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3 - Intellectual Property Social Justice: A Theoretical Rationale

from Part I - IP Social Justice Foundations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2024

Steven D. Jamar
Affiliation:
Howard University (Washington DC) School of Law
Lateef Mtima
Affiliation:
Howard University (Washington DC) School of Law
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Summary

Legal and other scholars offer and regularly debate a variety of theories of justification for intellectual property protection.2 After all, the intellectual property law helps to determine what kinds of intellectual property people produce and who has access to the products of intellectual property endeavors, including the knowledge and information contained in books and even the life-saving benefits of drugs and medicines.3 While lawmakers can weigh and balance competing societal needs and interests and then promulgate specific laws to achieve particular social objectives, it falls to judges to construe and implement those rules. In doing so, the judges, aided by legal scholarship, identify and articulate the principles, policies, and purposes that, together with the rules themselves, both statutory and common law, supply the bases and justifications for their interpretation and application of the law. Much the same as other legal regimes, and at times even more so given the nature of at least some types of works addressed by IP law, IP law must be shaped to accommodate technological advances and changing social conditions.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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