Stimulating Trade and Development of Indigenous Cultural Heritage by Means of International Law: Issues of Legitimacy and Method
Adopting the view that a more active participation of indigenous peoples in the trade of their knowledge assets would promote their socioeconomic development raises difficult questions of legitimacy and method. Questions of legitimacy are posed by the potentially modernising effects of development endangering traditional ways of indigenous peoples’ social organisation. Questions of method arise when studying how international law, including international economic law, could better contribute to furthering the development interests of indigenous peoples in the trade of indigenous cultural heritage (ICH). There will be many areas where modern law and indigenous custom collide. These questions are the focus of the first part of the paper. The second part studies international law’s potential to stimulate ICH trade for the sake of indigenous socioeconomic development. To this end, it first assesses how interests of indigenous peoples in trade and development of ICH are currently institutionalised in international economic law. The paper then examines whether preferential trade rules for indigenous cultural goods and services would be an adequate tool to advance the interests of indigenous peoples in ICH trade and development.
Indigenous Cultural Heritage and Fair Trade: Voluntary Certification Standards in the Light of WIPO and WTO Law and Policymaking
Private initiatives for voluntary certification standards appear to be an attractive alternative to top-down approaches in the field of indigenous cultural heritage and development. Over the last 50 years, many different indigenous communities have attempted to use certification trademarks to promote their authentic cultural products. These schemes have had varying success, but arguably none has been as visually unsuccessful as the government-funded Australian system, which collapsed within two years of its inception. On the other side of the scale, the Fairtrade label is considered to be an international triumphant success. This paper assesses why the Australian authenticity label system failed, while the Fairtrade label succeeded, and how these conclusions can be used for existing and future endeavours. It further discusses whether such a voluntary certification system would be compliant with World Intellectual Property Organisation and World Trade Organisation law and policy. It concludes by looking towards the future and the possibility of the Fairtrade label being extended to meet the interests of indigenous communities.
The Politics of Indigenous Knowledge: Australia's Proposed Communal Moral Rights Bill
Complicated political circumstances that emphasise the discussion of intellectual property and Indigenous knowledge within Australia are highlighted. The objective is to provide some contextual information about the development of new intellectual property strategies for protecting Indigenous knowledge and also explore the inter-relation of global intellectual property development with local articulation of reform.