Siegfried Fina, Co-Director of the Stanford-Vienna Transatlantic Technology Law Forum
Professor Siegfried Fina is the Co-Director of the Stanford-Vienna Transatlantic Technology Law Forum. He focuses on the business-related and technology-related law and policy of the European Union, as well as on the legal aspects of the EU-US trade and the economic governance of the transatlantic marketplace.
1. What are the current priorities in your work as Co-Director of the Stanford-Vienna Transatlantic Technology Law Forum?
Our current priorities are to raise professional understanding and public awareness of transatlantic challenges in the field of law, science, and technology, as well as to support policy-oriented research on transatlantic issues in the field. We emphasize initiatives that aim to provide constructive and innovative solutions to EU-US technology law and policy challenges, especially by creating the necessary formal and informal transatlantic academic networks.
2. How important is the transatlantic relationship to the advancement of technological exchange today?
The transatlantic technological exchange is not really a political issue in the transatlantic relations. It occurs primarily through and between private actors (businesses) on both sides of the Atlantic and is usually governed by licensing agreements, which shape the transatlantic technology transfer.
3. What is the greatest challenge to the transatlantic relationship?
I think the ultimate economic challenge will be the establishment of a sort of comprehensive Transatlantic Free Trade Area between the EU and the US, the creation of a true single transatlantic marketplace without trade barriers.
