Welcome to the Centre for Law and Genetics  
   
  The Centre is based at the Schools of Law at the Universities of Tasmania and Melbourne. Research is further undertaken throughout Australian and international academic institutions. The mission of the Centre is to provide excellence in research for the benefit of the Australian and International communities into the legal and ethical issues arising from the developments in genetic technology and to propose effective and equitable means for developing, applying and benefit-sharing of this technology." The Centre encourages academic research in the field of Genetics Law and encourages submissions for postgraduate studies.  
   
The Centre’s Purpose  
   
 

The Centre for Law and Genetics developed out of a project funded by the Australian Research Council from 1994-1997. The primary focus of the project was the ethical and legal implications of the "new genetics". Since then, the group has had further funding from the Australian Research Council and has expanded its areas of research to include broader issues associated with commercial aspects of genetic technology. The research group comprises Professor Donald Chalmers, Head of the Faculty of Law at the University of Tasmania; Professor Loane Skene of the School of Law at the University of Melbourne; Associate Professor Margaret Otlowski and Dr. Dianne Nicol of the Faculty of Law at the University of Tasmania. A number of graduate students are associated with the project. Their thesis topics cover a wide range of areas ranging from health law to environmental law.
The groups directs its research towards investigating legal standards in relation to :

- the collection, storage and banking of DNA (including DNA profiling) for commercial purposes;
- privacy of genetic information;
- discrimination in insurance and employment;
- patenting of biotechnological inventions;
- structuring of the biotechnology industry;
- domestic and international control of commercial use of biotechnology;
- regulation of stem cell research and cloning .