CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Turan, Pelin |
|---|---|
| Title | Gazing at Intellectual Property Law Through the Lens of Critical Race Theory: The Interplay of Race, Power, and Intellectual Property Law |
| Summary | The post-colonial era witnessed the emergence of a new strand of intellectual property (IP) scholarship primarily concerned with the Western-centrism of the international IP system and its distant stance to non-Western modes of creatorship and creativity. The scholarly debates revolving around this conundrum are often detached from the history of colonialism, hence, disregard the core of this dilemma: Western (European) modernity and the inevitable repercussion of its overarching racial thought on the idea and key concepts of IP law. This dissertation endeavors to fill the gap in the literature by producing a postmodernist critique of Western (European) modernity and its projections onto the law, particularly onto IP law, with the aim of exposing the legacies of the colonial mindset and the racialized valorization schemes overhauling contemporary IP law. In this vein, it is asserted herein that law is not an objective and value-neutral enterprise, and IP law is not an exception. This skepticism toward the universality and value-neutrality of IP law is manifold: The racialized power and cultural hierarchies of Western (European) modernity not only rested the foundations of international IP law, but also pushed non-Western political actors to the periphery of the global IP diplomacy. These power asymmetries ruling the IP diplomacy facilitated the implementation of racial connotations into the key concepts and principles of IP law. Such subjectively articulated norms, on the one hand, reflect and sacralize the Western (European) cultural values and assumptions. On the other hand, they set the standards and contour the scope of the global(ized) IP frameworks and protection. The dissertation adopts Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a method for legal thought and analysis, while contributing to its most recent offshoot: The Critical Race IP Movement. Committed to postmodern American jurisprudence; it maps the interplay of race, power, and (IP) law from a race-oriented viewpoint, whilst illuminating the investments of international law and the maneuvers of international diplomacy in the subordination of racialized minorities and indigenous peoples by means of IP law. Driven by its purposes, the dissertation analyzes three jurisdictions connected with a colonial past: The United Kingdom, the United States, and the Commonwealth of Australia. Within these parameters, it follows the timeline of the fabrication of the idea of race in parallel to that of the genesis and evolution of IP law. It traces the interaction of these phenomena both in a colonial and post-colonial context. In doing so, it undertakes the challenge of applying the main tenets and doctrinal resolutions of CRT to other common law countries. The dissertation reveals that the law does not operate in an economic, historical, and political vacuum – neither does IP law. They prioritize, justify, essentialize, and ratify the culturally-specific and materially-driven interests of economically and politically powerful actors. Thus, prior to confronting the capacity of IP law to extend legal protection to historically marginalized creators and creations, one shall question whether the racialized cultural and power hierarchies that have been informing international (IP) law over centuries can eventually be undone. |
| Supervisor | Sganga, Caterina & Möschel, Mathias |
| Department | Legal Studies PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/turan_pelin.pdf |
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