Charles Lawson

This illuminating book incisively surveys the complex legal regime of access and benefit-sharing in key aquaculture countries. With an international focus spanning countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and South America, the authors explore the application of international legal standards and how these translate into domestic measures. Presenting key critical perspectives, the book examines the ways in which access and benefit-sharing laws facilitate access to aquaculture resources and how they could, in return, deliver a fair and equitable share of the benefits, promoting conservation and longer term food security. The authors’ in-depth analysis of various case studies reveals that these legal standards rarely accommodate the distinctive features of aquatic genetic resources, digital sequence information and traditional knowledge. They argue that the access and benefit-sharing concept is not fit for purpose and suggest how the concept could be re-imagined to achieve more efficient outcomes for conservation, sustainability, fairness and equity. Access and Benefit-sharing in Global Aquaculture is a fundamental resource for academics, researchers and students of environmental law and governance, environmental politics and policy, management, and regulation. Policymakers working with the aquaculture industry will similarly benefit from the authors’ practical recommendations.

Taking a global viewpoint, this volume addresses issues arising from recent developments in the enduring and topical debates over Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and their relationship to Intellectual Property (IP). The work examines changing responses to the growing acceptance and prevalence of GMOs. Drawing together perspectives from several of the leading international scholars in this area, the contributions seek to break away from analysis of safety and regulation and examine the diversity of ways the law and GMOs have become entangled. This collection presents the start of a much broader engagement with GMOs and law. As GMO technology becomes increasingly more complex and embedded in our lives, this volume will be a useful resource in leading further discussion and debate about GMOs in academia, in government and among those working on future policy.

Taking a global viewpoint, this volume addresses issues arising from recent developments in the enduring and topical debates over Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and their relationship to Intellectual Property (IP). The work examines changing responses to the growing acceptance and prevalence of GMOs. Drawing together perspectives from several of the leading international scholars in this area, the contributions seek to break away from analysis of safety and regulation and examine the diversity of ways the law and GMOs have become entangled. This collection presents the start of a much broader engagement with GMOs and law. As GMO technology becomes increasingly more complex and embedded in our lives, this volume will be a useful resource in leading further discussion and debate about GMOs in academia, in government and among those working on future policy.

This Commentary on the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) provides a detailed textual analysis of TRIPS - a pivotal international agreement on intellectual property rights. TRIPS sets minimum standards for national laws on copyright, patents, trademarks and other forms of intellectual property rights. TRIPS profoundly impacts upon the regulation of access to medicines, compulsory licensing of copyright material, geographical indicators and other significant IP-related matters. This reference book is a major authoritative work that is clearly organised and presented, allowing users to navigate quickly to commentary on any element of TRIPS. The book begins with a context-setting section, providing guidance on interpreting TRIPS. It considers the salient elements of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the WTO Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes, and the preamble to the Agreement Establishing the WTO. The book then follows the seven part structure of TRIPS, and provides an article-by-article analysis of each of its 73 provisions and specifically addresses the interpretation of key phrases in each article. An essential resource for practitioners and scholars, this detailed and exhaustive volume will also prove invaluable to academics and students of intellectual property law, international law and trade law. It is a first point of reference for anyone needing to know more about TRIPS. Contents: 1. General Provisions and Basic Principles 2. Standards Concerning the Availability, Scope and Use of Intellectual Property Rights 3. Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights 4. Acquisition and Maintenance of Intellectual Property Rights and Related Inter-Partes Procedures 5. Dispute Prevention and Settlement 6. Transitional Arrangements 7. Institutional Arrangements; Final Provisions

The relationship between intellectual property and food affects the production and availability of food by regulating dealings in products, processes, innovations, information and data. With increasingly intricate relations between international and domestic law, as well as practices and conventions, intellectual property and food interact in many different ways. This volume is a timely consideration and assessment of some of the more contentious and complex issues found in this relationship, such as genetic technology, public research and food security, socio-economic factors and the root cause of poverty and patent-busting. The contributions are from leading scholars in this emerging field and each chapter foregrounds some of the key developments in the area, exploring historical, doctrinal and theoretical issues in the field while at the same time developing new ideas and perspectives around intellectual property and food. The collection will be a useful resource in leading further discussion and debate about intellectual property law and food.

This detailed and concise book surveys the international genetic resources laws applying in Antarctica, space, the oceans and seas, the lands, and the airspaces above land and water. The well-structured analysis traces the evolution of these various schemes and their contributions to the comprehensive arrangements under the Convention on Biological Diversity, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the World Health Organization's PIP Framework. The book details the different avenues and concluded positions, documenting a laboratory of legal approaches and possibilities. Regulating Genetic Resources will be a valuable addition to academics, governments, NGOs and students in environmental and intellectual property law.