The Transformation of Global Intellectual Property Protection

This chapter traces the transformation of global intellectual property protection. The classical Convention regime, epitomised by the Paris Convention protecting industrial property and the Berne Convention protecting copyright, dominated the international IP scene for about a century. Other norm sets have become relevant for IP more recently. These often strengthen IP rights or grant them complementary protection and include international investment agreements (IIAs), predominantly in the form of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and investment chapters in trade treaties; the protection of property ownership as a fundamental right; private regulation of IP; and IP-specific counter-norms. Ultimately, this transformation of global IP law necessitates a broadening of the constitutional discourses relevant for IP. Constitutional pluralism, new constitutionalism, and societal constitutionalism represent the main currents of such global constitutional discourses.

Effects of Combined Hedging

This chapter provides a broad systemic overview of the regimes that regulate intellectual property and hedge exclusivity at the international level, focusing on the interplay of some of the core constitutional hedges in the international IP, investment law, and human rights fields. Such hedges include concepts of private rights (as well as negative rights), concepts of minimum standards, non-discrimination protections, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) as a comprehensive supra-national code, and IP protection via broad investment concepts. The chapter then discusses some potential effects of accumulation—that is, the impact of situations in which several constitutional hedges overlap and operate together on a state's ability to regulate IP rights. For the protection conferred by international IP treaties—such as the Paris Convention and the Berne Convention, as well as TRIPS and free trade agreements (FTAs)—this follows from the minimum standards principle, where a later treaty does not override or extinguish existing protections but simply adds to them. This accumulation effect means that states have to consider all forms of protection when deciding on a measure that potentially interferes with IP rights.

The Society of Physicians and Naturalists of Iași and the Union of the Romanian Principalities

The Union of the Romanian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia has been an ideal of the nation for centuries, expressed by its intellectuals and policy makers. Its fulfillment was rendered possible in the enlightened era of the nineteenth century, following the Crimean War (1853-1856) and the Peace of Paris. The Peace Treaty of 1856, involving Russia, the Ottoman Empire, France, Great Britain and the Kingdom of Sardinia, and then the Paris convention of 1858, enabled the Union of the Principalities in 1859. In this context, the progressive Romanian intellectuals played an essential role in awakening the national consciousness of the masses called upon to vote, as well as in the elaboration of the strategy to be implemented, both internally and internationally. The Society of Physicians and Naturalists of the Principality of Moldavia (SPN), the first scientific society not only in the Romanian Principalities but also in Southeast Europe (1830), got involved in this national unification process, seen as a condition of emancipation, stability and European integration of their country. SPN was therefore not only the seat where Colonel Alexandru Ioan Cuza was appointed as the sole candidate for the Reign of Moldavia on January 3rd , 1859, but also a nucleus of struggle for the Union. It is plausible that, due to the participation of some of the leading SPN members, ideological confrontations took place within this scientific forum and tactics were envisaged meant to achieve the Union of the Principalities through the victory of the Unionist Party. Ever since SPN remained linked to the memory of Cuza's election in Moldavia, and this constituted another fundamental contribution of this academic institution to the overall establishment of modern Romania. Immediately after the Union, in 1860 the Society of Physicians and Naturalists of the Principality of Moldavia became the Society of Physicians and Naturalists of Iași and kept on integrating both national and international personalities from the entire world.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE FUEL AND ENERGY COMPLEX IN CONNECTION WITH THE ADOPTION OF THE DECARBONIZATION LAW (ON THE EXAMPLE OF AUSTRALIA)

The article, based on the current informational material, provides an overview of the mineral resource complex of Australia and the ways of its development in modern conditions. Modern requirements for the development of the fuel and economic complex of countries are caused by new challenges in connection with the need to follow the Paris Convention on Climate Change and the installation on decarbonization – a significant reduction and then a complete rejection of CO2 emissions from the combustion of hydrocarbons. The work shows that the process of "greening" Australia provides for the creation and implementation of a completely new paradigm for the development of the fuel and energy complex. This is a complete rejection of the extraction and use of coal, an increase in gas production in compliance with environmental requirements, the development and implementation of new technologies, the expansion of gas storage facilities and a network of pipelines, as well as the parallel development and introduction of renewable energy sources.