Read more
This book examines the current legal status of the international genetic information commons and proposes alternative management strategies.
List of contents
1. Uncertain legal status of microbial genetic resources in a conflicted geopolitical environment; Part I. International Regulation of Genetic Resources and the Assault on Scientific Research: 2. Between public and private goods: emergence of the transnational research commons for plant and microbial genetic resources; 3. Tightening the regulatory grip: from the convention on biological diversity in 1992 to the Nagoya protocol in 2010; Part II. Preserving the Public Research Functions of Microbial Genetic Resources After the Nagoya Protocol: 4. The existing microbial research commons confronts proprietary obstacles; 5. Facilitating transnational exchanges of genetic resources within a redesigned microbial research infrastructure; Part III. A Digitally Integrated Infrastructure for Microbial Data and Information: 6. Legal and institutional obstacles impeding access to and use of scientific literature and data; 7. Enabling the microbial research community to control its own scholarly publications; 8. Fully exploiting data-intensive research opportunities in the networked environment; Part IV. Governing Public Knowledge Assets within a Redesigned Microbial Research Commons: 9. Institutional models for a transnational research commons; 10. Governing digitally integrated genetic resources, data, and literature.
About the author
Jerome H. Reichman is the Bunyan S. Womble Professor of Law at Duke University School of Law. His research deals with the impact of intellectual property on public health, developing countries, and global science policy. He is the co-author, most recently, of Intellectual Property Rights: Legal and Economic Challenges for Development (2014).Paul F. Uhlir, JD was Director of the Board on Research Data and Information at the National Academies in Washington, DC, and of the US CODATA until the end of 2014. He is currently a Scholar at the National Academy of Sciences and a consultant on data policy and management.Tom Dedeurwaerdere is Director of the Biodiversity Governance Unit and Professor of the Philosophy of Social Sciences at Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. The editor of two books on the global environmental commons, he was recently awarded a grant from the European Research Council for a project on governing the global genetic resource commons.
Summary
This book examines the current legal framework governing the use of genetic information for public research. Based on an original survey of practices in a range of scientific fields, the authors propose a blueprint for an international research commons that would promote access to and exchange of scientific data.
