Conference criticizing the international politics of Traditional Knowledge

A conference held recently at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva brought to the surface a powerful set of academic critiques of the politics of TK law at the international level. Criticizing instruments like the otherwise much-praised Nagoya Protocol, academics (many of whom involved in the negotiations and / or implementation of the instrument) suggested that the field is still riddled with concessions to state sovereignty and loopholes that disregard the transnational nature of TK exploitation.

A fuller report of the conference presents some of the arguments made in more nuance, and is well worth a read.

Written by Lucas Lixinski