The general theme of this research is the point of contact between the international transfer of environmentally sound technologies as an instrument to promote the mitigation of climate change and the intellectual property rights that (eventually) fall on them.
Last Update: 07.05.19
From a neo-Gramscian approach to international relations, and following the analysis of structured agencies presented by Susan K. Sell on the matter of the negotiations leading up to the TRIPS Agreement (SELL, 2003) and, later, to Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, the objective of the research is to understand the failure of the negotiations for compulsory licenses on climate-related technologies. The research question reads as follows: to what extend does the debate on compulsory licenses on climate-related technologies differ from those on both intellectual property in general access to medicines in particular? In case of identified differences, the question arises of why the Global-South countries have failed to lead the negotiations in the Council for TRIPS to result in a similar declaration?
As for the methodologies applied, other than the historicist method from the aforementioned neo-Gramscian approach, this research also uses a method of discourse analysis in relation to the meetings of the Council for TRIPS in order to map the space of international negotiations, describing the national delegations involved – as well as the agencies, whenever it is possible to clearly identify them – and their respective positions. This analysis ought to be complemented by an adequate literature survey and review in order for the present thesis to answer the research question. For that, such a literature review must include a dialectical-relational and transdisciplinary approach to Environmental Law.
The final thesis is entitled as: “Compulsory licensing on climate-related technologies: An unanswered question” and should be divided in two main parts. In the Part I, theoretical and historical premises will be addressed, such as the understanding of climate change as a symptom of the structural problems of capitalism, as well as the history of negotiations on climate change under the UNFCCC. In parallel, it is necessary to interpret the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement in a more climate-friendly way, in order to understand how far it can reach.
In the Part II, following a map of the positions of different countries on the topic, the inherent impasse between the legal micro-field and the structural macro-field will be addressed. In order to present a reform or even a interpretation proposal, it is necessary to consider both the agencies involved and the structures in which it is embedded. This will be done through a neo-Gramscian approach to international relations, in a historically integrated and dialectical form of explanation of the world order.
Lívia Regina Batista
Ana Maria de Oliveira Nusdeo
I.3 Funktionswandel
