Writing Globalization's Rulebook: Balancing Health, Wealth, and Intellectual Property in the Era of Free Trade

撰写全球化的规则手册：在自由贸易时代平衡健康、财富和知识产权项目摘要（mes -0617374）本研究考察了知识产权（IP）法律在药品方面的应用以及由此产生的政治斗争，重点研究了中美洲自由贸易协定（CAFTA）中三个国家的经验：危地马拉、哥斯达黎加和多米尼加共和国。该协议包含开创性的“TRIPS-plus”条款，重新配置国家在专利执法中的角色；它的批评者警告说，它将限制获得非专利药物，使贫困国家的公共卫生服务紧张。其结果是，围绕CAFTA知识产权条款的辩论，使日益拥护经济和社会权利（如健康权）的人权运动，直接与知识产权日益发挥核心作用的自由贸易倡导者对立起来。这个项目的学术价值在于，它通过知识产权的视角审视了全球化的更广泛动态及其对权利保护和参与式民主的影响。长期以来，拉丁美洲国家一直在努力应对平衡外国投资需求与关注紧迫的社会优先事项之间的挑战。然而，贸易协定将具体的政策授权写入了一个新兴的跨国法律体系，创造了一套新的论坛，在这些论坛上决定对这些需求的相对关注程度。对全球化影响的分析通常分为两个两极分化的阵营——一些评论家吹捧贸易自由化是解决贫困的办法，而另一些人则谴责它是剥削发展中国家的工具。这两种观点都倾向于假设协议的文本决定其结果。但事实上，像CAFTA这样的贸易协定为积极和消极的结果提供了可能性；这两者之间的平衡取决于在不同国家背景下理解和实施具体法律的方式。社会科学研究可以阐明这一过程，为更积极的结果提供可能性。本项目考察了三个CAFTA国家的行动者为影响协定知识产权章节的解释和实施所采取的五种方式。考察国际人权法院审理案件的进展、宪法挑战的使用、在世贸组织倡导对比知识产权政策、大规模抗议和美国民选官员的跨国游说。它通过对参与围绕这一问题的社会运动的人士的深入访谈，探讨了他们利用的力量、他们选择的原因，以及这些因素对构建知识产权政策的影响，该政策在遵守协议条款的同时回应了对获得药物的关注。最终，本研究试图理解CAFTA的知识产权法律，一旦成文，形成和解释的过程。什么地方的、国家的和跨国的力量塑造了特定战术的成功？不同的策略在多大程度上是相互加强的？是什么力量推动了迄今为止取得的成就？这些成就对未来有什么影响？本研究具有广泛的公共意义。它为知识产权法提供了广泛相关的见解，这一领域的发展在很大程度上超出了社会科学调查对其更广泛影响的审查。虽然关于贸易政策的激烈辩论很容易找到，但关于贸易自由化这些方面对民主、主权和人权的影响的更细致入微的讨论却很缺乏。这个项目将帮助培养学生进行跨境比较研究，这对了解我们的世界越来越必要。其研究结果将在学术界内外广泛传播，并将与与本半球健康、财富和贸易的未来息息相关的各种公众息息相关。

Writing Globalization's Rulebook: Balancing Health, Wealth, and Intellectual Property in the Era of Free Trade Project Abstract (SES-0617374)This research examines the application of intellectual property (IP) law to medicines and the political struggles this has generated, focusing on the experience of three countries inscribed in the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA): Guatemala, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic. The agreement contains pioneering "TRIPS-plus" provisions that reconfigure the role of the state in patent enforcement; its detractors warn that it will limit access to generic medications, straining public health services in impoverished countries. As a result, debates over CAFTA's IP provisions have pit the human rights movement, which has increasingly embraced economic and social rights such as the right to health, directly against advocates of free trade, in which IP rights have taken on an increasingly central role. The intellectual merits of this project lie in its examination, through the lens of IP, of the broader dynamics of globalization and their implications for rights protection and participatory democracy. Latin American states have long grappled with the challenge of balancing needs for foreign investment with attention to urgent social priorities. Yet trade agreements inscribe specific policy mandates into an emergent body of transnational law, creating a new set of fora in which the relative amounts of attention paid to these needs is decided. Analyses of globalization's impact often fall into two polarized camps -- some commentators tout trade liberalization as the solution to poverty, while others decry it as an instrument for the exploitation of the developing world. Both views tend to assume the text of the agreements determines their outcomes. Yet in fact, trade agreements like CAFTA open possibilities for both positive and negative outcomes; the balance between these is determined by the way specific laws are understood and implemented in different national contexts. Social scientific research can shed light into this process, illuminating possibilities for more positive outcomes.This project examines five ways in which actors on the ground in three CAFTA countries are working to shape the interpretation and implementation of the agreement's IP chapter. Examining the advancement of cases before international human rights courts, the use of Constitutional challenges, the advocacy of contrasting IP policies at the WTO, mass protest, and the transnational lobbying of US elected officials. It draws on in-depth interviews with those involved in social movements around this issue, exploring the forces they draw on, the reasons for their choices, and the implications of these for the construction of an IP policy that responds to concerns about access to medications while adhering to the terms of the agreement. Ultimately, this study seeks to understand the process whereby the IP laws in CAFTA, once written, are shaped and interpreted. What local, national, and transnational forces shape the success of specific tactics? To what extent are diverse tactics mutually reinforcing? What forces drive the gains achieved thus far, and what are the implications of these for the future?This research has broad public significance. It contributes broadly relevant insights about IP law, a field that has developed largely beyond the scrutiny of social scientific inquiry into its broader implications. While acrimonious debates about trade policy are easy to find, more nuanced discussions about the implications of these aspects of trade liberalization for democracy, sovereignty, and human rights are lacking. This project will help train students in the kind of cross-border, comparative research increasingly necessary to understand our world. Its findings will be disseminated widely in academic circles and beyond, and will be relevant to diverse publics who share a stake in the future of health, wealth, and trade in our hemisphere.