655 



that this need for international rather than national action is most strongly felt, 

 and for many reasons. 



These reasons were: the traditionally international character of 

 science, the need for international cooperation in inherently global 

 activities such as civil aviation, the need for control of dangerous 

 teclinologies like atomic energy, and the regulation of global dissemi- 

 nation of pollutants. With respect to the last item, the author observes : 



(Combating pollution will inevitably require international rather than national 

 regulation as its starting point. First, pollution originating in a single nation- 

 state might well spread, through one of the components of the environment such 

 as the air or oceans, into the territories of other nation-states. Secondly, in the 

 context of current patterns for modernization of economies by the export from the 

 most advanced countries of capital equipment for technological manufacturing, a 

 plant which fails to contain adequate anti-polluting equipment will spread pollu- 

 tion by the very fact of its export. Thirdly, the measures to combat pollution need 

 to be internationally prescribed and enforced for they will undoubtedly affect 

 costs, and states which fail to observe them will gain a competitive advantage 

 over those who do.^"* 



As a corollary of the author's third point, U.S. insistence on the 

 incorporation of anti-smog devices on American cars for domestic use 

 might be regarded as a form of trade barrier by nations exporting cars 

 to the United States, unless such devices are freely available under 

 cross-licensing arrangements. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR USTTERISTATIOXAL INSTITUTIONS 



A proposal has been advanced for an international assessment agency 

 under the aegis of the United Nations, in an article by Dennis Living- 

 ston of Case Western Reserve University.^"^ His plan relies on three 

 propositions: (1) there is already a considerable assessment activity 

 in international bodies, (2) adverse secondary consequences of tech- 

 nology are often international in their impacts, and (3) assessment of 

 technology is involved in the processes of aid to developing countries, 

 with respect to their own policies in the adoption of technology, in eval- 

 uation of impoited technology, and in evaluating technological trends 

 and their social consequences in the developed countries. Professor 

 Livingston cites niunerous instances of assessments under existing 

 international arrangements, such as : 



Outer space ; 



Pollution abatement; 

 . Civilian nuclear reactors ; 



Resources management ; 



International brain research ; 



Nuclear energy research ; 



Research in the "planetary biosphere" ; 



Safeguards for nuclear reactors and materials ; 



The seabed ; and 



Oil pollution on the high seas. 



^o" Allan McKnight. "International Regulation of Science and Technology," Interna- 

 tional Journal, "Autumn, 1970," pages 745-746. 



ifi Dennis Livingston. "International Technology Assessment and The United Nations 

 System." American Journal of International Law, (September 1970, Vol. 64), page 163-172. 



