A Trip to Inequity: How the TRIPS Agreement Hinders Access to Needed COVID-19 Therapeutics
Ruchita Jain The COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage on in much of the world, severely affecting the health of millions. But citizens of high-income nations have accepted the pandemic to be over. The key to ending the pandemic globally across all nations is equal and efficient access to necessary COVID-19 therapeutics, including vaccines. This Article argues that least developed nations and their access to COVID-19 therapeutics, including vaccines, is negatively impacted by the TRIPS Agreement. International human rights law and the TRIPS Agreement remain incompatible, leading to disproportionate access of necessary therapeutics as systemic racism is perpetuated. Along with considering...
Crime and Punishment: Holding Russia Accountable for Weakening Foreign Entities’ Intellectual Property Rights
Eliot Usherenko The Russian government has deliberately weakened intellectual property right protections for entities from “unfriendly countries.” Following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent imposition of economic sanctions by the United States and its allies, the Kremlin launched policies targeting Western businesses as they withdrew from the Russian market. This Article analyzes three potential recourses—bilateral, multilateral, and non-governmental—impacted corporations and individuals could execute to hold Russia accountable for its discriminatory treatment. This Article argues that corporations should form partnerships with their respective governments to promote intergovernmental dialogue through mechanisms such as treaties, as well as undertake litigation in Russia’s...
Make “Space” for Innovation
John Thurston As space exploration becomes increasingly privatized, archaic regulations based on Cold-War era treaties are proving unduly burdensome—they threaten to hinder private innovation and handicap a great societal benefit. Although space is best regulated through international treaties, Congress can take the lead in ushering global space law into the modern era by establishing preferred, and hopefully influential, standards here in the United States. Congress ought to amend the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 to centralize regulatory authority, streamline authorization processes, allocate more risk to the private sector, and proclaim limited support for private property rights in space....
The 1997 GATS Agreement on Basic Telecommunications: A Triumph for Multilateralism, or the Market?
Eric Senunas On February 15, 1997, sixty-nine governments signed an agreement seeking to liberalize the world telecommunications market – a market, according to Renato Ruggiero, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), worth “well over half a trillion dollars per year.” According to Ruggiero, these sixty-nine countries making commitments account for more than 90% of telecommunications revenue worldwide. In a statement issued February 17, 1997, Ruggerio congratulated the governments for their “determination and foresight in bringing this negotiation to a successful conclusion.” Perhaps in acknowledgment of the many delays in concluding the agreement, Ruggiero said that not all the...