Routledge Handbook of Biodiversity and the Law
ISBN: 9781315530857
Platform/Publisher: Taylor & Francis / Routledge
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited



This volume provides a reference textbook and comprehensive compilation of multifaceted perspectives on the legal issues arising from the conservation and exploitation of non-human biological resources. Contributors include leading academics, policy-makers and practitioners reviewing a range of socio-legal issues concerning the relationships between humankind and the natural world.

The Routledge Handbook of Biodiversity and the Law includes chapters on fundamental and cutting-edge issues, including discussion of major legal instruments such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol.

The book is divided into six distinct parts based around the major objectives which have emerged from legal frameworks concerned with protecting biodiversity. Following introductory chapters, Part II examines issues relating to conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, with Part III focusing on access and benefit-sharing. Part IV discusses legal issues associated with the protection of traditional knowledge, cultural heritage and indigenous human rights. Parts V and VI focus on a selection of intellectual property issues connected to the commercial exploitation of biological resources, and analyse ethical issues, including viewpoints from economic, ethnobotanical, pharmaceutical and other scientific industry perspectives.


Charles R. McManis is the former Thomas and Karole Green Professor of Law Emeritus and former Director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Program at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. His book, Intellectual Property and Unfair Competition in a Nutshell , is now in its seventh edition. He is also co-author of Licensing Intellectual Property in the Information Age , the second edition of which was published in 2005.

Burton Ong is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the National University of Singapore, where he was Deputy Director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law between 2014 and 2017. He teaches and researches in the areas of Competition Law, Intellectual Property and Contract Law. He is the editor of Intellectual Property and Biological Resources (2004) and has an interest in the biodiversity and wildlife laws of the ASEAN member countries.

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