Intellectual Property Law

"Collection of 11 essays that examine the implications and ramifications of the Mabo decision on Australia and its law. Discusses such topics as the constitutional background to the decision, public law aspects, the admissibility of traditional evidence, the implications for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, and native title and pastoral leases. Contributors include Frank Brennan, Henry Reynolds, Bryan Keon-Cohen, Darrell Lumb, Margaret Stephenson and K E Mulqueeny. Includes notes on contributors, references and a foreword by Sir Harry Gibbs, a former Chief Justice of the High Court.

"Preserving What is Valued: Museums, Conservation, and First Nations by senior conservator at the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Miriam Clavir, explores the highly charged topic of cultural property and the repatriation of cultural materials. As a museum conservator with a duty to preserve objects, the author recognizes the conflicting interests of museum preservation and First Nations efforts to preserve and access cultural heritage. She begins the discussion with the standard account of museums and their historical development of conservation practices.

"Oral traditions are a distinct way of knowing and the means by which knowledge is reproduced, preserved and transferred from generation to generation. The conference from which these essays were selected created an opportunity for people to come together and exchange information and experiences over three days.

"Indigenous peoples around the world are seeking greater control over tangible and intangible cultural heritage. In Canada, issues concerning repatriation and trade of material culture, heritage site protection, treatment of ancestral remains, and control over intangible heritage are governed by a complex legal and policy environment.

"At the intersection of indigenous studies, science studies, and legal studies lies a tense web of political issues of vital concern for the survival of indigenous nations. Numerous historians of science have documented the vital role of late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century science as a part of statecraft, a means of extending empire. This book follows imperialism into the present, demonstrating how pursuit of knowledge of the natural world impacts, and is impacted by, indigenous peoples rather than nation-states.

"This informative book investigates how indigenous and traditional knowledge has been produced and positioned within intellectual property law and the effects of this position in both national and international jurisdictions.

"There are two oppositional narratives in relation to telling the story of indigenous peoples and minorities in relation to globalization and intellectual property rights. The first, the narrative of Optimism, is a story of the triumphant opening of brave new worlds of commercial integration and cultural inclusion. The second, the narrative of Fear, is a story of the endangerment, mourning, and loss of a traditional culture.