Of Medicines and Markets: Intellectual Property and Human Rights in the Free Trade Era

Stanford Studies in Human Rights

by Angelina Godoy

Central American countries have long defined health as a human right. But in recent years regional trade agreements have ushered in aggressive intellectual property reforms, undermining this conception. Questions of IP and health provisions are pivotal to both human rights advocacy and "free" trade policy, and as this book chronicles, complex political battles have developed across the region. Looking at events in Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Guatemala, Angelina Godoy argues that human rights advocates need to approach intellectual property law as more than simply a roster of regulations. IP represents the cutting edge of a global tendency to value all things in market Life forms―from plants to human genetic sequences―are rendered commodities, and substances necessary to sustain life―medicines―are restricted to insure corporate profits. If we argue only over the terms of IP protection without confronting the underlying logic governing our trade agreements, then human rights advocates will lose even when they win.

202 pages, Paperback

First published June 5, 2013

Reviews

[Beata Fogarasi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snodgrass Godoy provides an incredibly refreshing approach to academic writing - she actually went and talked to the people she's writing about first, and uses a reality-based, bottom-up approach, rather than top-down theorizing. The book uses health activism in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and El Salvador before and after CAFTA as a case study on the interaction of intellectual property rights and the human right to health. She draws out the nuances of different conceptions of human rights, particularly to health, and how they confront the market logic and corporate-driven reality of FTAs' IP chapters. It's a little repetitive but very readable, and really she should get an award just for the phrase "counterhegemonic potential of human rights," which should be followed by at least three flame emojis every time she uses it in the book. I do wish she had transitioned at the end into a look ahead - what's next on the health, rights, and IP front? How can activists approach the next challenge, how can they do better, and should they? She clearly states the need for improved government capacity in regulating generics and building trust in the population - how?
(read for school)