International Enclosure Movement

Described in the following essay by Peter Yu: Intellectual Property Rulemaking in the Global Capitalist Economy.

See also: Second Enclosures

Description

"The chapter begins by tracing the international enclosure movement from the creation of Berne and Paris Conventions to the establishment of the TRIPs Agreement and the recent bilateral and regional trade agreements. It explains how the one-size-fits-all standards required by the latter agreements have drastically reduced the policy space available to less developed countries. The chapter then examines the resistance efforts put up by less developed countries during the Doha Development Round of Trade Negotiations (―Doha Round‖). It discusses, in particular, the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (―Doha Declaration‖), the Decision on the Implementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (―August 30 Decision‖), and the proposed article 31bis of the TRIPs Agreement. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the root causes of the international enclosure movement and offers suggestions on how countries can reform the international intellectual property system—both to restore its balance and to reclaim their lost policy space."