Access and Benefit Sharing of Genetic Resources, Information and Traditional Knowledge

Addressing the management of genetic resources, this book offers a new assessment of the contemporary Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) regime. Debates about ABS have moved on. The initial focus on the legal obligations established by international agreements like the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the form of obligations for collecting physical biological materials have now shifted into a far more complex series of disputes and challenges about the ways ABS should be implemented and enforced. These now cover a wide range of issues, including: digital sequence information, the repatriation of resources, technology transfer, traditional knowledge and cultural expressions, open access to information and knowledge, naming conventions, farmers’ rights, new schemes for accessing pandemic viruses sharing DNA sequences, and so on. Drawing together perspectives from an interdisciplinary range of leading and emerging international scholars, this book offers a new approach to the ABS landscape; as it breaks from the standard regulatory analyses in order to explore alternative solutions to the intractable issues for the Access and Benefit Sharing of genetic resources. Addressing these modern legal debates from a perspective that will appeal to both ABS scholars and those with broader legal concerns in the areas of intellectual property, food, governance, Indigenous issues, and so on, this book will be a useful resource for scholars and students as well as those in government and in international institutions working in relevant areas.

Table of Contents:
1. Finding Solutions to the Intractable ABS Problems Charles Lawson, Fran Humphries and Michelle Rourke Theme 1 – Governance issues (working better) 2. The CBD’s Term ‘Sovereign Right(s)’ Does Not Necessarily Mean Sovereignty Todd Berry 3. Common Heritage or Sovereign Resource? The World Health Organisation’s Inconsistent Approach to Pathogen Sharing Mark Eccleston-Turner and Michelle Rourke 4. Access and Benefit Sharing in a Pandemic Treaty and Future International Public Health Agreements Sam F. Halabi 5. Access and Benefit Sharing and Biodiversity Conservation: The Unrealized Connection Rachel Wynberg and Sarah Laird 6. Message in a Bottle: DNA Computers Challenge Access and Benefit Sharing Regulation Fran Humphries, Michelle Rourke and Charles Lawson Theme 2 – ‘Digital Sequence Information’ and Dealing with Information 7. What Should We Mean by ‘Open Access’? Marcel Jaspars and Abbe E.L. Brown 8. Value Judgements and the Management of Digital Sequence Information Under the International Access and Benefit Sharing Regime Michelle Rourke 9. Access and Benefit Sharing and Digital Sequence Information: Unravelling the Knot Christine Frison and Elsa Tsioumani 10. Compatible or Incompatible? DSI, Open Access and Benefit Sharing Rodrigo Sara, Andrew Lee Hufton and Amber Hartman Scholz 11. Access and Benefit Sharing and Digital Sequence Information in Africa: A Critical Analysis of Contemporary Concerns in Regional Governance Titilayo Adebola and Daniele Manzella Theme 3 – Embracing Indigenous Peoples and local communities 12. Biocultural Community Protocols: Making Space for Indigenous and Local Cultures in Access and Benefit Sharing? Christine Frison, Louisa Parks and Elsa Tsioumani 13. Access and Benefit Sharing and Biocultural Protocols in the Pacific Daniel Robinson and Margaret Raven 14. ABS or Access Before Sharing: A Samoan Perspective Solamalemalo Saeumalo Hai Yuean Faatapepe Menime Tualima and Kathy Bowrey Theme 4 – Compliance measures for the users of genetic resources 15. ABS from the Perspective of an Intellectual Property Professional at a Public Research Institution Mukul Ranjan 16. Which Nagoya Protocol? User Driven Solutions to the Legal Uncertainty Created by Nagoya Brad Sherman 17. The Torres Strait Eight: Climate Litigation, Biodiversity, Human Rights and Indigenous Intellectual Property Matthew Rimmer 18. Monitoring Compliance with Nagoya: Lessons from India on Building a Techno-legal Infrastructure to Track Bioprospecting Activities Allison Fish

About the Author :
Charles Lawson is Professor of Law at Griffith University Law School, Australia. Michelle Rourke is CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Fellow at Griffith University Law School, Australia. Fran Humphries is Senior Lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, Australia.