Taking the Plant Breeder's Rights Act 1994 (CTH) as its focus, this article explores the notion that plant breeder's rights are out-of-date and unnecessary. To do so, this article adopts both descriptive and empirical approaches to examining a number of issues including: the nature of, and investment in, Australian plant breeding; biopiracy and enforcement; legal disputes and processes; and the use of the Australian plant breeder's rights system. This review shows that the Australian plant breeder's rights scheme is well used, has been progressively amended and extended, and is just one element in a suite of measures geared to stimulate plant-related innovation. As a consequence, future research needs to take into account the heterogeneous character of plant breeding and complementary government initiatives, identify the many reasons why the plant breeder's rights scheme is seen as viable (or why not) and consider the interrelationships between these elements.

This unique and comprehensive collection investigates the challenges posed to intellectual property by recent paradigm shifts in biology. It explores the legal ramifications of emerging technologies, such as genomics, synthetic biology, stem cell research, nanotechnology, and biodiscovery. Extensive contributions examine recent controversial court decisions in patent law such as Bilski v. Kappos, and the litigation over Myriad's patents in respect of BRCA1 and BRCA2 while other papers explore sui generis fields, such as access to genetic resources, plant breeders' rights, and traditional knowledge. The collection considers the potential and the risks of the new biology for global challenges such as access to health-care, the protection of the environment and biodiversity, climate change, and food security. It also considers Big Science projects such as biobanks, the 1000 Genomes Project, and the Doomsday Vault. The inter-disciplinary research brings together the work of scholars from Australia, Canada, Europe, the UK and the US and involves not only legal analysis of case law and policy developments, but also historical, comparative, sociological, and ethical methodologies. Intellectual Property and Emerging Technologies will appeal to policy-makers, legal practitioners, business managers, inventors, scientists and researchers.

International Food Law and Policy is the first interdisciplinary piece of academic literature of its kind with a comprehensive, reader-friendly approach to teaching the major aspects of food regulation, law, policy, food safety and environmental sustainability in a global context. The sections are grouped by continents and focus on a range of cross-disciplinary subjects, such as public health, international food trade, the right to food, intellectual property and global regulatory aspects of food production. With its systematic approach, this book will be a valuable resource both for professionals working in food regulation and anyone interested in the subject. It provides a solid foundation for courses and master’s programs in environmental management, food law, policy and regulation, and sustainable development around the world.

Anyone involved in trade law knows the time-consuming nature of obtaining primary source material and consulting each of the main trade laws. Now in its fourth edition, Basic Documents in International Trade Law solves this problem by assembling, in a single, easy-to-use resource, a very comprehensive collection of the most important and frequently used documents on the law of international trade. In addition to its obvious practical value, this work reveals much about the process of harmonization in international trade law and the operation of the key international trade bodies. This makes the book a helpful reference for international business lawyers, researchers, legislators and government officials in the field. Since the successful publication of the previous editions of the book, the appearance of new conventions and model laws has considerably enriched the law of international trade, and the present edition contains a wealth of new material. The book has been substantially revised and several new instruments have been included. Among the most significantly important improvements to this new edition are new chapters added to different parts of the book, a redesigned and thoroughly revised Part 6 reflecting the expansion of intellectual property rights under the framework of treaties administered by World International Property Organization, and bibliographies and other research resources updated and enlarged to include an extraordinarily rich collection of books and articles in many trading languages besides English, including, for the first time, major Chinese works in the international trade law field. As the late Prof. Clive M. Schmitthoff commented on the first edition, the book ‘is not only of practical usefulness but has also considerable jurisprudential value’, and ‘reveals the methodology of the harmonization process in the area of international trade law’. The International Business Lawyer first commented in 1987 that the book ‘can only be described as a “vade mecum” for every international business lawyer’, an assessment that now seems more merited than ever.