Law Commons^™

Hyperownership In A Time Of Biotechnological Promise: The International Conflict To Control The Building Blocks Of Life, Sabrina Safrin

Rutgers Law School (Newark) Faculty Papers

This article addresses the corrosive interplay between the patent-based and the sovereign- based systems of ownership of genetic material. In patent-based systems, genetic material is increasingly “owned” by corporations or research institutions which obtain patents over such material. In sovereign-based systems, the national government owns or extensively controls such material. As more patents issue for synthesized genes in developed countries through the patent system, more raw genetic material is legally enclosed by the governments of developing nations, which house most of the world’s wild or raw genetic material. This interactive spiral of increased enclosure results in the sub-optimal utilization, conservation …

Treaties In Collision: The Biosafety Protocol And The World Trade Organization Agreements, Sabrina Safrin

Rutgers Law School (Newark) Faculty Papers

In the event of a conflict between the requirements of the Biosafety Protocol, a multilateral agreement governing the trade in genetically modified organisms, and the requirements of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and associated agreements (collectively WTO Agreements), which treaty's requirements prevail? This question lies as the legal heart of the perceived conflict between trade globalization and environmental protection. This issue is particularly timely given the present trade dispute between the United States and European Union over the European Union’s restrictions on the importation of genetically modified agricultural commodities.

In this piece, I analyze the relationship between these …