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Intellectual Property And Human Rights In The Nonmultilateral Era, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

In the past decade, countries have actively established bilateral, plurilateral and regional trade and investment agreements, such as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Although commentators have examined the conflict and tension between intellectual property and human rights in the past, the arrival of these agreements has ushered in a new era of nonmultilateralism that warrants a reexamination of the complex interrelationship between intellectual property and human rights.

This article closely examines the human rights impact of the intellectual property provisions in TRIPS-plus nonmultilateral agreements. It begins by outlining the challenges inherent in any analysis of the …