Property rights, indigenous people and the developing world : : issues from aboriginal entitlement to intellectual ownership rights / / by David Lea.

• Author: Lea, David, 1946-
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Nijhoff eBook titles 2008
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (306 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

This work offers an analysis of the Western formal system of private property and its moral justification and explains the relevance of the institution to particular current issues that face aboriginal peoples and the developing world. The subjects under study include broadly: aboriginal land claims; third world development; intellectual property rights and the relatively recent TRIPs agreement (Trade related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights). Within these broad areas we highlight the following concerns: the maintenance of cultural integrity; group autonomy; economic benefit; access to health care; biodiversity; biopiracy and even the independence of the recently emerged third world nation states. Despite certain apparent advantages from embracing the Western institution of private ownership, the text explains that the Western institution of private property is undergoing a fundamental redefinition through the expansion

Table of Contents

Aboriginal entitlement and conservative theory -- Individual autonomy, group self-determination and the assimilation of indigenous cultures -- Shareholder wealth maximization, multinational corporations and the developing world -- Tully and de Soto on uniformity and diversity -- Customary land tenure and communal holdings -- Custom as law -- Papua New Guinea and the legal methods for maintaining customary land tenure -- Customary land tenure in Fiji : a questionable colonial legacy -- The expansion and restructuring of intellectual property and its implications for the developing world -- The myth of free markets : intellectual property the IT industry, and market freedom in the global arena -- From the Wright Brothers to Microsoft : issues in the moral grounding of intellectual property rights -- A delicate balance : the right to health care, IP rights in pharmaceuticals and TRIPS compliance -- Rights and genetic material in agriculture and human research : two forms of biopiracy?