Intellectual Property rights, Traditional Knowledge and access and benefit-sharing: Towards a new international Cultural-Legal Relativity narrative.

摘要

This thesis examines international Intellectual Property (IP) law in relation to indigenous Traditional Knowledge (TK) and the process of the sharing of benefits arising from the use of TK and associated genetic resources. This is accomplished using the theory of Cultural-Legal Relativity, which demonstrates an important mutually-constitutive relationship between culture and law. Illuminated by Cultural-Legal Relativity, IP law and Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) is analyzed towards concrete and productive policy implications and a skeletal Model Treaty that attempts to synthesize the analysis within the current international IP legal framework. The aim of the policy recommendations and the Model Treaty is to stimulate discourse and research towards a natural evolution of international IP law that addresses many of the social, political, economic and legal concerns that surround TK and ABS towards a more fair, equal and inclusive legal regime.