“Embedded regulation:” The migration of objects,scripts, and governance

This paper asks why an officially unregulated market in pharmaceuticals in a least developed country, Djibouti, behaves as if it were strictly regulated, with limited access to a small number of high‐cost drugs. We use Actor‐Network Theory (ANT) to show that the explanation is more complex than critics of the international pharmaceutical industry have supposed. Regulation and property rights generated in developed countries have become embedded in the drugs and “black boxed” to the point of invisibility. This has allowed them to travel to Djibouti with the drugs, while maintaining their effects in action. This case study develops our understanding of the way in which materials that are not designated as regulatory agents may still have regulatory impacts through their ability to enrol complex networks of actors, rules, values, and practices. Finally, it argues against the notion of law as a fixed and distinctive space for action, as opposed to the ANT vision of a fluid and contingent order, where law is part of a socio‐technico‐legal alliance that happens to achieve certain effects.     

当代青年知识分子的历史使命与自身塑造

知识分子是一个众说纷纭的话题.既涉及到概念本身的界定厘清,又关联着知识分子阶层的一言一行.发展中国,更离不开绵延数千年的文化传统,加之近几十年历史的风云变幻、政策更迭,知识分子研究越加莫衷一是.但也充分表明了知识分子在一个社会中是何其重要,百年来跌宕起伏的中华民族复兴史诗即是明证.而青年知识分子在这一历程中所展现的决心、意志和能力,必将使知识分子的内涵再添亮色.当代青年知识分子既承继先驱精英所遗留的宝贵财富,又抹不去“知识”赋予人们的天然印记,更面临着遽然变化的世情、国情、党情,何去何从便成了一个至关重要的问题.因此,通过把握知识分子内涵,认清青年知识分子所承担的历史使命和历史责任,从而塑造知识分子的全新形象,是他们这一代终究绕不开的现实命题和未竟之任.     

The Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) - Pharmaceuticals Transitional Period: Can it Help Build Capacity in African Least Developed Countries (LDCs)?

ABSTRACT

African least developed countries LDCs face unique challenges in the implementation of minimum standards for the protection of IPRs, most poignantly illustrated in the field of pharmaceuticals. This was to an extent recognised by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in providing a transitional period during which LDCs are not obliged to implement the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement in order to afford them an opportunity to develop a viable technological base in the pharmaceutical sector before being required to provide patent protection for pharmaceuticals. This article explores some options available to African least developed countries LDCs to use the transitional period in a manner that could help develop their pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity. Rwanda has already shown itself to be a pioneer in the use of policy flexibility available in the TRIPS Agreement and related instruments to fulfil the country's demand for essential pharmaceutical products. Therefore, much of the analysis draws on Rwanda for illustrative purposes.     

One hundred years of Yugoslavia: the vision of Stojan Novaković revisited

This article examines a text written 100 years ago by Stojan Novakovi?, a leading Serbian scholar and president of its Academy of Science. Written in a political science fiction genre, it foresees a country of united South Slavs in 2011. Yugoslavia, in the enlightened vision of Novakovi?, will appear and strengthen due to scientific and economic development on one hand and common culture based on a common vernacular on the other. Elite-driven unification is the only mode for South Slavs to survive facing the challenges of modernization and the territorial threats of their neighbors. Accurate in some and grossly naïve in other aspects, this text is a testimony of Yugoslav ideas preceding the actual creation of the state, as shared by the most prestigious among the Serbian intellectual elites.     

Expert systems and the law

ABSTRACT

The project discussed here involved an online debating activity between intellectual property (IP) law students in Egypt and the UK, using a closed group on Facebook. The aim was to harness freely available online social media technology to create a space in which valuable discussions and learning could take place. We showed that Facebook can be a powerful educational tool to encourage active learning and usefully connect learners across continents. In enabling the exchange of views between students in different jurisdictions, Facebook provides exposure to different cultures and different perspectives as well as different legal cultures and different legal systems, while also, importantly, enabling participants to identify commonalities. This debate focused on IP law, which is of increasing international importance, and specifically on the topic of access to medicines, which is highly contentious. Through the activity, students learned that they need not only to learn the law, but also to appreciate the socio-cultural and political complexity underlying policy issues in different jurisdictions. On reflection, the Facebook debate definitely enhanced the study of IP law through an interesting and enjoyable international, intercultural activity, led by staff and students, which successfully extended the classroom experience.     

To enforce or not to enforce? Judicialization,venue shopping,and global regulatory harmonization

The regulation of intellectual property rights takes place in a range of international venues. This proliferation of international venues greatly enhances the potential for venue shopping. We argue that different levels of domestic regulation and differing degrees of judicialization account for actors' preferences over institutional venues. We take into consideration two scenarios. Conceiving of judicialization as the delegation of adjudication to an independent third party and the enforcement through multilaterally authorized sanctions, we show that: (i) upward regulatory harmonization leads actors preferring weak regulatory intellectual property rights standards to strive for venues with low degrees of judicialization, whereas those favoring stringent intellectual property rights protection prefer highly judicialized venues; and (ii) downward harmonization leads to the opposite constellation of institutional preferences. We show how these expectations hold by way of in‐depth case studies of two instances of global intellectual property rights regulation: the regulation of plant genetic resources and intellectual property rights for medicines.     

主观与客观之间——知识产权“信息说”的重新审视

作为知识产权对象的信息不应是信息论意义上的信息,而应是控制论意义上的信息,即具有"同型结构+意义"双重结构。这有其法学上的规范意义。具备"源于人、有价值、法定性"条件的信息即可成为知识产权的对象,其特点有主客观双重属性、与载体的可分离性、可复制性、可传递性、可共享性等。知识产权的诸多困境即源于信息的主客观双重属性。     

三种刑事审判对象模式之比较研究

英美法系诉因模式的基本特点是刑事审判对象是诉因,法官和检察官原则上无权变更诉因;大陆法系公诉事实模式的基本特点是刑事审判对象是公诉事实,法官有权在公诉事实同一的范围内变更指控罪名;日本公诉事实同一下的诉因模式的基本特点是刑事审判对象是诉因,检察官有权在公诉事实同一范围内变更诉因。三种刑事审判对象模式之间的差异导致它们在不同诉讼价值的实现上各有优劣,刑事审判对象模式上的差异根源于审判方式上的差异。随着审判方式的相互吸收和融合,刑事审判对象模式之间的差异逐渐变小。     

多维视角下的生物多样性法律问题论纲

生物多样性的法律问题具有交叉性、综合性、复杂性和现实性的特点.法律是保护和利用生物多样性的间接驱动力,而生物多样性对法律也产生反作用力.我国对于生物多样性法律问题的研究主要集中在知识产权法和环境法领域,存在着研究视角过于单一、固守学科领域和缺乏整体观等问题.研究生物多样性的法律问题,必须要注意到其产生的根源在于人类对于生物多样性系统认识的变迁;以国际环境法为出发点,结合多维视角对其加以研究.从整体上看,生物多样性的法律问题主要包括传统知识的法律保护以及遗传资源的获取与惠益分享问题、生物技术的专利性及相关问题以及生物安全问题和生物剽窃问题.     

知识产权全球保护主义环境下的国家知识产权战略

知识产权全球保护主义即知识产权的全球化加保护主义,其在知识产权国际立法和我国国内立法中都有体现;其影响包括有利于发达国家经济收益最大化、有利于跨国集团通过专利联营攫取高额垄断利润、使得发展中国家处于被动和不利地位等方面;我国国家知识产权战略从加强知识产权保护、防止知识产权滥用、将优势领域知识产权作为战略重点、提升知识产权创造能力和扩大知识产权对外交流合作等方面做出了应对.