Power, Norms, and International Intellectual Property Law

Public international law scholarship has developed metatheories to account for power. However, few scholars have tested these theories in contemporary problems involving both private and public international law. By examining global intellectual property problems, this article clarifies a metatheory of power that the author previously developed and applied to state succession and to foreign investments. Through analyses of international IP rule-making, decision-making in tribunals, and corporate transactions, this article validates a typology in which international decisions tend to reflect a balance of power and legal and social norms. These decisions in turn reallocate power and adjust norms. New decisions then follow. By understanding this dynamic balance, decision-makers will be better able to anticipate the aggregate consequences of their strategies and more effectively promote the relevant policy goals