Author: Amicus Curious

Stephan Kinsella – Rethinking IP Completely

If you haven’t listened to Stephan Kinsella speaking on intellectual property, here is one of his lectures, presented at the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s 2008 Austrian Scholars Conference, the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School.

Kinsella’s legal publications include books and articles about patent law, contract law, e-commerce law, international law and other topics. Kinsella has also published and lectured on a variety of libertarian topics, often combining libertarian and legal analysis. Kinsella’s views on contract theory, causation and the law, intellectual property, and rights theory (in particular his estoppel theory) are his main contributions to libertarian theory.


http://www.stephankinsella.com/

Access and Benefit Sharing e-learning

Natural Justice has written a draft e-module that provides an introduction to Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) and its implications for indigenous peoples and local communities. It explores the implications of a range of rights and responsibilities and how communities may be able to realize them in practice. Natural Justice is developing a number of e-learning modules to support communities developing biocultural community protocols (BCPs) to increase their understanding of key international legal frameworks, concepts and programmes.

This is an interesting initiative and deserves a look.

Traditional Knowledge and Plant Genetic Resources Guidelines

The Southern Africa Network for Biosciences (SANBio) / NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency [SANBio/NEPAD Agency] have compiled an extremely interesting set of guidelines relating to plant genetic resources and traditional knowledge (TK). The guidelines run to 84 pages and can be found here: Sanbio Guidelines

SANBio is one of the five continent-wide regional biosciences and specialized centres of research and development established under NEPAD. The main objective of SANBio is to build and strengthen capacity in biosciences through exchanging ideas, promoting scientific excellence and harnessing indigenous knowledge in order to utilize natural resources sustainably and create wealth for the people of southern Africa. The network operates with a multi-country approach since many development problems transcend national borders.

 

 

New Dimensions in Legal Adaptation to Global Dynamics

Moi University, Eldoret, is holding its 8th Annual International Conference in September.

The programme

Symposium IV
School of Law
Theme: “New Dimensions in Legal Adaptation to Global Dynamics
International and Comparative Perspectives”
Sub Themes
1. Constitutional law
2. Gender and family law
3. International trade, commerce and investment law (including intellectual property and information
technology law)
4. Public international law
5. Environmental law
6. International criminal law (including transitional justice and international humanitarian law)
School Symposium Organising Committee
Mr. H. J. A. Lugulu – Dean, School of Law
Mr. J. I. Ayamunda – Coordinator
Mr. J. O. Ambani – Member
Ms. L. Khaemba – Member
Prof. N. W. Sifuna – Member
Mr. M. Oduor – Member
Mr. V. Mutai – Member

On Thursday, September 6, 2012, there are sessions not to miss:

10.30 am–11.00 am Session 1
Room: 4 A
Chair: I.M. Orina Rapporteur: Emmy Soi/J Ambani
4#16
TRIPS Article 27(3)b and its Impact on Agriculture for Kenya
Constance Gikonyo
11.00 am–11.20 am 4#05
Intellectual Property Laws and Regional Integration: A Case for Harmonisation in the
East African Community States
J Ayamunda and J Wabwire
11.20 am–11.40 am 4#25
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA):
Kenyan Agenda
Duncan Kiboyye Okoth-Yogo

Global Governance of Genetic Resources

Global Governance of Genetic Resources: Access and Benefit Sharing after the Nagoya Protocol (Routledge Research in Global Environmental Governance) edited by Sebastian Oberthür and Kristin Rosendal is to be to be published 1st March 2013 by Routledge. Running to 272 pages, it analyses the status and prospects of the global governance of Access Benefit Sharing (ABS) following the 2010 Nagoya Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The CBD’s initial 1992 framework of global ABS governance established the objective of sharing the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources fairly between countries and communities. Since then, ABS has been a contested issue in international politics – not least due to the failure of effective implementation of the original CBD framework. The Nagoya Protocol therefore aims to improve and enhance this framework. Compared to the slow rate of progress on climate change, it has been considered a major achievement of global environmental governance, but it has also been coined a ‘masterpiece of ambiguity’. This book analyses the role of a variety of actors in the emergence of the Nagoya Protocol and provides an up-to-date assessment of the core features of the architecture of global ABS governance.

Sebastian Oberthür is Academic Director of the Institute for European Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium, and  Kristin Rosendal is a research Professor at Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway.