Risk Science and Law Group To Hold Sessions
On Risk in the Courtroom and Regulatory Reform
A RiskWorld news brief
E-mail to: reed@tec-com.com
A three-hour session titled "Regulatory Reform: Law and Science Policy Issues" will focus on issues raised by legislative and administrative initiatives to reform public risk assessment and risk management practices, according to Kathleen Kunzer of the Chemical Manufacturers Association, who is the lead organizer of the specialty group’s program. Topics may include the use of cost-benefit analysis in risk assessments and the utility of risk distributions or central tendencies in making regulatory decisions, as well as peer review and judicial review of risk assessments.
A second three-hour session, "Hot Topics in Toxic Tort Litigation," will cover both emerging legal issues and the practical use of risk science in the courtroom and will be co-sponsored by the Division of Chemistry and the Law of the American Chemical Society. Examples of issues to be covered are the exercise of judicial discretion to exclude expert testimony following the Daubert and Joiner decisions, the presentation of risk distributions and risk comparisons to a jury, the value of hypothetical versus actual risks as trial evidence, and the role of clinical medical testimony in toxic risk litigation.
The group expects its poster presentation on major court cases involving risk issues, which has become an annual project, to also draw a wide audience.
"Our poster session "Risk Analysis in the Courts: A Roadmap for Risk Analysts" attracted strong interest at the 1997 SRA Annual Meeting thanks to the dynamism of organizers and editors John Applegate and Wendy Wagner," said Wayne Roth-Nelson of Roth-Nelson Risk Science, who is founder and chair of the specialty group.
The group is considering expanding its the poster session into an ongoing legal casebook project that will incorporate both current risk-related cases that are in the spotlight and key historical cases. "The casebook will be disseminated either in hard copy as we did following our 1997 poster session or on an Internet web site or possibly both," Roth-Nelson said.
For more information, contact Roth-Nelson (roth_nelson@compuserve.com) or Kunzer (kathleen_kunzer@mail.cmahq.com) by e-mail.
For a list of on-line information about the group, including details on how to join and a listing of previous news articles on the group's activities, see SRA Risk Science & Law Group.
Posted September 2, 1998.
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