LAW REVIEW ARTICLES & BOOK CHAPTERS

Illuminating Innovation: What Patent Policy Can Learn from the Lightbulb (in progress). [SSRN]

The central justification offered for patent protection is the need to incentivize technological innovation. Yet, there is so far little empirical evidence that this aim is actually achieved. Legal scholars and economists alike have been stumped by the difficulty of testing this innovation hypothesis. This Article approaches this question through a case study into one of the most important technological revolutions of the past two centuries: electrification. Did patent protection on the light bulb ultimately serve the public interest in channeling investment to research and development in the early electric industry? Or were Edison’s patents used to stifle competition, ultimately holding back the spread of electricity throughout the United States? In seeking answers to these questions, Edison’s famous bulb sheds new light on the modern debate over the costs and benefits of patent protection for innovation, growth, and diffusion of new technologies.

Checks and Balances: Evaluating Judicial Maneuvers of Rights Expansion and Contraction (in progress). [SSRN]

Since the 1960s, a rough consensus has emerged in the U.S. legal community, which views judicial balancing as a significant threat to constitutional freedoms, to be avoided and constrained. Insufficient attention has been paid, however, to the ways in which balancing may be used to expand constitutional protection of individual rights. In this article, I argue that judicial balancing not only may serve to expand protection of constitutional rights, but that it is in fact an indispensable tool for this purpose.

The Right to Science and Culture, 2010 Wisconsin Law Review 121 (2010). Presented at the 2009 IP Scholars Conference. [SSRN]

Today, economists and legal scholars widely agree that patent and copyright protections are higher than ideal. International IP law, however, poses a significant barrier to reform. One possible route out of this dilemma may be found at Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which specifies that “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.” This article suggests how to the right to science and culture, properly understood, may offer a philosophical and legal basis to advance sensible IP reform.

The Inter-American Human Rights System: An Effective Institution for Regional Rights Protection? (Forthcoming 2010, Washington University Global Studies Law Review). [SSRN]

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights are charged with protecting human rights in the Western hemisphere. This article explains the workings of this regional human rights system, examining its history, composition, functions, jurisdiction, jurisprudence, and enforcement. The article also evaluates the system’s historical effectiveness and considers various suggested institutional reforms to improve future outcomes. Particular attention is given to the problems of improving human rights compliance in Cuba, and addressing growing dissatisfaction among the Caribbean countries.

The Right to Take Part in Cultural Life, 27 Wisconsin International Law Journal 637 (2009). With Caterina Sganga. [SSRN]

This short essay suggests how the law might give meaning to “the right to take part in cultural life,” with particular attention to issues arising in an age of digital culture. The authors conclude that the right should be understood in terms of the ability to access, enjoy, engage, and extend upon a common cultural inheritance; and that realizing this right will require significant reforms in international intellectual property law.

Access to Knowledge: Economic, global and local perspectives, in Access to Knowledge in Egypt: New Research on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development (ed. Nagla Rizk & Lea Shaver) (Bloomsbury Academic, February 2010). With Nagla Rizk. [SSRN]

The conventional wisdom in Egypt, as in many developing countries, examines the issue of intellectual property solely as a question of policing and enforcement.  Yet a more critical examination is urgently needed, whereby IP law, policy, and practice are viewed from a development perspective, rather than from an enforcement perspective.

Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development: The Access to Knowledge Approach, in Access to Knowledge in Brazil: New Research on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development (ed. Lea Shaver) (Bloomsbury Academic, February 2010). [SSRN]

Public discourse on IP often fails to ask the fundamental question: What is the purpose of intellectual property? The premise of this volume is that intellectual property law exists to promote innovation and human development. First and foremost, IP policy must be judged by how well it advances—or frustrates—these goals.

Defining and Measuring A2K: A Blueprint for an Index of Access to Knowledge, I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, Vol 4. Issue 2 (2008) [SSRN]

This article  provides a blueprint for the development of a robust and reliable Index of Access to Knowledge. For those new to the Access to Knowledge framework, this article also serves as a concrete and concise orientation to the new perspective rapidly reshaping the fields of international development, communications, technology, education, and intellectual property.