This thesis attempts to illuminate and problematize the marriage of capitalism and colonialism that results in the widespread appropriation of Indigenous expressions of culture, and in particular, totem poles. This project complicates our understanding of totem poles as they have been presented in the marketplace and restores some of the intricate legal meaning to these incredible works. First, I examine Canadian intellectual property law and colonial policies of cultural erasure like the potlatch ban. Next, I explore the use of rights discourse, or legalism, as a potential route for solutions to this issue. I then conduct case studies of three totem poles. I examine one totem pole as a commodity, one functioning as a piece of art and someone's livelihood, and one as part of a Tlingit legal tradition. This last totem, as a materially appropriated object, provides an opportunity to explore the treatment of totem poles in proper context and also functions as a suggested solution to Indigenous art appropriation more broadly. My intervention on this last totem reframes these issues in a non-Western legal cannon to attempt to address these difficult legal questions. My examination of these three totems serves to destabilize our understanding of totem poles sold in the marketplace, and to broaden our understanding of totems as manifestations of Indigenous laws. / Graduate

This thesis is a collection of essays on the relevance of property right reforms on the wellbeing of poor households in developing countries; specifically titling programmes in urban Peru. The first essay assesses the effects of titling on housing investment. The availability of a unique dataset permits us to trace households' investment behaviour. This allows us to investigate if tenure security induces households to make sizeable investments, the evolution of this effect over time, and whether heterogeneous expectations about future tenure security matter for the estimated impact. Evidence reveals significant effects, especially on large investment; however, the response on this type of investment may take several years to become effective. The second essay contributes to the debate on the sustainability of property rights reforms by emphasising the importance of strong registration systems. Policymakers have focused on the process of granting titles but the conditions needed to maintain the formality of future plot transactions have been left unattended. The analysis exploits an exogenous variation in legislation to examine the impact of a change in the registration process on the registration rate of plot transactions. Evidence suggests a large negative effect, implying that a weak registration system could threaten the reform. The third essay explores the impact of titling on the risk preferences of slum dwellers. The analysis provides evidence that titled dwellers reported lower values of the risk aversion measure than their non-treated counterparts. Results also suggest that tenure security can influence slum dwellers' preference formation process. Evidence shows that beneficiaries who were exposed to tenure security during their youth report on average lower values of the risk aversion indicator than individuals titled at an older age.

Magister Legum - LLM / The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) ia a multilateral international treaty introduced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) that came into effect on 1 June 1995. At a basic level it attempted to establish minimum standards for the regulation of intellectual property rights within those countries that are members of the WTO and signatories to it. This thesis served a dual purpose. The first leg was to embark on an investigation into TRIPS, criticallt analyzing the provisions of the Agreement. The important aim here was to analyze and discover whether TRIPS is sensitive to weaker countries. The second leg was to probe within the the legislative framework of South Africa and determine whether South Africa as a "developing copuntry", has complied with the demands as expressed by TRIPS. This investigation was done with specific reference to South African patent law. / South Africa

Magister Commercii - MCom / This study examines the influence of trade openness on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in emerging market economies. The study focuses on a sample of 15 emerging market economies during 1992-2006. The econometric framework utilised in the study consist of panel data analysis, although the pooled OLS model is first estimated in order to give the reader a sense of what to expect in the main results. Using alternative estimation techniques, the study shows that, indeed, trade openness carries with it the potential of harnessing more FDI into emerging market economies but this need to be complemented by appropriate macroeconomic and sectoral policies. Notably, as the results of the study suggest, foreign investors generally consider the host country's market size, its labour market practices with respect to the real wage, and the current and expected rates of inflation, in order to invest in the country. The results from the study suggests that, given identical trade openness strategies, emerging market economies that have larger market sizes are likely to be more successful in attracting FDI than those with smaller market sizes. The evidence also suggests that, given identical trade openness strategies, emerging market economies that have lower real wages and lower price inflation are likely to be more successful in attracting FDI than those with high real wages and high or variable price inflation. Finally, the findings of this study do not provide strong evidence in support of the fact that infrastructural development, property rights and external debt matter in attracting FDI into emerging markets. The policy implications of this study for South Africa, which is currently contesting for FDI with the fast growing and relatively larger economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China (otherwise referred to as, BRICs), is that urgent attention needs to be given to the rising prices and wages provoked by increasingly strong unions, and weak anti-trust regulations in the country, in spite of a fairly successful inflation targeting framework adopted a decade ago.

The Agreement on Trade – Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights has almost universal application due to the large number of signatories from the World Trade Organization member states. 149 countries signed the TRIPS by 1994. Therefore, the TRIPS Agreement has also become a valuable tool for the protection of special intellectual property rights under the term geographical indications. GIs have current relevance in the world market to consumers who are healthy and quality conscious. The legal protection of GIs is due to their economic value to many countries where the producers are in rural areas. This is because most GIs are based on traditional methods of production which have earned goodwill. The TRIPS came in to prevent fee riding of such rights by producers who do not conform to the standards and rules of production. The TRIPS Agreement requires member states to harmonise their legal systems to provide legal means of protecting GIs to the standard stipulated therein. Malawi joined the WTO on 31 May 1995 which means that the obligation above mentioned is applicable from then on. Therefore, this study is an investigation of whether Malawi has complied with the obligations in article 1.1 of the TRIPS especially in so far as geographical indications rights are concerned. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

No abstract available / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Private Law / unrestricted

This thesis examines the effect of property rights and democracy on deforestation. The aim of the study is to test the two hypotheses; (1.a.) Well-defined property rights will lower deforestation and (1.b.) Higher levels of liberty will decrease deforestation. Furthermore, the test will be constructed by an extensive cross-country study of 193 countries by the method of fixed effect regressions. A contribution is made in the form of investigating the two explanatory factors, property rights and liberty, on deforestation in the scope of one study. Which there is (to the best of my knowledge) a lack of within this research area. The results gained no support for hypothesis (1.a.) meanwhile hypothesis (1.b.) found support. On the other hand, the thesis shows that property rights and liberty can affect the deforestation rate. Finally, this thesis underlines the association between the two explanatory factors under the scope, and by thus, motivates further research on the matter to fill a vital gap within the studies of deforestation.

The role of intellectual property (IP) rights, such as patents, in innovation is the subject of an ongoing debate. Using a sudden shift in the patentability of genomic compounds, this dissertation contributes new evidence to this debate by shedding light on three different roles that patents can play in innovative processes. In three complementary essays, I examine the impact of patents on follow-on innovations, markets for technology, and scientific research. Compiling data on the population of patents on isolated genes, I show that their sudden invalidation has increased innovation in commercialized diagnostic tests, but decreased the cooperative agreements among the biopharmaceutical firms. I further show that these effects are heterogeneous across firms and markets. The results of my analyses, however, present no significant evidence of patents hindering the scientific progress. The findings of this study provide novel contribution to a vigorous academic debate on IP rights and inform policy by discussing the consequences of a recent high-profile ruling on the patent-eligibility of genomic compounds.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第20875号 / 経博第570号 / 新制||経||284(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 柴田 章久, 教授 矢野 誠, 准教授 遊喜 一洋 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DGAM

Intellectual products, scientific knowledge, information, professional, scientific, spiritual and cultural potential of the society today are the driving force behind economic growth, determine the competitiveness of production. This sets a strengthening of the role of intellectual property. The crucial role of intellectual assets in the global economy growth determined the choice of innovative strategy by Ukraine in the 21 stcentury. The important part of that strategy is the development of the national legal framework that includes adoption of the national laws and accession to international agreements that become part of the national legislation. The solution of the problem of forming an effective system of protection of intellectual property is a prerequisite for building a strong background for an innovative model of Ukraine’s development, its modernization, and the raising of its competitiveness in a global social-economic system, and consequently - creating jobs in new industries that could shape a 21st century global economy - an economy based on knowledge. The following thesis is a qualitative study about intellectual property protection and intended for Ukrainian companies and for students as information paper because there is differences between the old system in former Soviet and the European/US systems that has to be understood and business in Ukraine as well as researchers/inventors has to adjust to this different situations in order for companies to exploit the full potential of their innovations, part of this is by IP protection.