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Technology & Engineering Biomedical

Global Biopiracy

Patents, Plants, and Indigenous Knowledge

by (author) Ikechi Mgbeoji

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Nov 2005
Category
Biomedical, Science & Technology, General, General, Biotechnology, Indigenous Peoples
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774840255
    Publish Date
    Nov 2011
    List Price
    $34.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774811538
    Publish Date
    Jul 2006
    List Price
    $34.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774811521
    Publish Date
    Nov 2005
    List Price
    $95.00

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Description

Legal control and ownership of plants and traditional knowledge of the uses of plants (TKUP) is a vexing issue. The phenomenon of appropriation of plants and TKUP, otherwise known as biopiracy, thrives in a cultural milieu where non-Western forms of knowledge are systemically marginalized and devalued as "folk knowledge" or characterized as inferior. Global Biopiracy rethinks the role of international law and legal concepts, the Western-based, Eurocentric patent systems of the world, and international agricultural research institutions as they affect legal ownership and control of plants and TKUP.

 

The analysis is cast in various contexts and examined at multiple levels. The first deals with the Eurocentric character of the patent system, international law, and institutions. The second involves the cultural and economic dichotomy between the industrialized Western world and the westernizing, developing world. The third level of analysis considers the phenomenal loss of human cultures and plant diversity. Exhaustively researched and eloquently argued, Global Biopiracy sheds new light on a contentious topic. The impact of intellectual property law on indigenous peoples and informal or traditional innovations is a field of study that currently includes only a handful of scholars. Biopiracy will be an invaluable resource for students, teachers, and legal practitioners.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Ikechi Mgbeoji is a professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, and the author of Collective Insecurity: The Liberian Crisis, Unilateralism, and Global Order, also published by UBC Press.

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