Intellectual Property and Global Health

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor and tutor: Professor Fiona Macmillan
• Assessment: a 4000-word research essay (100%)

This module will enable you to understand, analyse and critique the role that intellectual property law plays in delivering global health outcomes. The module will provide you with theoretical and political perspectives that enable critical reflection on the current system of international intellectual property law and its engagement with international human rights law. These perspectives will be located within an analysis of the international patent system, the international trademark system and systems for the protection of know-how. Issues that arise in the context of the relationship between private property and public health will be analysed through a focus on access to pharmaceuticals, food security, bioprospecting and protection of the environment. The module will consider whether the international law system for the delivery of global health outcomes is fit for purpose.

Indicative module syllabus

• The relationship between private property and public health
• The international law system: between intellectual property law rights and human rights?
• The role of the patent system and know-how protection
• The role of the trademark system
• Case study on the pharmaceutical industry and access to medicines
• Plant-breeders' rights and food security
• Intellectual property and the protection of the environment
• Case study on bioprospecting
• Post-colonial perspectives on intellectual property and the delivery of non-Western health solutions
• Preparing for the next global pandemic

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• understand the relationship between the international intellectual property law system and the delivery of global health in theoretical and political perspective
• analyse a range of theoretical and political perspectives that address the way in which the relationship between private property and public health is mediated through the intellectual property system
• locate significant points of intersection between international intellectual property law and international human rights law
• critique the role of international intellectual property law in relation to global health with a focus on access to medicines, food security and the protection of the environment.