Empirical estimates of the private value of patent protection are found for four technology areas - computers, textiles, combustion engines and pharmaceuticals - using new patent renewal data of West German patents collected for the period 1953-1988. In Germany, a patentee must pay an annual renewal fee to keep his patent in force. Two dynamic discrete choice models of optimal renewal decisions are developed and used. in conjunction with observed hazard proportions and renewal fee schedules, to estimate the returns to protection. Differences in value across technology, nationality of inventor and time are explored both non-parametrically and parametrically within a deterministic framework. A stochastic formulation of the model, which allows both for learning about the innovation and market and for the possibility of infringements, is estimated using a minimum distance simulation estimator. The evolution of the distribution of returns over the life of a group of patents is calculated for each technology. Results indicate that learning is completed after 6 years, that obsolescence is rapid, and that the distributions of patent value are very skewed. Research and development (R&D) expenditures for each technology area are calculated and patent protection as an implicit subsidy to investment in R&D is discussed. Patent protection is valuable only when there are potential competitors for the use of an innovation. Patent rights must be defended. A game theoretic analysis of litigation explores how these facts influence the decision whether to apply for and keep a patent in force and, in tum, the relationship between the distribution of patent value and that of the underlying innovation. Implications for renewal behaviour are derived from the analysis and the data suggests that the level of potential competition does affect the value of protection. Consideration is given to how these findings bear on the interpretation of empirical estimates of patent value as indicators of innovation.

This thesis concerns the different ideas, and relationships -to people, plants and knowledge - that -'biopiracy' brings together in Peru. Through assessing different concerns over the use of 'traditional knowledge', the thesis examines the multiple meanings of biopiracy which emerge through particular bundles of relationships. Contribution is made to existing literature concerning indigenous peoples and biodiversity by illustrating the complexity and multiplicity of understandings of 'biopiracy'. The thesis identifies contested meanings of 'biopiracy' and produces a typology of 'biopiracies' through an application ofTsing's (2005) concept of 'friction', and also an analysis of 'biopiracy' as an empirical subject of enquiry in the patent system. In Part One I consider 'biopiracy' and 'traditional knowledge' in international debates, and so establish the main ideological concepts that frame 'global' biopiracy. The thesis explores the plurality of biopiracy by providing nuanced accounts of 'biopirates' and 'traditional knowledge'. Part Two, is an analysis of the work of the Peruvian National Commission Against Biopiracy. This section examines the role of patent searches and of knowledge registers in producing accounts of biopiracy that: reify traditional knowledge, fracture connections with indigenous communities, and that represent the economic interests of the state. The thesis presents a quantitative account of original patent research into 'biopiracy', with an accompanying qualitative analysis that highlights the connections produced - and denied - through 'biopiracy work'. The final section presents ethnographic data from two Amazonian communities - San Francisco de Yarinacocha, and Calleria. This data indicates that particular forms of relationships to people, plants, and knowledge are privileged, as well as cast aside in the mobilisation of 'biopiracy'. Chapter Six presents an analysis of two distinct 'biopiracies': 'Biopiracies of theft' and 'biopiracies of economic opportunity'. These in turn characterise the different, contingent features of 'biopiracy' in Peru.

The research documents the history of land registration in Bahrain since the establishment of Land Registration Directorate in 1924. The land registration system is clearly based on the Islamic Sharia Law, with the influence of the colonial intervention in the establishment of the Directorate. The system could not face the requirements of the society's economical and social requirements after independence in 1971. In 1978 under the newly established Survey Directorate, the cadastral survey started a new era of land information systems. The digital maps produced by the survey Directorate are utilized by all public utilities except Land Registration which depends on a totally manual system and hard copies. The overwhelming benefits of an automated land registration system over its costs are driving force to adopt automation. It is necessary to re-engineer the whole processes within Land Registration Directorate to accommodate the organizational changes, including the development of the human resources. The proposed automation of the land registration system could serve a good example for similar projects in other Arab countries.

Nigeria’s legal framework for supporting the supply of potable water has not proven to be effective. This is primarily due to the non-participation of a broad spectrum of stakeholders, particularly rural community members. A contextualised policy re-orientation through the use of participatory governance may, however, support the development of a more sustainable potable water supply for rural communities. A novel participatory water governance framework, designed to enable effective potable water management for rural communities, has been developed in this study. A conceptual framework drawing on a synthesis of the extant literature provides the basis for a qualitative empirical inquiry. Semi-structured interview with participants who were selected by using a purposive strategy, helped to inform the development of the proposed framework. A key factor of the framework is the establishment of a rural advisory board, which may explore relevant techniques relating to transparency, accountability and participation, customary norms and values, laws, regulations, policies and community task forces. The findings identify that rural community members have capacity to collaborate with state actors and donors in governing their own potable water, enhanced by proximal relationships. This may be inferred from an existing culture of participation in Nigeria, with its own enforcement of customary norms and values through ostracism, enabling compliance and enforcement to governance rules. The findings support a power shift from the centralised government institutional management to a governance of pluralistic process incorporating localised cultural norms. Thus, participatory democratisation may be reasonably institutionalised by using established decision-making processes. These findings have been incorporated into a refined conceptual framework, validated by using the mixed methods approach. The study contributes to knowledge by the theoretical formulation and proposition that participation theory may support the effectiveness of potable water management, while contextualised participatory water governance techniques may be specifically explored to support the legal framework for water supply. The use of socio-legal research methodology provides a further contribution to knowledge, through the exploration of the qualitative approach. The approach provides empirical understanding and interpretation of inquiry, based on several techniques via thematic content analysis. In its conclusion, the study makes recommendations to water resource stakeholders to adopt the practices of decentralization, integration and co-ordinated decision-making in participatory water governance, which may include ostracism for compliance and enforcement of governing rules, under a rural advisory board.

China, as the birthplace of several great inventions, is no stranger to creativity, and, indeed, innovation. That said, while the notion of copyright has for a long time been recognised as being essential to the protection of Chinese inventions, it is perhaps regrettable that the existing system of copyright protection in that country remains largely inefficacious, at least when compared to western countries, in terms of addressing the key challenges and complexities posed by the rapid developments that characterise the digital age. It is against this backdrop that this thesis has been conceptualised; the overarching aim, in this regard, being to assess the development and nature of copyright protection in China, from a comparative perspective, in an effort to unearth the challenges that arise in the digital age, and to proffer suggestions for reform in this regard. More specifically, through the adoption of the doctrinal, historical and comparative methodologies, this thesis examines the historical evolution of copyright protection in China, and argues that while there has been some progress in recent years in terms of copyright protection that commensurate with China's economic development and international obligations, a number of outstanding issues remain unresolved, especially with regard to striking the right balance between competing interests. The thesis also evaluates the role of emerging technologies, such as peer-to-peer technology, and argues that China has struggled to address many of these challenges associated therewith, notwithstanding the progressive approaches countenanced by other jurisdictions. The thesis argues that one of the main challenges that account for the existing inadequacy that characterises China's system of copyright protection is the country's very history and culture, which do not ascribe a high degree of primacy to the exclusive rights of copyright owners. History and culture, among other, mostly legal, factors, might also account for the currently high levels of uncertainty that characterise the construction of secondary liability in relation to ISPs in China. Apart from assessing the uncertainties associated with secondary liability, however, the thesis will also examine the complexities and challenges that surround the use of emerging technologies, such as technological protection measures, that aim to protect copyright in the digital era, and argues that while these challenges are real, they are not at all insurmountable. Against this backdrop, pragmatic solutions, drawing largely from other jurisdictions, are provided throughout this thesis.

Despite the obvious advantages of the internet, there is little debate that it significantly facilitates Intellectual Property (IP) rights infringements, particularly in the trademark context. Infringers not only remain hidden by the anonymity that the internet provides, but also take advantage of the difficulties in enforcing IP rights. In these circumstances, it has become necessary to shift focus from the actual infringers, and instead focus on internet intermediaries (such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs), hosts and navigation providers, such as search engines) that are responsible in numerous ways for making content, including those that infringe trademark rights, available to internet users. Accordingly, this thesis addresses the following research question – ‘what are the approaches for, and challenges in, holding internet intermediaries accountable for infringements of trademark rights?’ This thesis argues that accountability can be achieved through both monetary and non-monetary remedies. The first substantive part of the thesis focuses on monetary remedies. Although trademark law in the United Kingdom (UK) and the English common law have not provided trademark owners with an effective remedy against internet intermediaries, by which these intermediaries could be held liable for their role in making infringing content available to internet users, the experience in other Member States of the European Union (EU) and in the United States (US) has been quite the opposite. In the second substantive part, this thesis builds on the discussion concerning approaches in the US and continental EU Member States, in order to propose suitable reforms to UK (as well as EU) trademark law that would potentially allow aggrieved trademark owners to claim monetary relief against internet intermediaries in the form of an action for trademark infringement. The proposal for legal reforms identifies the class of intermediaries against whom, and the circumstances in which, such monetary relief should be made available. Consequential legal reforms are proposed in order to counter the potential abuse of notice-and-takedown procedures, which this thesis identifies as a direct consequence of the interplay between the proposed liability framework and the EU safe harbour that limits such liability. The last substantive part of the thesis considers injunctive relief as a means of holding internet intermediaries accountable for making infringing content available to internet users. This part sets out how injunctions have been utilised in the UK against ISPs, and identifies key challenges underpinning this remedy, while also considering its application to other types of intermediaries. Having considered comparable approaches in Chile, Singapore and Australia, recommendations are made for suitable legal reforms to the EU legal framework, which has hitherto shaped the development of UK law in this regard. These suggested reforms are aimed at overcoming the challenges associated with the injunctive remedy, while promoting it as an effective way of holding internet intermediaries accountable for making content that infringes trademark rights available to internet users.

The sub-Saharan African people experience the greatest burden of disease in the world although medicines exist that can treat the majority of the illnesses afflicting them. In fact, many essential medicines are not accessible for most of the people in the region. While the lack of resources is apparently a major impediment for access to medicines, man-made deliberations are also consequential, and can to some extent be influenced by regulation. The research question of this thesis therefore is: “can a human right to medicines be utilised to solve the problem of access to medicines in sub-Saharan Africa?”. In effect, in the last decade the notion of an international human right to medicines has started to develop in the human rights law and literature, prescribing that ultimately all individuals shall have access to medicines. This work contributes to the international human rights law doctrine by studying this area of the law, which is still largely uncharted. The thesis, furthermore, moves from a descriptive analysis of the law and undertakes a critical normative enquiry, underscoring the challenges of utilising human rights law to guide and redress access to medicines in sub-Saharan Africa. In effect, the contingencies of access to medicines within complex health systems make it practically difficult to identify the appropriate arrangement of access to medicines in a country. Moreover, policies and regulation for access to medicines can be morally questionable if conflicting with individuals’ legitimate rights, interests, needs and liberties. The relevance and merits of my arguments are grounded on different instances of critical-analytical research. I will use in particular interdisciplinary and empirical research on access to medicines, including a two-month field work in Tanzania, as well as the theoretical insights drawn from Luhmann’s social systems theory and Foucault’s theory of biopower. Therefore the thesis provides an ethical analysis of the potential operationalisation and implementation of the human right to medicines in sub-Saharan Africa. This analysis is also a case-study intervention to the debates concerning more generally health care, public health, development and human rights in the region. Moreover, the thesis contributes to socio-legal studies identifying the phenomena of autopoiesis, contingency, power and the limits of steering affecting human rights, law and politics.

The study examines the relationship between law, technology and water conflicts from colonial days to the present in traditional (water) tank systems in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Tanks are man-made water systems developed for irrigation and many other purposes in semi-arid areas. The thesis adopts a historical approach to study the development of law, particularly property rights, and takes an empirical approach to investigate the tank conflicts. Archival documents on irrigation development, Case laws, Focus Group Discussions, Open ended Interviews and Field visits to selected tank chains are used as source material for the discussion. Case studies of conflicts are described and analyzed at three levels - Vaigai river basin for a macro level, Kothai Anicut system in Cauvery basin for a meso level, and twenty other interconnected tanks for a micro-level. The thesis deviates from the conventional understanding that tanks as traditional systems as simple and local technologies but considers them to be complex. It argues that the use of commonly held systems such as tanks within the colonial and post colonial laws as state ownership has been the source of many conflicts. In particular, it finds most tank conflicts are a product of progressive and absolute state control over water and the systems established using colonial land revenue administrative law. The law continues to treat tanks as pieces of landed property held by state and the individuals rather than as technology systems that presupposed the regime of property rights introduced after the colonial times. The modern interventions in water including the reservoir building, and altering the hydraulics of rivers and streams aggravate tank conflicts and lead to their further detriment. The study brings the focus to ground realities, and offers new perspectives on understanding tank systems in dynamic ways.

This thesis considers how best to achieve access to sufficient water for everyone in South Africa. It encompasses international law, national (including constitutional) law and policy, and finally community organisation, and the ‘vernacular law’ of the commons. The task of achieving sustainable access to sufficient water for everyone in South Africa is long-standing and considerable, culminating in the inclusion of a right of access to sufficient water in the 1996 Constitution. This right has simultaneously provided an overarching moral framework (through the elaboration of relevant human rights norms), while remaining decidedly remote from the experience of many people, for whom insufficient water remains a daily reality. Here, the ability of a right to water to effectively ensure access to sufficient water for everyone is critiqued. In so doing, the practical and conceptual limits of ‘rights-talk’ are considered, in two contexts in particular: International human rights law; and the jurisprudence of the South African Constitutional Court. Crucial to this thesis is a methodology of narrative inquiry, which analyses the stories of people who suffer from access to insufficient water, revealing the disconnection between people’s right to water, and their experience of living without the water they need. Flowing from this narrative is an attempt to reconceive water governance from outside the structural and conceptual closures of the dominant paradigm (characterised by individual rights and commodification) and to explore the potential for alternative practical modes of governance to deliver greater sustainability and equity, for communities living with water poverty. In this thesis, through a blend of contemporary perspectives on vernacular law and multi-level governance, postmodern theories on stories and subjectivity, and empirical observation, a fresh contribution is made to the debate on access to water in South Africa.

The central concern of this work is to produce a detailed critique of the statutory framework for the enforcement of residential mortgages. It seeks to argue that the law relating to enforcement fails to meet the needs of the twenty-first century mortgage market. Rather, mortgage law is substantially affected by a remedial structure developed from medieval times, which is no longer relevant, applicable or desirable in the modern world. It is contended that the failure of the Legislature to innovate major reform ensures that the legal framework remains hopelessly outdated and needlessly fragmented. Despite the recommendations of the Law Commission, forthcoming financial services regulation, and the advent of human rights, the law as to mortgage enforcement remains securely tethered to centuries past. As regards the judiciary, the limitations of equitable intervention and the sanctity of common law principle continue to exert a restraining influence. In contrast with the law of landlord and tenant, the judiciary maintains a distorted approach to the rights and remedies of the parties entailing that undue respect is paid to the mortgagee's historical estate rights rather than to the borrower's need for home ownership. An analysis of decided cases concerning possession and sale will demonstrate the extent to which judicial creativity has been hampered by the historical development of mortgage law. In consequence, common law reform to meet the needs of a changing society has been stifled. Although the modern mortgagee is a secured creditor and simply requires mechanisms to safeguard its security interest, it continues to hold rights in relation to the mortgaged property that exceed those necessary for the enforcement of the security. It is simply unthinkable that, if the law of mortgages were to be completely remodelled, the institutional lender would be afforded those advantages that have been enjoyed over the past centuries.