Abstract :
It is a rare event that truly reverberates around the world. Geopolitical and financial developments, military actions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other large-scale natural or manmade calamities are the usual things capable of attracting global attention. One fairly recent legal development has attracted the attention of the entire scientific community and the instrumentation and measurement community possibly more than many others. This event had its origins in an earthquake which struck L´Aquila, Italy, on 6 April 2009. The loss of life and property was considerable, regrettable, and unfortunate. The consequences of a recent legal decision arising from the L´Aquila earthquake are, for most of us involved in the sciences, almost incomprehensible.
