It is often said that quantum technologies are poised to change the world as we know it, but cutting through the hype, what will quantum technologies actually mean for countries and their citizens? In Law and Policy for the Quantum Age, Chris Jay Hoofnagle and Simson L. Garfinkel explain the genesis of quantum information science (QIS) and the resulting quantum technologies that are most exciting: quantum sensing, computing, and communication. This groundbreaking, timely text explains how quantum technologies work, how countries will likely employ QIS for future national defense and what the legal landscapes will be for these nations, and how companies might (or might not) profit from the technology. Hoofnagle and Garfinkel argue that the consequences of QIS are so profound that we must begin planning for them today. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
It is often said that quantum technologies are poised to change the world as we know it, but cutting through the hype, what will quantum technologies actually mean for countries and their citizens? In Law and Policy for the Quantum Age, Chris Jay Hoofnagle and Simson L. Garfinkel explain the genesis of quantum information science (QIS) and the resulting quantum technologies that are most exciting: quantum sensing, computing, and communication. This groundbreaking, timely text explains how quantum technologies work, how countries will likely employ QIS for future national defense and what the legal landscapes will be for these nations, and how companies might (or might not) profit from the technology. Hoofnagle and Garfinkel argue that the consequences of QIS are so profound that we must begin planning for them today. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Quantum sensing, computing, and communication offer some significant improvements on classical technologies, in some cases create fundamentally new capabilities. Quantum technologies are quickly arriving. Even if the most hyped promises in quantum computing are not realized in the next decade, in the near term quantum sensing could shift relationships irrevocably. This book has painted the landscape of quantum's implications---from nation-state concerns of strategic conflict, intelligence gathering, and law enforcement activities; to the concerns of companies that may be subject to industrial policy priorities and restrictions; to the level of the individual who may face institutions with great asymmetries in sensing and sense-making power. This chapter concludes with a forecast of quantum technology scenarios, with forecasts for each quantum technology analyzed in this book, and with a summary of the most important policy issues to pursue.
Emerging technologies are changing the world as legal scholars and lawmakers try to keep up. Privacy is an area that been profoundly impacted by the creation and expansion of such technologies. We are now entering the Quantum Age, with quantum technologies promising to be one of the most impactful emerging technologies of the century. Quantum information science and technology (QIST) suggests quantum devices will either replace or supplement many of today’s technologies. As governments and the private sector race to achieve quantum supremacy, it is crucial for the legal community to understand and analyze how these technologies will impact societies and consumer experiences. This essay offers an overview of how QIST could impact privacy as we know it today. Among the many promises of QIST, this essay studies quantum computers, quantum internet, quantum encryptions, and quantum sensing to understand their potential interference with privacy. It introduces these emerging technologies to legal scholars and provides an overview of how they could potentially impact privacy. The present essay then offers a final novel analytical framework for future scholarly work on QIST privacy impacts and concludes that QIST could have primary and secondary effects on privacy that would both improve and undermine privacy. Understanding the challenges that privacy scholars will soon face and having a framework to work with is crucial for future research in this area.
Abstract The burgeoning field of quantum technologies presents a transformative landscape with profound implications for law and development. This abstract outlines some of the rising key issues at this critical intersection, highlighting the urgent need for interdisciplinary engagement and proactive policymaking. The unique characteristics of quantum technologies and related advancements are challenging the existing legal frameworks, particularly in intellectual property. Questions surrounding the patentability of quantum algorithms and hardware, the delicate balance between protecting innovation and fostering open access, and the potential for future patent disputes demand novel legal solutions. Ensuring equitable quantum disparities between developed and developing countries is paramount. Furthermore, the advent of quantum technologies poses a significant threat to current data security protocols. The potential to break existing encryption methods necessitates the rapid development and global adoption of postquantum cryptography. In addition, the societal and ethical implications of enhanced surveillance capabilities of quantum technologies require proactive and careful legal consideration within the privacy and civil liberties framework. Beyond security, there are fundamental ethical and societal considerations with emerging technologies. The dual-use nature of many quantum technologies raises concerns about their potential misuse. Addressing the law and development disparities inherent in this technological revolution is critical. Unequal access to research, funding, and infrastructure risks concentrating the benefits of quantum technologies in a select few nations. International collaborations, flourishing quantum ecosystem, and thoughtful technology transfer policies are essential to ensure that developing countries can participate in and benefit from this progress and enjoy these technologies to the fullest. Finally, the fast pace of innovation necessitates a reevaluation of existing regulatory challenges and innovation bottlenecks. Innovation and development should be fostered, not hindered by regulation. Adapting current legal frameworks and developing new regulations that balance fostering innovation with mitigating potential risks is crucial. There is a pressing need to create international legal standards and shared regulatory framework in the globally interconnected field of quantum technologies. In conclusion, the rise of quantum technologies presents a complex web of ethical, societal, economic, political, legal, and developmental challenges. Addressing these issues effectively requires proactive, collaborative efforts from legal scholars, policymakers, scientists, industry leaders, and the international community to ensure a future where quantum innovation contributes to equitable global development and operates within a robust and ethical legal framework.
Scientific and technological progress has repeatedly revolutionized society, from the invention of steam-power-driven machines that brought forth the Industrial Age to the development of the transistor that sparked the Information Age. As societies and economies become more connected through global communication networks and reliant on computational power, the demand for faster, more efficient, and secure information capabilities escalates commensurately. Enter Quantum Information Science (QIS) (QIS), a field founded on the physical laws of quantum mechanics that introduce extraordinary different and powerful paradigms for generating, manipulating, measuring, securing, and processing information. While many quantum effects are generally well understood and form the basis of widely exploited current technology, QIS is still a richly underexplored research area. This overview provides a basic research perspective on the foundational resources that empower QIS, the main challenges in exploiting QIS for practical applications, and the need for input from researchers outside quantum physics, such as those from the aerospace community, to stimulate new ideas and advance progress in QIS. This paper introduces key QIS concepts and continues with discussions on each of the following subareas: sensing, computation and algorithms, networks, and information security. The paper concludes with an outlook of the field as it relates to aerospace.
This chapter offers an overview of Quantum Technology Governance : Law & Regulation , highlighting the foundational role of quantum information technology (QIT) and the legal, regulatory, and geopolitical considerations arising from its recent advancements. It maps how quantum computing, communication, and sensing intersect with established legal and governance frameworks across intellectual property, cybersecurity, export controls, and international law. The chapter introduces a progressive analytical structure that begins with QIT’s ontological and governance foundations before turning to domain-specific regulatory considerations and global strategic implications. It synthesizes key themes developed throughout the volume, including adaptive legal interpretation; layered governance mechanisms such as the governance-stack model; mixed intellectual property strategies combining patents, trade secrets, and open innovation; empirical patent trends; EU and US approaches to quantum-enabled cybersecurity risks; the evolution of export control architectures; and the application of effects-based norms in public international law. Across these domains, the chapter identifies a recurring theme of regulatory adaptability. Although QIT introduces non-classical features that stress-test existing legal and policy systems, we argue that many challenges can be met through interpretive flexibility, evidence-based policymaking, and technology governance rather than wholesale doctrinal reform. By integrating legal analysis, empirical insights, and international governance perspectives, the chapter provides policymakers, technologists, scholars, and practitioners with a roadmap for responsible quantum governance as technologies transition from theoretical potential to practical deployment.
The leading countries across the world have entered the race to develop quantum technologies that will enable them to ensure their continued economic prosperity. Among these technologies, a special place is occupied by quantum communication, which is designed to ensure information security in an era where a quantum computer is capable of compromising a number of cryptography algorithms. In this article, this new digital technology includes quantum key distribution and encryption methods that are cryptographically resistant to a quantum computer. The study does not consider the regulation of the quantum communication sub-technology, the so-called “quantum internet,” due to the technical limitations of the existing equipment. The authors note that their predictions about the cryptographic strength of encryption algorithms are based solely on modern knowledge about the capabilities of quantum computing and do not take into account its hidden potential, for example, in terms of cryptanalysis information systems based on a machine learning model generated by a quantum computer. Currently, the only data protection system that is not subject to quantum threats is the technology of quantum key distribution. In today’s information and digital age, information security systems are an important element of critical infrastructure. Given the importance of these technologies, different states use different methods to regulate this field. This article puts forward and substantiates the hypothesis that the implementation of a combination of regulatory legal acts could have a greater positive impact on the development of quantum communication and ensure an acceptable level of information security in the post-quantum era. The analysis showed that a significant number of states and interstate associations are conducting research in this area, relying only on investment growth. This strategy has prevented any country from achieving the competencies of the People’s Republic of China. The authors also analyzed the methods of legal support used by China, Russia, and other countries in the field of quantum communication, which made it possible to identify a model of legal regulation of quantum communication that stimulates this technology’s development.