National Sovereignty

Abstract

We have argued that there are four basic principles that run through, and have a significant influence on, debates and practice concerning access to and ownership of genetic resources. In the previous chapters we have examined two of these principles — proprietarian intellectual property rights and community intellectual property rights. In this chapter we look at the influence of the third principle, that of national sovereignty. The chapter is divided into two sections. In Section I, we explain how and why sovereignty over natural resources is an entrenched principle in international law, and ask why, given this fact, the principle was not applied to genetic resources until relatively recently. In Section II, we examine the relationship between the principle of national sovereignty and the principle of community IPRs.