Fall 2007 (21.3) Feature

Trade Rules, Intellectual Property, and the Right to Health

In perpetuating and exacerbating restricted access to essential medicines, current trade-related intellectual property rules on medicines may violate core human rights to health and medicines. In this light, there should be serious questions about their necessity, and their justification should be critically assessed from the perspective of human rights standards. These standards require that international trade rules on medicines be justified to the fullest extent possible, and permitted only to the extent to which they can be justified.

In this article I explore the impact of trade rules on medicines access, and the growing force of the human right to health. I argue that the limited justification for strong patents in poor countries suggests the need for significant reform of trade-related intellectual property rights. I argue further that human rights standards may offer both normative and practical tools for achieving this reform and challenging trade rules on medicines at various levels.

To read or purchase the full text of this article, click here.

More in this issue

Fall 2007 (21.3) Review

Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency by Richard A. Posner

Sadly, discussions of the pricklier issues of law, terrorism, and security rarely follow a cool, pragmatic approach. Richard Posner provides just such a perspective on ...

Fall 2007 (21.3) Review

Ethics in Action: The Ethical Challenges of International Human Rights Nongovernmental Organizations edited by Daniel A. Bell and Jean-Marc Coicaud

Between 2002-2005, the UN University and the City University of Hong Kong organized a series of "dialogues" about the ethical challenges facing international nongovernmental organizations (...

Fall 2007 (21.3) Review

The Parliament of Man by Paul Kennedy; Secretary or General? edited by Simon Chesterman; and The Best Intentions by James Traub

With a new secretary-general now in charge and the memories of the bitter final years of his predecessor still vivid, a timely procession of books ...