Volume 6, Issue 2

The transboundary movement of Genetic Modified Organisms (GMOs) has become a focal point of the international community. The control of GMOs involves huge economic interests and the protection of the environment and public health. In 2003, the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the request of GMOs-producing countries established a Panel in adjudicating the consistency of European nations' restriction on trade of GMO products under WTO rules. Given the high controversy and sensitivity of the dispute, the Panel had conducted a very lengthy deliberation and finally reached a conclusion in September of 2006. This article aims to analyze the legal reasoning of the decision, focusing on how the tribunal interpreted and applied certain critical provisions governing the issue. It is found that this ruling took a rigid stand on the justification of applying trade restrictions on GMOs, although the right of WTO members to protect national health has been fairly reaffirmed.

Great importance is attached to, and great controversy surrounds, biotechnology generally and stem cell research more specifically, particularly human embryonic stem cell research. Given its position at the vanguard of innovations in theoretical and applied human healthcare science, and as a source of political conflict and achievement, it is useful to examine attitudes toward, and actions around, embryonic stem cell research. This article conceives of three discursive typologies and explores their deployment in three different settings or sites in the life or progress of embryonic stem cell research, namely, the political (determining legal boundaries), the hybrid (identifying and enforcing boundaries for laboratory research), and the administrative (enforcing boundaries in the commercial context), the intention being to determine whether these typologies are consistent and what moral values their use supports. This article concludes that the typologies are deployed to varying degrees in the different sites, and with varying degrees of success. Although this might be expected, and not altogether unwarranted, given the different roles and objectives of the primary institutions at each site, the current prevalence of the typologies suggests that these institutions might not be operating optimally from the democracy enhancement and transparency points of view.

The healthcare transformational capacity of biotechnology intellectual property makes it fundamental that such biotech patents are issued promptly in order to have clarity and certainty in the research community and the marketplace. In these economically challenging times, accelerated patent grants will make biotech patent owners more attractive to investors and licensors ensuring their survival. Japanese universities have aggressively patented and licensed their biotech research and utilized the accelerated patent system to procure the world's first ever induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) patent. This article examines the various accelerated examination procedures available at the Japan Patent Office and how biotechnology patent applicants can secure early patent protection in Japan, the world's second largest biopharmaceutical market.