Dispute settlement Panels and the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have long been criticised for a ‘textual’ approach to treaty interpretation which focuses too much on the ordinary meaning of treaty provisions. Arguably this approach responded to fears of judicial...

International intellectual property (IP) law has moved from the absence of any obligations on criminal IP enforcement in the ‘pre-TRIPS era’ to a flexible international minimum standard embodied in Art.61 of the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)....

This paper examines the scope of policy space available to integrate economic, social and environmental concerns under the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Protection (TRIPS). It does this by comparing the amount of discretion...

In two recent prominent disputes in the World Trade Organization (WTO), developing country complainants are using the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to induce compliance with favorable WTO rulings. Brazil in the US - Cotton dispute and Antigua in...

Policy Makers, commentators and scholars increasingly realise the impact (international) intellectual property (IP) protection has beyond incentivising investment in innovation and creativity. IP also touches upon areas of general societal concern such as public health, access to information,...

This paper contains the outline, as well as the introductory and concluding chapters of a monograph on the protection of intellectual property (IP) in the wider context of international law (OUP, 2016). Against the background of the debate about norm relations within and between different rule...

As a framework regulation for innovation markets, the patent system needs to be tailored to the innovation process, which it is supposed to serve, and to the competitive environment, within which it must operate. In order to ensure an efficient functionality of the patent system as an innovation...