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International Trade Law

Series

2011

IP

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Acta's Constitutional Problem: The Treaty That Is Not A Treaty (Or An Executive Agreement), Sean Flynn Mar 2011

Acta's Constitutional Problem: The Treaty That Is Not A Treaty (Or An Executive Agreement), Sean Flynn

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The planned entry of the U.S. into the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) poses a unique Constitutional problem. The problem is that the President lacks constitutional authority to bind the U.S. to the agreement without congressional consent; but that lack of authority may not prevent the U.S. from being bound to the agreement under international law. If the administration succeeds in its plan, ACTA may be a binding international treaty (under international law) that is not a treaty (under U.S. Constitutional law).


An Overview And The Evolution Of The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), Margot E. Kaminski Jan 2011

An Overview And The Evolution Of The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), Margot E. Kaminski

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a plurilateral intellectual property agreement developed outside of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), represents an attempt to introduce maximalist intellectual property standards in the international sphere, outside of existing institutional checks and balances. ACTA is primarily a copyright treaty, masquerading as a treaty that addresses dangerous medicines and defective imports. The latest ACTA draft, which is the final text available to the public before the signed text is released, contains significant shifts away from earlier draft language towards more moderate language, although it poses the same institutional problems …