Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Between Mirroring Master Narratives of Fear and
Optimism
Chapter 2: Law In and As Culture
Chapter 3: Negotiating Cultural Meanings of Intellectual
Property
Chapter 4: Colonial Appropriations of Marginalized Cultures
Chapter 5: Attempting to Negotiate Differences in Cultural Clashes
between Majoritarian Cultures and Indigenous Peoples
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Caroline Joan "Kay" S. Picart is a scholar-attorney practicing in federal and state appellate criminal law and who publishes peer reviewed journal articles and books principally on law, criminology, sociology, and film.
An original work of seminal scholarship, Law In and As Culture:
Intellectual Property, Minority Rights, and the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples is exceptionally well written, organized and
presented. Enhanced with the inclusion of twenty-two pages of
Notes, and an eight page Index, Law In and As Culture is very
highly recommended for inclusion in academic library Legal Studies
and Cultural Studies reference collections and university level
supplemental curriculum reading lists.
*Midwest Book Review*
This is a thought-provoking and useful survey and analysis of law
and culture as they relate to the fast-moving field of intellectual
property. The illustrative cases selected by Picart delve into
complex issues of indigenous property; they are telling,
captivating, and highly readable examples that lead to a deeper
understanding of the competing interests and viewpoints involved in
these conflicts. Picart offers the reader creative and novel steps
to move the field of intellectual property forward in just and
nuanced, yet pragmatic, ways.
*M C Mirow, Professor of Law, F I U College of Law, Miami*
Law In and As Culture is a fascinating study of the porosity of
traditional knowledge cultural identities, and legal protections.
Weaving a complex tapestry of theory and knowledge, Picart explores
the tensions between legal cultures of individualism and
communitarianism, egalitarianism and hierarchy, in the law of
intellectual property. Exploring how highly legalistic developed
nations appropriate the signs and cultural knowledges of indigenous
peoples, Picart is able to offer a nuanced and sensitive solution
to the translation gap that characterizes the post-modern global
consumer world.
*Danaya C. Wright, Clarence J. TeSelle Professor of Law, University
of Florida, Levin College of Law*
Dr. Picart's book offers a unique and compelling analysis
of indigenous peoples' rights in the context of intellectual
property. This topic is gaining prominence in the
scholarly literature in multiple contexts and is part of
a growing call for legal recognition of and respect for indigenous
culture and traditional knowledge. The book offers a
valuable interdisciplinary analysis of key issues in this
space, including the majoritarian cultural assumptions built
into western intellectual property law and how this reality
undermines effective legal protection of indigenous
cultural practices. Dr. Picart effectively uses case
studies of attempts to protect the intellectual property of
indigenous peoples in different
contexts to illustrate these challenges and the need
for legal reform.
This book is a tour de force that should be on the must read list
of all who claim or aspire to be robust interdisciplinary scholars
and care about the disciplines of law, culture, society, marginable
populations, and attaining justice. Picart sophisticatedly
deconstructs the often oppositional narratives about the
intersection of indigenous peoples’ and minority populations’
interests on one side and the forces of globalization and
intellectual property rights on the other. Recognizing that the
narratives emerge from a much more complicated series of different
realities and different voices, the author discredits the utility
of deploying the binaries if one seeks to take a holistic look at
all the energetics existing at the intersections. In one of the
most efficient interdisciplinary approaches I have encountered,
Picart utilizes theory and practice from various fields to unveil
the flaws of the normative oppositional narratives and replaces
these with the individualized complexity of a middle way – one that
rejects the normative assumptions of culture and hierarchy and
provides the methodological tools necessary to resolve
controversies by reflecting upon the real conflicts generated
through the superimposition of formal law as a means to resolve
tensions that include deep cultural differences. As in prior work,
her approach successfully and artfully debunks the myth that law is
objective and neutral by showing how in instances of non-normative
actors the law is structurally imbued with sex, race, gender, and
cultural biases.
*Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol, Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor
of Law, University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law*
Through concise conceptual explanations and examinations of
contemporary cases dealing with Intellectual Property Rights (IPR),
Picart describes responses to cross-cultural conflicts in this
field as well as the strategies adopted by individuals and
communities in fighting for ‘ownership’ of their IPR.... Her
backgrounds and expertise as academic and practitioner contribute
in providing a strong foundation for the book.
*Anthropological Forum*
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