Global Justice, Multinational Companies and Intellectual Property Rights

Göran Collste

Globalisation is a catch word describing the last decades' development and refers to econo-mic, social and cultural processes that have a global reach. Economic globalisation in parti-cular, i.e. the intensification and integration of world-wide economic relations during the last 30-40 years, is arguably the single most important force of globalisation. Due to its implic-ations for both socio-economic development and levels of inequality within and between societies it is of utmost importance from a moral point of view. Economic globalisation has different characteristics such as an increase in global trade and in the volume of foreign investment, a global scheme of property rights, the expansion of the global financial market and, not least, a more prominent role and increased influence of the private sector in general, and of multinational corporations (MNCs) in particular, in macro-economic processes. The ethical implications of globalisation are at the heart of theories of development and global justice. However there is a gap between the ideals and principles of global justice as both argued in theoretical literature and expressed in international treaties and declarations on the one hand, and practice on the other. This gap is called "the problem of emptiness" and a question awaiting an answer is who are the "agents of justice" in the age of globalisation? In the light of the increasing global influence of many non-state actors one possible answer is: the multinational corporations (MNCs). Aside from a critical theoretical analysis, the project will focus on the views of leading global pharmaceutical companies regarding intellectual property rights, price setting of medicines in poor countries and other possible contributions to the global poor.

Publication:

Collste G, 2008. "A conflict of rights. The case of TRIPS", Ethicomp 2008, Mantova, Italy, pp.111-118.

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