Towards an Ecological Intellectual Property

David J Jefferson is Research Fellow and Member of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Project Harnessing Intellectual Property to Build Food Security in the TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland, Australia. David holds a PhD in Law from the University of Queensland and a JD from the University of California, Davis.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

A Note on Methodology

Structure of the Book and Chapter Summaries

Part 1: Conventional Approaches to the Governance of Human-Plant Interactions

Chapter 1. Taking Plants Seriously in Law

1.1. Challenging the Epistemology of Plants

1.2. Recognising Nature as a Subject with Rights

1.3. Eco-centric Ecuador: Constitutional Protections for Pachamama

1.4. Towards an "Ecological Turn" in Law

Chapter 2. Turning Plants into Intellectual Property

2.1. Plants as Inventions

2.2. The Emergence of Systems for Plant Breeders’ Rights

2.3. Alternatives to the Plant Breeders’ Rights Model of Intellectual Property for Plants

Chapter 3. Universalising an Instrumental Approach to Plants in Law

3.1. The Contraction of Policy Space for Intellectual Property Lawmaking

3.2. The Expansion of UPOV as Explained by Free Trade Agreements

Chapter 4. The Logic of Plant Genetic Resources

4.1. The End of the Common Heritage Approach

4.2. The Emergence of the Global Biodiversity Treaties

4.3. The Instrumental, Economic, and Proprietary Logics of Plant Genetic Resources

Part 2: Experimenting with an Eco-Centric Approach: An Ecuadorian Story

Chapter 5. Reconfiguring Intellectual Property in Ecuador

5.1. The Ingenios Act: Intellectual Property Meets Sumak Kawsay

5.2. The Making of the Ingenios Act

5.3. The Aspirations of the Ingenios Act

5.4. The New Institutionalism of the Ingenios Act

5.5. The Ingenios Act: Reimagination or Recapitulation?

Chapter 6. The Ecuadorian Approach to Intellectual Property for Plants

6.1. The Reconstitution of the Plant Variety in the Ingenios Act

6.2. The Limits of Intellectual Property for Plants in the Ingenios Act

Chapter 7. Alternatives to Conventional Legal Imaginaries for Human-Plant Interactions

7.1. Seed Law as an Alternative to Intellectual Property

7.2. Traditional Knowledge Protection as an Alternative to Intellectual Property

7.3. Food Sovereignty as an Alternative to Intellectual Property

Chapter 8. Lessons from the Ecuadorian Experiment with an Ecological Turn in Lawmaking

8.1. Pachamama Goes to Court: Adjudicating the Rights of Nature

8.2. What the Rights of Nature Jurisprudence Means for Plants

8.3. Lessons from Eco-Centric Experiments in Lawmaking

Bibliography

Appendix I: Tables

Appendix II: Figures