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Intellectual Property Rights and the Conservation of Plant Biodiversity as a Common Concern of Humankind

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2013

Aline Jaeckel*
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Member of the joint Legal Research Group at the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), working within the Biodiversity and Biosafety Programme. Email: aline.jaeckel@unsw.edu.au.

Abstract

This article makes the case for the obligation to conserve plant biodiversity to be classified as a common concern of humankind, to justify and indeed prescribe limitations on private intellectual property rights over plants and related processes. Within the biodiversity regime, the notion of ‘common concern of humankind’ subjects the permanent sovereignty of states over natural resources to the interests of humanity. It shifts the obligations of states from managing their own plant biodiversity towards conserving it on behalf of humankind. In contrast, TRIPS requires states to protect private intellectual property rights with little discretion to adequately balance them with public interests. This creates a dichotomy. This article argues that rather than mobilizing state sovereignty as rhetoric to distract from addressing common concerns of humankind, it should be constructed as a concept capable of facilitating these very concerns.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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References

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55 Ibid., Art. 16(5).

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62 See website at: http://www.upov.int.

63 Act of UPOV 1991, n. 56 above, Art.15(1). For further analysis see UNCTAD-ICTSD, n. 16 above, at pp. 401–2.

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108 TRIPS, Art. 30.

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110 Ibid.; TRIPS, Art. 29.

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113 TRIPS, Art. 31(c), (g).

114 TRIPS, Art. 31(h).

115 Ritchie, Dawkins & Vallianatos, n. 91 above, at p. 441.

116 Ibid., at p. 446; Aoki & Luvai, n. 92 above.

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120 TRIPS, Art. 7.

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127 CBD, Art. 1.

128 CBD, Art. 22 (emphasis added).

129 See Sections 4.1. and 4.2. above.

130 See Section 4.2. above.

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146 Ibid.

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148 CBD, Preamble.