Toward a Human Rights Method for Measuring International Copyright Law’s Compliance with International Human Rights Law

Citation: Saleh Al-Sharieh (2016) Toward a Human Rights Method for Measuring International Copyright Law’s Compliance with International Human Rights Law. Utrecht Journal of International and European Law (RSS)
DOI (original publisher): 10.5334/ujiel.233
Semantic Scholar (metadata): 10.5334/ujiel.233
Sci-Hub (fulltext): 10.5334/ujiel.233
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): Toward a Human Rights Method for Measuring International Copyright Law’s Compliance with International Human Rights Law
Download: http://www.utrechtjournal.org/articles/10.5334/ujiel.233/
Tagged: copyright (RSS), human rights (RSS)

Summary

Quote:

The coexistence perspective on intellectual property law and human rights assumes that the principle of balance in international copyright law is clear and imports it to manage the tension between authors’ and users’ human rights. However, given the plethora of meanings of the term balance in international copyright law, this perspective overestimates the maturity of the principle of balance in international copyright law and therefore also overestimates its possible role in international human rights law.

Proposes three rules for balance implementation:

1. the human rights of authors and users are not absolute
2. there is no hierarchy between them
3. both sets of rights are to be interpreted in light of all other international human rights and freedoms

Theoretical and Practical Relevance

Quotes that could hint at practical reforms:

Neither the UDHR nor the ICESCR requires the protection of authors’ moral and material interests by means of exclusive rights, which is only one way of implementing these rights and the method which most likely causes tension between authors and users.

...

Furthermore, the length of protection in the Berne Convention does not necessarily contribute to providing an adequate standard of living for authors,163 which is the essence of authors’ material rights in international human rights law.164