agroecosystems
This contribution examines the relationship between science and law in the European Union’s agri-food and environmental policies through the case of Regulation (EU) 2024/1991 on nature restoration. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of the Regulation’s documents and annexes, it reconstructs how scientific evidence is selected and translated into legally binding targets and indicators, highlighting epistemic tensions and simplifications. The assessment of the consultation process and subsequent negotiations reveals existing conflicts between epistemic and democratic legitimacy. The article ultimately interprets the Regulation as a device of institutional co-production between science and law, with implications for the implementation of national restoration plans.
Copyright (c) 2026 Eleonora Ciscato, Eleonora Dallagiacoma https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Private Powers and Climate Governance: Transition Plans in France and Italy within the Framework of Sustainable Due Diligence
The article analyses EU Directives 2022/2464 (CSRD) and 2024/1760 (CS3D) with regard to the climate-planning obligations imposed on large companies. These obligations reflect the emergence of businesses as private powers horizontally involved in climate governance, through science-based transition plans. The contribution explores the legal nature of these plans, their role as instruments for the co-design of climate policies, and the different enforcement models, by comparing the French system shaped by the Loi de Vigilance with the Italian one, which lacks comparable legislation, while also taking into account – in a forward-looking perspective – the potential impact of the proposed Omnibus Directive.
Copyright (c) 2026 Chiara Padrin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Reasonableness and Best Available Science in the Constitutional Protection of the Environment
Starting from the emergence, in various legal orders, of clauses referring to the ‘best available science’ – or analogous concepts – as standards that should orient decisions concerning regulation, the author reflects on their conceptualization within constitutional law. The essay aims to show how interpretations that effectively turn such clauses into norms serving as parameters of legitimacy may prove problematic, even independently of the risk of violating Hume’s law. The most problematic element lies in the morphology of constitutional law as a system of principles, in the axiological pluralism it embodies, in its consequent openness to hermeneutic outcomes that are not rigidly predetermined, and in the reasonableness that permeates it.
Copyright (c) 2026 Angelo Raffaele Salerno https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Addressing Climate Change: Method, Rationales, and Procedures for Developing Science-Based Policies
Summary: 1. Introduction – 2. Mechanisms Underlying the Selection of Scientific Knowledge Required to Adopt Policies to Combat Climate Change – 3. Role and Functioning of Scientific Advisory Systems Serving Legislators and Government Bodies – 4. Civil Society Participation in Public Decision-Making Processes – 5. Power Relations in Managing the Climate Crisis – 6. Conclusions
Copyright (c) 2026 Mariachiara Tallacchini, Carmine Petteruti, Giada Ragone https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Does ChatGPT Have Law Sense? Reflections on an Experimental Study of Argument Mining in Judicial Decisions of the Italian Court of Cassation
This article examines the potential and limits of Large Language Models in judicial practice, taking as its test case the reconstruction of legal argumentation within judicial reasoning. Through an argument mining experiment on decisions of the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation, conducted with GPT-4o and interpreted through Philip Bobbitt’s theory, the paper asks whether an LLM can grasp not only the textual dimension of a judicial decision, but also its rhetorical form. The results show a concrete usefulness in preliminary tasks of segmentation and textual organ-ization, but also a structural limitation in recognizing ethical argumentation and, more broadly, the law sense required by legal judgment.
Artificial Intelligence and Law - Perspectives
Copyright (c) 2026 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
From the Enhanced Subject to the Digital Subject: New Damages of Difficult Quantification
This paper investigates the hermeneutic challenges posed by technological acceleration, analyzing the evolution from the physical person to the “enhanced subject” and “digital subject”. By examining human enhancement practices and digital twins, the study highlights the crisis of traditional dogmatic and constitutional categories, including biodiversity protection under Art. 9 of the Constitution. Particular attention is paid to the complex quantification of damages resulting from the injury to “supra-normal” capacities, proposing the analogical application of differential damage. Finally, the article advocates for a “new legal humanism” capable of governing man-machine hybridization, balancing self-determination, progress, and human dignity.
Towards Ethical Governance of Digital Innovation: Reflections on Tuscany Regional Law No. 57 of 2024
In line with European legislation, Regional Law No. 57 of 9 December 2024, entitled “Regulation of Digital Innovation in the Regional Territory and Protection of Digital Citizenship Rights”, introduces an organic regulatory framework aimed at governing the use of digital technologies while also promoting a balanced relationship between technological innovation and the protection of fundamental rights. This contribution focuses on governance models based on the ethical principles outlined in the regional legislation and on the regulation of artificial intelligence.
Risk Criteria and Liability Rules in the Deployment of Artificial Intelligence
ABSTRACT: The impact of artificial intelligence systems has renewed reflection on civil liability, prompting jurists to identify approaches capable of securing fair and effective remedies. The paper reconstructs possible criteria for attributing harm, ranging from product liability to the rules laid down by Art. 2050 of the Italian Civil Code, and foregrounds risk as a parameter for calibrating remedial responses. The general clause in Art. 2043 of the Civil Code remains the minimum framework of protection. Alongside this, the paper considers whether no-fault compensation schemes might be introduced to manage the cost of AI-related harm.
Emerging Technologies and Vulnerabilities: From a Risk-Based Approach to a Rights-Promotion Paradigm
This paper explores the relationship between emerging technologies and vulnerabilities through the analytical distinction between the European paradigm of risk protection and an emerging national paradigm oriented toward the promotion of fundamental rights. EU digital regulation largely adopts a precautionary and risk-management approach aimed at safeguarding the internal market and ensuring minimum standards of rights protection. Within this framework, national constitutional systems may develop complementary strategies focused on the active promotion of rights. The Italian case illustrates how digital technologies can operate as enabling infrastructures for dignity, autonomy, and participation, particularly in relation to vulnerable individuals and contexts.
Regulating Single-Use Plastic Under Directive (EU) 2019/904 and Beyond: Lessons from Italy and Spain
In the last years, the European Union has vigorously sought to curb the ever-spreading production and use of single-use plastic, underpinned by persistent concerns over its adverse environmental and health impacts. The instruments employed include Directive (EU) 2019/904 and, more recently, Regulation (EU) 2025/40 on plastic packaging. The former has not only triggered acute debate, but has also unveiled divergent approaches and standpoints across Member States. This paper hence illustrates its regulatory cornerstones and explores its transposition, as well as the regulation of plastic more broadly, in both Italy and Spain, with a particular focus on extended producer responsibility as a pivotal mechanism of circular economy.
Environmental Collective Memory: Decolonizing the Environment Through Deanthropocentrization
This paper aims at proposing a critical framework addressed at the environmental justice movement: a deanthropocentrization of the subject – through the recognition of the intrinsic worth of nature, and its procedural shades – may lead to the decolonization of the environment itself. Through examples such as the Ecuadorian recognition of Pachamama, and the acknowledgement of Maori lands as right-bearing entities in New Zealand, the framework builds on the adaptation of collective memories theories, intended as environmental collective memories, to operationalize Eric Yamamoto’s “4Rs” approach, based on Recognition, Responsibility, Reconstruction, and Reparation, in a nature-related context.
Medical Cannabis in the Context of the European Convention on Human Rights: Balancing Personal Autonomy and the Interests of Society
The article analyses the problem of medical cannabis within the framework of human rights and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. The authors point to the tension between the individual’s right to autonomy and relief from suffering and the State’s obligation to protect public health. An analysis of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights shows that although the choice of treatment falls within the scope of the right to private life, States are granted a wide margin of appreciation – justified by the lack of a European consensus and the need to protect against risky therapies. In this context, the question arises as to whether, with the increasing liberalisation of regulations and growing social acceptance of medical cannabis, the Court, when adjudicating cases concerning access to medical cannabis, will lean more towards individual autonomy or towards the wide margin of appreciation of Member States in ensuring the protection of the public interest.
The Protection of Genomic Data in Italy in the Specific Case of Forensic DNA Phenotyping: Regulatory Prospects
The paper explores the use of Forensic DNA Phenotyping (FDP) in Italy and the EU, an investigative technique that infers physical characteristics from biological traces. It highlights how FDP raises significant concerns regarding the protection of genetic data and the risk of discrimination. The relevant legislation is examined to underline the potential violation of privacy and the lack of a specific regulatory framework governing its use and providing adequate safeguards. The paper also assesses the impact of artificial intelligence in support of FDP, warning of an amplification of the associated risks. Suggestions are put forward to balance public security with the right to personal data protection.
The Regulatory Vacuum of Research Biobanks: Between Grey Areas and Future Developments in Health Data
Research biobanks, fundamental engines for scientific progress, managing vast quantities of biological samples and associated data. Despite their importance, they suffer from a significant regulatory vacuum, lacking a specific and organic discipline. Currently, their regulation is fragmented between national healthcare standards and the complex technicalities of personal data protection. This paper analyzes the existing legal framework and the current gaps, focusing on recent regulatory evolutions. If correctly interpreted, these innovations could disruptively influence the operations of biobanks, offering crucial perspectives to fill existing legal uncertainties while enhancing modern scientific research.
Genetic Data Sharing in the European Health Data Space: An Urgent Call for Coordinated Action by the Member States
In the European Health Data Space, there are still loose ends to be tied up. Regarding the secondary use of genetic data, the failure of Member States to reach a consensus during the EHDS negotiations led to a regulatory exception. Once again, in application of Article 9(4) GDPR, Member States may introduce additional safeguards for the secondary processing of genetic data in the EHDS. This paper analyses the risks of this exception for genetic research and personalised medicine, while proposing policy alternatives that would allow Member States to enhance institutional control over the genetic data lifecycle and boost individual autonomy and trustworthiness.
Copyright (c) 2026 Guillermo Lazcoz, Giovanni Comandé https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Ethical and Legal Problems of Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing: Can Legal Boundaries Be Set for a Borderless Medicine?
Advances in genetics, particularly in their practical application to health care, have created new possibilities in the fight against disease, especially in relation to early and predictive diagnosis. These developments offer significant benefits, but they also generate new ethical and legal dilemmas and conflicts. Among the most salient are those raised by so-called direct-to-consumer genetic tests, which appear to promote greater citizen empowerment through increased access to personal health information. However, this purported empowerment may conceal decisions that are not truly autonomous, due to the lack of reliable information about the clinical validity and utility of such tests. That context, however, may be changing with the growing use of polygenic studies.
The Underrepresentation of Older Adults in Clinical Trials: Toward Solutions for a Persistent Issue
The persistent underrepresentation of older adults in clinical trials constitutes a structural paradox in contemporary pharmaceutical research: those who are the primary recipients of medicinal products are often excluded from the evidentiary processes underlying their authorization. While widely documented in biomedical literature, its legal implications remain comparatively underexplored. This paper examines the issue from a legal and regulatory perspective, situating age-based exclusion at the intersection of scientific methodology, regulatory design, and fundamental rights protection. It reviews the main causes and consequences of underrepresentation and assesses current regulatory responses, including international soft law, U.S. policies, and the EU framework under Regulation (EU) No 536/2014, highlighting persistent gaps between formal commitments to representativeness and their practical implementation.
Copyright (c) 2026 Rosa Signorella https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Contemporary Armed Conflicts: Essential Notes
Summary: 1. Some Key Distinctions – 2. Rules Applicable to AI in Armed Conflict – 3. The Question of Empathy and Human Emotions in Target Selection and Attack – 4. The Question of Liability for the Use of AI in Armed Conflict – 5. Concluding Remarks.
Copyright (c) 2026 Marco Pertile https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The Construction of the Fundamental Right to a Dignified Death by the Colombian Constitutional Court in the Face of Legislative Silence
This study analyses the more than quarter-century case-law journey on the “fundamental right to a dignified death” of the Colombian Constitutional Court. It opens with the exam of the birth of the right in 1997 and then explores how, over more than two decades, the Constitutional Court has progressively defined its nature and scope. Finally, it examines the first extension of the clinical cases that qualify for medically assisted death, as well as the definitive elimination of an incomprehensible inconsistency: how the decriminalisation of euthanasia under certain conditions has coexisted with the absolute prohibition of assisted suicide for 25 years.
Copyright (c) 2026 Gonzalo Arruego https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0