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The new millennium has been described as ‘the century of biology’, but scientific progress and access to medicines has been marred by global disputes over ownership of the science by universities and private companies. This book examines the challenges posed by the modern patent system to the right of everyone to access the benefits of science in international law. Aurora Plomer retraces the genesis and evolution of the key Articles in the UN system (Article 27 UDHR and Article 15 ICESCR). She combines the historiography of these Articles with a novel perspective on the moral foundations of rights of access to science to draw out implications for today’s controversies on patents in the life-sciences. The analysis suggests that access to science as a fundamental right requires both freedom from political and religious interference and the existence of enabling research institutions and educational facilities which promote the flow of knowledge through transparent and open structures. From this perspective, the global patent system is shown to fail spectacularly when it comes to the human rights ideal of universal access to science. The book concludes that a fundamental restructuring of patent institutions is required, in which democratic oversight of patent policies would ensure meaningful realization of the right of everyone to access the benefits of science. Students and scholars of international law, particularly those focusing on intellectual property and human rights, will find this book to be of considerable interest. It will also be of use to practitioners in the field.
An exploration of the tension between human rights and patent law, with reference to developing countries' access to affordable medicines.
This study primarily explores whether conflicts between patents and human rights in the context of access to medicines are inevitable, or whether patents can be made to serve human rights. The author argues that it is necessary to have a deepened understanding of each of the two sets of norms that govern this issue, that is, patent law and international human rights law. The chapters investigate the relevant dimensions of patent law and analyse particular human rights bearing upon the issue of intellectual property and access to medicines.
Patents, Human Rights and Access to Science offers a discerning insight into the disputes which have erupted in the constitutional courts of Europe and the US over the grant of gene patents and stem cell patents. Retracing the rationale for the juxtaposition of private and public rights of access to science in international law, this book develops a normative framework to analyze the contribution of the UN, ECOSOC and UNESCO in elaborating on the normative content of Article 27 UDHR and Article 15 ICESCR.
This collection of essays examines central issues of property theory from a variety of perspectives.
This book examines one of the most controversial aspects of the world trading system: patents and access to medication, and offers approaches to tackle the issue of how to better accommodate human rights in the trading system.
As technological developments multiply around the globeâ€"even as the patenting of human genes comes under serious discussionâ€"nations, companies, and researchers find themselves in conflict over intellectual property rights (IPRs). Now, an international group of experts presents the first multidisciplinary look at IPRs in an age of explosive growth in science and technology. This thought-provoking volume offers an update on current international IPR negotiations and includes case studies on software, computer chips, optoelectronics, and biotechnologyâ€"areas characterized by high development cost and easy reproducibility. The volume covers these and other issues: Modern economic theory as a basis for approaching international IPRs. U.S. intellectual property practices versus those in Japan, India, the European Community, and the developing and newly industrializing countries. Trends in science and technology and how they affect IPRs. Pros and cons of a uniform international IPRs regime versus a system reflecting national differences.
It has long been recognized that patent rights are in tension with human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Right posits that scientific creators are entitled to the protection of the interests resulting from their scientific production. At the same time, it recognizes the right of everyone to share in scientific advancements and the benefits they create. Typically, this tension is framed as a clash between proprietary and access interests, with discrete conflicts resolved nationally by a combination of limitations and exceptions within patent law, and internationally, with flexibilities that give states room to further access interests. There are, however, several drawbacks to this framing. It tends to limit access to things that others have created for their own purposes, it requires the global South to rely on the North to fulfill its needs, and it creates a something-for nothing narrative that makes international adjudicators wary of allowing states to enjoy significant flexibilities. This paper argues that the right to “share in scientific advancement” must be re-interpreted as a right to participate in the enterprise of scientific advancement. Recast in this way, the right would invigorate state efforts to enable locals to learn from and build on the work of others, fulfill unmet local demand, and ultimately, innovate at the knowledge frontier. At the international level, recognizing the right to do science as fundamental to human development would open policy space and allow states to do what is needed to become technologically self-reliant in areas crucial to their wellbeing.
Millions of people worldwide lack adequate access to medicines, particularly in developing countries where resources are scarce with devastating human, social and economic consequences. The example of HIV/AIDS, for which treatment has advanced so significantly in the last decade that a diagnosis no longer necessarily brings with it a death sentence, highlights the importance of ensuring that essential medicines are affordable and accessible to all. This book focuses on one aspect of access to medicines: the affordability of essential medicines, and its connection to human rights and patents. The argument often made is that patent protection for medicines results in higher prices which negatively impacts access. Patients having no or inadequate access to affordable medicines endangers the full realisation of human rights, particularly the right to health. This book investigates this issue from a legal perspective, taking both an international and domestic angle. This study examines the interface of access to affordable medicines and patent protection from the perspective of international human rights law and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) within the framework of the World Trade Organisation. The essential question posed by this book is whether access to medicines and patent protection conflict or coexist. The discussion is deepened by including a developing country approach. Three country studies have been conducted, on South Africa, India and Uganda. These aim to provide a concrete insight into whether these countries recognise and acknowledge the interplay between patents and human rights with respect to access to medicines. Secondly these studies examine whether TRIPS leaves sufficient freedom for (developing) states to adopt a patent system suited to their domestic needs, enabling them to strike a fair balance between access to medicines and patent protection for medicines. In other words: does one size fit all?This book is targeted at both academics and human rights practitioners, including government officials, human rights advocates and NGOs. It goes further than a mere theoretical discussion on the issue from an international law perspective by providing an in-depth examination of domestic (legal) frameworks relevant for the issue of access to medicines. It illustrates that the normative force of human rights in combination with social movement can provide a powerful tool for prioritising the health ne ...
The first serious, extended effort to use a human rights-based approach to address the scientific issues affecting society and the often-neglected human right to science.