Actor-network theory and socio-legal objects: analysing TRIPS and pharmaceutical patents in the Republic of Djibouti
Actor-network theory and socio-legal objects: analysing TRIPS and pharmaceutical patents in the Republic of Djibouti
复制标题
DOI：
--
复制
发表时间：
2006-07
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
E. Cloatre
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
E. Cloatre
这项研究分析了与贸易有关的知识产权协议(TRIPS)和药品专利在吉布提公共卫生网络中的作用和行动，采用的方法主要是受行动者-网络理论(ANT)的启发。通过这样做，它解决了超出本案例研究的特殊性的问题，并更广泛地与ANT与社会法律分析的相关性有关。在过去的十年里，与贸易有关的知识产权协议、药品专利和发展中国家公共卫生之间的关系一直是一个广泛争论的问题。然而，该领域仍然受到现有研究中选择的方法和案例研究范围相对一致的限制。该项目旨在解决其中一些限制，通过考察TRIPS和药品专利在一个小国中的作用，这个小国没有当地的制药工业，没有预先存在的官方知识产权制度，而且基本上没有记录在案的公共卫生系统。在这个项目中使用ANT可以突出TRIPS和药品专利机制的复杂性。它参与强调，它们需要被理解为由多个共存的维度组成。通过展示具体的联系和联系如何塑造了与贸易有关的知识产权协议和药品专利在吉布提的网络中的作用和作用，这项研究强调了社会和法律之间的二分法是人为的，并提出了一种对社会关系的对称和相互依赖的理解。它讨论了这种方法对社会法律研究的更广泛的相关性。吉布提的例子也允许人们就“与贸易有关的知识产权协议”和药品专利在“发展中国家”的实际影响提出新的问题。特别是，它强调有必要重新采取更平衡的方法来处理贫穷国家的药品专利和健康之间的关系。
This research analyses the role and action of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Agreements (TRIPS) and pharmaceutical patents in the public health network of Djibouti, by using an approach largely inspired by actor-network theory (ANT). In doing so, it addresses issues that run beyond the specificities of this case study and relate more broadly to the relevance of ANT to socio-legal analysis. The relation between TRIPS, pharmaceutical patents and public health in developing countries has been a widely debated issue in the past decade. However, the field remains limited by a relative uniformity in the range of approaches and case studies chosen in existing research. This project aims to address some of these limits, by looking at the role of TRIPS and pharmaceutical patents in a small country with no local pharmaceutical industry, no pre-existing official system of intellectual property, and with a largely undocumented public health system. Using ANT in this project allowed for the complexity of the mechanisms of both TRIPS and pharmaceutical patents to be highlighted. It participated in emphasising that they need to be understood as made of multiple, co-existing dimensions. By demonstrating how specific connections and associations have shaped what TRIPS and pharmaceutical patents are and do in the networks of Djibouti, this research emphasises the artificiality of the dichotomy between social and legal, and proposes an understanding of social connections as symmetrical and co-dependent. It discusses the more general relevance of this approach to socio-legal research. The example of Djibouti also allows for new questions to be raised in relation to the actual impact of TRIPS and pharmaceutical patents in “developing countries”. In particular, it emphasises the need to return to a more balanced approach to the relation between pharmaceutical patents and health in poor countries.