IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/cnpexx/v19y2014i3p359-383.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Geneva Rhetoric, National Reality: The Political Economy of Introducing Plant Breeders' Rights in Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Dwijen Rangnekar

Abstract

The article is about implementing obligations under Article 27.3(b) of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS). However, concerned with the fragmentation of international law in a globalised world, the article uses Kenya as a case study to interrogate the apparent choice and latitude in Article 27.3(b). At the TRIPS Council, Kenya has sought to locate Article 27.3(b) within a wider frame by adroitly norm-borrowing, and it canvassed for integrating norms and principles from other multilateral agreements into TRIPS. Yet, when introducing plant breeders' rights into domestic law, Kenya fails to either explore the apparent latitude or deliver on its rhetoric in Geneva. I explain this decoupling between Geneva rhetoric (ritual) and domestic law (behaviour) as another symptom of what Steinberg [(2002), 'In the Shadow of Law or Power? Consensus-Based Bargaining and Outcomes in the GATT/WTO', International Organization , 56 (2), pp. 339-74)] characterises as 'organised hypocrisy' of the World Trade Organisation. In demonstrating that fragmentation in global legal architecture may not automatically emerge in domestic law, the article draws out the significance of attending to a domestic political economy of law-making.

Suggested Citation

  • Dwijen Rangnekar, 2014. "Geneva Rhetoric, National Reality: The Political Economy of Introducing Plant Breeders' Rights in Kenya," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 359-383, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:cnpexx:v:19:y:2014:i:3:p:359-383
    DOI: 10.1080/13563467.2013.796445
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13563467.2013.796445
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13563467.2013.796445?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Minot, Nicholas & Ngigi, Margaret, 2004. "Are horticultural exports a replicable success story?: evidence from Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire," EPTD discussion papers 120, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Jaffee, S. & Srivastava, J., 1992. "Seed System Development; The Appropriate Roles of The Private and Public Sectors," World Bank - Discussion Papers 167, World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maertens, Miet & Swinnen, Johan F.M., 2009. "Trade, Standards, and Poverty: Evidence from Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 161-178, January.
    2. Tao Xiang & Jikun Huang & d’Artis Kancs & Scott Rozelle & Jo Swinnen, 2012. "Food Standards and Welfare: General Equilibrium Effects," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(2), pages 223-244, June.
    3. Mwangi, Joseph Kanyua & Crewett, Wibke, 2019. "The impact of irrigation on small-scale African indigenous vegetable growers’ market access in peri-urban Kenya," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 295-305.
    4. Eaton, Derek J.F. & Meijerink, Gerdien W. & Bijman, Jos & Belt, John, 2007. "Analysing the role of institutional arrangements: vegetable value chains in East Africa," 106th Seminar, October 25-27, 2007, Montpellier, France 7921, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Githiomi, Caroline & Muriithi, Beatrice & Irungu, Patrick & Mwungu, Chris M. & Diiro, Gracious & Affognon, Hippolyte & Mburu, John & Ekesi, Sunday, 2019. "Economic analysis of spillover effects of an integrated pest management (IPM) strategy for suppression of mango fruit fly in Kenya," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 121-132.
    6. Mejía, Gonzalo & García-Díaz, César, 2018. "Market-level effects of firm-level adaptation and intermediation in networked markets of fresh foods: A case study in Colombia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 132-142.
    7. Thiele, Graham, 1999. "Informal potato seed systems in the Andes: Why are they important and what should we do with them?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 83-99, January.
    8. Fredrick Ajwang & Saurabh Arora & Joanes Atela & Joel Onyango & Mohammad Kyari, 2023. "Enabling modernisation, marginalising alternatives? Kenya's agricultural policy and smallholders," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(1), pages 3-20, January.
    9. Rangnekar, Dwijen, 2000. "Plant breeding, biodiversity loss and intellectual property rights," Economics Discussion Papers 2000-5, School of Economics, Kingston University London.
    10. Maertens, Miet, 2006. "High-value supply chains, food standards and poor farmers in developing countries: the case of vegetable exports from Senegal," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21317, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    11. Moranga, Lawrence Ongwae & Otieno, David Jakinda & Oluoch-Kosura, Willis, 2016. "Analysis Of Factors Influencing Tomato Farmers’ Willingness To Adopt Innovative Timing Approaches For Management Of Climate Change Effects In Taita Taveta County, Kenya," Dissertations and Theses 269270, University of Nairobi, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    12. Stefan Ouma & Lindsay Whitfield, 2012. "The Making and Remaking of Agro-Industries in Africa," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(3), pages 301-307, September.
    13. Ola, Oreoluwa & Menapace, Luisa, 2020. "Smallholders' perceptions and preferences for market attributes promoting sustained participation in modern agricultural value chains," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    14. Shimon, Otieno Peter & Ogutu, Chris Ackello & Mburu, John & Nyikal, Rose Adhiambo, 2016. "The role of Global-GAP policy on smallholder French bean producers’ climate change perception in Central and Eastern regions of Kenya," 2016 Fifth International Conference, September 23-26, 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 249325, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    15. Eduardo Trigo & José Falck-Zepeda & César Falconi, 2010. "Biotecnología agropecuaria para el desarrollo en América Latina: Oportunidades y retos," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 40558, Inter-American Development Bank.
    16. Jodie-Anne Keane, 2012. "The Governance of Global Value Chains and the Effects of the Global Financial Crisis Transmitted to Producers in Africa and Asia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(6), pages 783-797, June.
    17. Surendran Arumugam & Ramu Govindasamy & James E. Simon & Emil Wyk & Burhan Ozkan, 2022. "Market outlet choices for African Indigenous Vegetables (AIVs): a socio-economic analysis of farmers in Zambia," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    18. Nicholas Minot & Loraine Ronchi, 2014. "Contract Farming," World Bank Publications - Reports 24249, The World Bank Group.
    19. Johan Swinnen, 2014. "Global Agricultural Value Chains, Standards, and Development," RSCAS Working Papers 2014/30, European University Institute.
    20. Maertens, Miet, 2006. "Trade, Food Standards and Poverty: The Case of High-Value Vegetable Exports from Senegal," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25614, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:cnpexx:v:19:y:2014:i:3:p:359-383. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/cnpe20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.