I Wanna Design for Somebody (Who Needs Me): The Intersection of Humanitarian Engineering, Choice-of-Law, and Technology Transfer in Kenya

Senior Fellow Sean Patrick McGinley is published in the Boston College Law Review for his article: I Wanna Design for Somebody (Who Needs Me): The Intersection of Humanitarian Engineering, Choice-of-Law, and Technology Transfer in Kenya. The article focuses on allowing developing countries to participate in technology transference and lays out how this can be done in a manner that is helpful and effective in the developing nation. This article cites that in order to increase the general well-being of those living in developing countries, the developed world has a responsibility to share this technology with them.

“This Note analyzes the characteristic approach through a case study of humanitarian engineers in Kenya, a country held back by a lack of infrastructure while standing on the cusp of innovation. The characteristic approach does not present a viable solution for Kenya because it favors the law of developed countries too often. Instead, technology transfer agreements should stipulate that the developing country’s law should govern the agreement. Further, when this results in an insurmountable burden on the transferor, a developed country’s law should only control if the contract adheres to the policies of Africa’s regional economic communities. In the case of humanitarian engineers, academic institutions and international organizations focused on humanitarian engineering have an ethical burden to enforce this standard.”

Read the full article here.