Law Faculty Articles

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Browsing Law Faculty Articles by Subject "Access to knowledge movement"

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    Defining and Measuring A2K: A Blueprint for an Index of Access to Knowledge
    (I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, 2008) Shaver, Lea
    Access to knowledge (A2K) is increasingly recognized as the central human development issue of our time. Yet to date there has been little literature defining precisely what is meant by this term, much less how to evaluate the progress toward achieving it. To help bridge this gap, this article offers a blueprint for an A2K index: a quantitative tool integrating a variety of data points to assess how well countries promote access to knowledge. The proposed index tracks five key dimensions of access to knowledge: education for informational literacy, access to the global knowledge commons, access to knowledge goods, an enabling legal framework, and effective innovation systems. The resulting conceptual map offers a concrete introduction to the A2K framework for information scholars and professionals.
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    The Right to Science and Culture
    (Wisconsin Law Review, 2010) Shaver, Lea
    The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.” This Article suggests how this text may offer a philosophical and legal basis to constrain the further expansion of protectionism in international IP law. Drawing on accepted methodologies of human rights interpretation and recent research from legal and economic scholars on the value of preserving the knowledge commons, the Article offers a theory of “the right to science and culture” as requiring a public goods approach to knowledge innovation and diffusion. The Article then translates this public goods theory into concrete guidance for policy makers seeking to implement human rights obligations, and for jurists asked to adjudicate rights-based challenges to copyright and patent laws. In conclusion, this Article suggests that reviving attention to this long-marginalized provision of international public law may provide an important rhetorical and legal tool with which to open up new possibilities for sensible IP reform.