Oxford Undergraduate Law Podcast - In Conversation with Professor Sheila Jasanoff

Описание: Many of us scrutinise science and technology much less than we do the law. The field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) directly interrogates this incongruence. An interdisciplinary field, STS sees science and technology not as existing in a vacuum, but as producing types of authorities that can be studied just as much as law. Although science and technology are often treated as higher authorities that the law must follow as it inevitably lags behind, Professor Sheila Jasanoff, the founder and director of the Harvard STS Program, rejects this characterisation.

In November 2025, Professor Jasanoff delivered the Oxford Clarendon Law Lecture Series this year, together entitled ‘Science, Technology and the Constitution of Modernity’. The conversation in this episode of the Oxford Undergraduate Law Podcast acts as a complement to these lectures. The first section explores the key conceptual ideas pertinent to STS thinking and its relation to law. The latter section questions the more specific positions Professor Jasanoff has voiced in her works regarding intellectual property, especially in relation to the most recent legal developments, such as the environment, AI, and the concept of personhood.

Hosted by the Oxford University Undergraduate Law Journal’s Podcast Editors, Chum Sdiq, Isaac Tan Kah Hoe, and Bonnie Yeo, and managed by Vice-Editor Yvette Young, the Oxford Undergraduate Law Podcast explores the law, its relationship with society, and its impact on everyday life. The OULP aims to bring academic legal discussion to a wider audience and is brought to you by the Oxford University Undergraduate Law Journal, with the kind support of Crown Office Chambers.