Campbell Law Professor Kevin Lee lectured on the protection of intellectual property rights in a global world at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics at the University of Oxford in England. The theme of the conference was “Managerialism in Ethics.” Lee’s presentation examined the way the international legal system manages intellectual property rights.”We have a conception of intellectual property rights that is largely influenced by classical, liberal notions of property,” Lee said. “In my talk, I focused on an issue where that conception of intellectual property rights was sort of turned on its head.”There is an ongoing debate in the international community on whether or not intellectual property laws truly provide the benefits they claim to provide to the Third World. One issue in that debate is whether traditional intellectual property rights are appropriate in the context of innovation derived from the traditional knowledge and folklore of an aboriginal people. Lee argues that the classical, liberal model of managing intellectual property is not effective, especially when it involves an aboriginal culture.”Traditional knowledge is really a broad term,” he said. “It includes things like the use of medicinal plants, but also geographical features, even the weave of a fabric or traditional folklore.”When this kind of intellectual property shows up on a designer’s shelf in Paris or in new drugs based upon the homeopathic cures of an indigenous people, it is a kind of pilfering, Lee explained.”That doesn’t seem fair because the aboriginal people who discovered the medicinal cure or particular fabric design and have been using it for thousands of years sometimes get nothing. Granting exclusive rights to outsiders in these cases is troubling because this intellectual property often represents the cultural identity of a people,” Lee said.Can international law ever really adequately address this issue? Probably not, Lee concluded.”In the post 9-11 era, if we’ve learned anything it is that global trade law won’t bring about a lasting, peaceful order,” he said. “World trade is a good thing, but it can never bring the peace and harmony that only God acting in the world can bring about.”Associate professor of law, Kevin P. Lee, began his legal career as a clerk for Judge Herbert J. Hutton, Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He worked for Braun Moriya Hoashi & Kubota in Tokyo, Japan, where he drafted joint venture agreements, licensing agreements and other commercial contracts. Lee previously held teaching positions at New York Law School, the University of Chicago and DePaul University. Prior to coming to Campbell, he was a member of the faculty at Ave Maria School of Law where he taught Contracts, Jurisprudence, Business Organization, International Business Transactions and Chinese Law. He earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees with honors from Colgate University, a Master of Arts from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago and a Juris Doctor with honors from New York Law School. He is completing his doctoral dissertation and anticipates receiving a doctorate in Ethics at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.
Campbell law professor speaks at Oxford