Ghana TRIPS Over the TRIPS Agreement on Plant Breeders' Rights

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Thaddeus Manu, 'Ghana Trips Over the TRIPS Agreement on Plant Breeders' Rights', African Journal of Legal Studies, Vol 9 (1): 20-45, July 2017. Under embargo. Embargo end date: 31 July 2019. The final, published version is available online at doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/17087384-12342070. Published by BRILL.The premise under which the global IP system is validated has often focused on a traditional materialistic approach. While this seems to find legitimate support in economic reasoning, such a fundamental view also appears to contradict a related social norm claim which dictates that society ought to be shaped by appropriate values rather than economic rubrics. Although Ghana is not a signatory member of the UPOV Convention, there is explicit evidence that the PBRs Bill under consideration in Parliament contains provisions modelled on the UPOV Act 1991 rather than the potentially flexible and “effective sui generis system” in TRIPS. This paper aims to contribute to a recently active area of discussion on the topic by examining the consequences of stringent legislation on PBRs in the absence of adequate safeguard measures to protect public interests. Consequently, the hypothesis of this paper rests on the argument that every system needs checks and balances and the legislative system is no exception; therefore, social policy matters must be integrated into the so-called PBRs Bill in order not to undervalue public interests. To conclude, the author presents an argument based on a logical balance that ought to be found on the path to promulgating such legislation.Peer reviewe

Distance matters: a look at crime trip distances in Flanders

Most journey-to-crime studies are flawed in two ways: they predominantly rely on local police data and although a number of studies hint at the presence of substantially longer crime trips than commonly reported, long trips are deliberately removed from further analysis. Consequently, the scope of the conclusions of current journey-to-crime studies is limited to local offending and their empirical design is biased towards finding short trips. This paper substantiates the need for dedicated criminological research into long crime trips and provides an initial insight into journey-to-crime distances in the greater Ghent area, Belgium. By analyzing 5 year public prosecutor data on property crimes from the greater Ghent area, the length of the journey to crime and the number of long crime trips is assessed. Findings demonstrate a substantial amount of long crime trips with 35% of crime trips over 10 km. The criminological implications for future journey-to-crime research are discussed

Report on the Alternative Platform Observer Program in North Carolina: March 2006 to March 2007

In February 2006, an Alternative Platform Observer Program (APP) was implemented in North Carolina (NC) to observe commercial gillnet trips by small vessels [<24 ft (7.2 m)] in nearshore waters out to three nm (5.6 km). Efforts began with outreach to the fishing industry while simultaneously gathering information to be incorporated in a Database of Fishermen. From 30 March 2006 through 31 March 2007, 36 trips were observed. Observed trips of the NC nearshore gillnet fishery targeted seven species: kingfish (Menticirrhus spp.), Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus maculatus), spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias), spot (Leiostomus xanthurus), spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), striped bass (Morone saxatilis), and weakfish (Cynoscion regalis). Of the 36 trips, 20 (55.6%) were with vessels that were new to the Northeast Fisheries Observer Program (NEFOP), having never carried an observer. Based on the landings data for small vessels from North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries (NCDMF), the APP has achieved 10.1% coverage by number of trips and 4.0% by pounds landed. No incidental takes of bottlenose dolphins were observed by the APP, although bottlenose dolphins were sighted during 19 (52.8%) observed trips. The APP has drastically increased the number of observed trips of small vessels in the nearshore waters of NC. When combined with trips observed by NEFOP (n=205), the APP resulted in a 15.6% increase in the number of observed gillnet trips. (PDF contains 34 pages

Global regulation of international intellectual property through Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS): The European Union and Brazil

Purpose – This paper focuses on the regulation of copyrights at international level by comparing the situation under the TRIPS agreement in Brazil and in the European Union. Methodology/approach/design – This article analyses standards and literature on regulation, as well as the role of TRIPS agreement. Attention was specially drawn to the market failure theory for justifying regulation, advocated by Baldwin & Cave. The TRIPS agreement will be analysed through Baldwin’s five criteria for good regulation. Findings – The TRIPS agreement substantially widened the scope of governance of copyrights but imposes the WTO view on the matter. Notwithstanding its flaws, the TRIPS agreement remains the most comprehensive international agreement on intellectual property. According to Baldwin’s theory, the TRIPS agreement as a regulation is a good regulation. Indeed, it achieves the major part of the goals it set. However, some of the declared goals have never come to existence and had been replaced by other goals. On the overall, the TRIPS agreement has the capacity to regulate international intellectual property. Originality/value – This paper analyses the TRIPS agreement as a way forward in the harmonization of the rules on intellectual property

The impact of college student immersion service learning trips on coping with stress and vocational identity

This study examined the impact of service learning immersion trips on vocational identity and coping with stress among college students. Fifty-one students (15 males, 36 females) who participated in immersion trips and 76 students (25 males, 51 females) in a non-immersion control group completed a series of questionnaires directly before and immediately after both fall and spring break immersion trips, and during a four-month follow up. Results suggest that, after returning from an immersion trip, students report a greater ability to cope with stress and a somewhat stronger sense of vocational identity relative to students who do not participate in immersion trips

The Specification of the Planning Systems; Report of the 1993 Questionnaire Survey

This report describes a survey carried out as part of a research project undeaaken hy the Institute for Transport Studies and the School of Computer Studies at the University of Leeds, funded by the Science and Engineering Research Council. The project was concerned with the specification of trip planning systems, which are systems which provide information to travellers and potential travellers ahout all aspects of their journey, but in this case principally route and timetable information for public transport users and route information for car travellers before the journey is made. Previous evidence had suggested that travellers may make sub-optimal travel decisions, meaning that they may make longer, slower or more expensive journeys than necessary because of imperfect information. Other parts of the project addressed sub-optimality in the choice of mode and time of travel but a main objective of the survey described in this report was to examine sub-optimality of route choice separately for journeys with which respondents were familiar and journeys with which they were unfamiliar. Other objectives were concerned with the travel information currently used, or desired by, the respondents, who were randomly-selected travellers from the West Yorkshire town of Mirfield. Maps were widely used by car drivers - about one in five used them for familiar trips and ahout three quarters used them for unfamiliar trips. For public transport trips, timetables were used hy about half of the travellers making familiar trips and 95 per cent making unfamiliar trips. Information on delays would have been welcomed by both private and puhlic transport travellers: nearly three-quarters of familiar and unfamiliar car trips would have liked congestion information as would a significant minority of bus users. Most of all, public transport-users would have welcomed information on service delays and cancellations. It would seem that real-time information on delays would be a key feature of a successful trip planning system. The sub-optimality for car journeys averaged at 2.6 minutes per trip for familiar trips and 6 minutes per trip for unfamiliar trips. Sub-optimality was directly related to trip distance for familiar trips hut not for unfamiliar trips. This indicates a modest hut significant reduction in car journey times could be brought about by trip planning systems. Public transport trip sample sizes were too small to permit reliable estimates to be made of their sub-optimality

Cannabis Indica as a Motivation for Foreign Travel by Polish Citizens

Based on an anonymous on-line questionnaire survey, conducted among 1000 respondents, the authors present their demographic, socio-economic and spatial profile, their attitude to cannabis and the tourist trips they went on (scale, directions, destinations), involving cannabis consumption. Tourist trips of this kind were attractive to quite a large number of young people, mostly inhabiting large Polish cities, who usually had used and continued to use this drug. Trips inspired by cannabis were most often made to the nearby Czech Republic and Netherlands, as well as (less frequently) to Spain