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Primitive Accumulation And Enclosure Of The Commons: Genetically Engineered Seeds And Canadian Jurisprudence, Wilhelm Peekhaus
Primitive Accumulation And Enclosure Of The Commons: Genetically Engineered Seeds And Canadian Jurisprudence, Wilhelm Peekhaus
Wilhelm Peekhaus
This paper juxtaposes the legal decisions made in the case of Percy Schmeiser, who was sued by Monsanto for patent infringement, against the attempt by the Organic Agriculture Protection Fund to obtain class certification in its efforts to sue Monsanto and Bayer for genetic contamination of organic canola. Together these two cases establish an unacceptable incongruity at common law between the rights enjoyed by intellectual property owners and any corresponding duties that might attach to their inventions. I suggest that Marx’s concept of primitive accumulation offers a suitable theoretical register for apprehending contemporary erosions of the commons through the enclosure …
Research In The Biotech Age: Can Informational Privacy Compete?, Wilhelm Peekhaus
Research In The Biotech Age: Can Informational Privacy Compete?, Wilhelm Peekhaus
Wilhelm Peekhaus
This paper examines the privacy of personal medical information in the health research context. Arguing that biomedical research in Canada has been caught up in the government’s broader neo-liberal policy agenda that has positioned biotechnology as a strategic driver of economic growth, the author discusses the tension between informational privacy and the need for medical information for research purposes. Consideration is given to the debate about whether privacy for medical information serves or hinders the ‘public good’ in respect of medical research, and to discussions of informed consent as an element of ‘fair information practices’ designed to safeguard the privacy …