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39 Colum. J. Transnat'l L. 75 (2000-2001)
Toward an International Fair Use Doctrine

handle is hein.journals/cjtl39 and id is 83 raw text is: Toward an International Fair Use Doctrine
RUT OKEDIJI*
The   heightened     levels  of   intellectual  property
protection afforded by the Agreement on Trade
Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS) ostensibly mirror the strength of U.S.
intellectual property laws and reflect a national
commitment to secure global benefits of intellectual
property enforcement for U.S. domestic inventors and
creators. TRIPS and its progeny have lent legitimacy
to domestic aggrandizement of owners' rights as
witnessed recently by the domestic implementation of
the   WIPO     Copyright     Treaty   and    the   WIPO
Performances and Phonographs Treaty. International
treaties of this genre increasingly are the justification
for changes to domestic intellectual property law and
policy. Some of these changes dilute existing domestic
intellectual property policy and threaten specific
doctrines that have served to promote the U.S.
constitutional vision of 'progress in science and the
useful arts. In   this   Article,   Professor    Okedgi
examines the validity of U.S. arguments that the fair
use   doctrine    is   consistent   with    international
obligations, and concludes that U.S. trading partners
are correct to suggest that the fair use doctrine does
not survive TRIPS. She argues that certain principles
of public international law may imply that TRIPS
* Edith Gaylord Harper Presidential Professor of Law, University of Oklahoma
College of Law; S.J.D. Harvard, 1996; LL.M Harvard, 1991; LL.B Jos (Nigeria), 1989. I am
grateful to comments from participants at the Fifth Annual Lewis & Clark Forum, Intellectual
Property in the New Millenium: Keeping Pace with Change, October 1, 1999, where I
discussed my initial thoughts on this topic and to the University of Minnesota Law School
Faculty Works in Progress Seminar, October 12, 2000, where a draft of this article was
presented. I am grateful to William Alford, Larry Helfer, Peter Krug and Jerry Reichman,
who reviewed, discussed and/or made comments about specific issues raised in and by this
article; special thanks to David Lange and Pam Samuelson for generously sparing the time to
read the entire article and to provide much needed critique and useful comments; thanks to
David Jordan, Chris Kirt and Sally Garrison, who provided, as usual, invaluable research
assistance.

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