HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH IN GLOBAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REGIME: WITH CASE STUDIES ON THE US-KOREA FTA AND THE EUKOREA FTA
Abstract
From its emergence to its expansion, intellectual property (IP) has not been
isolated from trade. However, in the late 1970s, business interests in the United
States (US) exerted powerful pressure, leading to IP norms becoming
increasingly trade-centric. Hypothesis of this thesis is that such trade-centric IP
norms, encouraged and formed by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), and subsequent TRIPS-plus rules pursued
by the two most active actors, the US and the European Union (EU), fail to
achieve the intended purposes of IP protection. This normalization of tradecentric
regulation also creates conflict with a range of economic, social and
cultural values that have significant human rights implications. The goal of this
thesis is to: (a) critically examine this predominance of trade in contemporary
IP norms; and (b) provide a counter framework for IP policy reform. It seeks to
do this by juxtaposing the theoretical and empirical aspects of IP norms against
human rights.
This study will pursue to prove the hypothesis by conducting case studies on
two free trade agreements (FTAs) enacted by South Korea with the US and the
EU. The thesis concludes that, on the whole, the context of human rights
provides a just counter framework that can unify the diverse range of issues.
This is more so given that human rights are strengthened by international
consensual norms institutionalised by intergovernmental organisations and
supported by transnational advocacy networks. Nevertheless, this thesis
advocates that an overemphasis on state and individuals in the human rights
discourse needs to be challenged by taking into account the dominance of
global economic regulations, the prevailing role of non-state actors, and the
culturally relative nature of IP.
Authors
Nam, HeesobCollections
- Theses [4223]