Critical Legal Studies & the Politicization of Intellectual Property and Information Law
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Moot Court Room
April 7, 2013
Contemporary intellectual property and information law (IPIL) scholarship is increasingly postmodern and interdisciplinary. Themes that were originally associated with the critical legal studies (CLS) movement are now making a regular appearance in legal scholarship about privacy, access, fair use, the public domain, and other IPIL topics. For example, the conceptualization of identity and the “author” as social constructs, the rejection of traditional law and economics principles, the identification of interdeterminancy and paradox in information network organization, and the renewed emphasis on collectivity as a context for scholarship about commons management are all popular themes in recent IPIL scholarship that seem reminiscent of the CLS movement.
CLS scholarship, although wide-ranging in substance, can be characterized as sharing at least one common notion—that the predominant discourse of rights in legal academia is a misleading and politically motivated social construct that serves special interests and impedes the progress of justice. Similarly, an increasingly common point of departure for scholars, activists, and technologists is the recognition that IPIL norms function as a tool of social control by supporting institutions of hegemonic cultural dissemination.
>Why is the revival of CLS themes so apparent in IPIL scholarship as compared to other legal disciplines? Is it simply a manifestation of the significant cultural and historical nexus between IPIL and the humanities? Or is the re-emergence of these themes in IPIL scholarship politically motivated, as CLS scholars might posit?
Just as the first wave of CLS scholarship was associated with the civil rights movement, the re-emergence of CLS in the IPIL context seems closely aligned with a newly emerging form of technologically-inspired grassroots activism. Meanwhile, policy debates surrounding IPIL in Washington are increasingly politicized and subject to public participation. To what extent is the push for reform coincident or concurrent with emerging CLS themes in IPIL scholarship? Perhaps the goals of CLS are—intentionally or not—being realized in popular efforts to re-contextualize IPIL policy debates.
This symposium will focus on the following three themes: (1) the increased politicization of policy debates with respect to IP & information law; (2) the trending contemporary revival of CLS themes in IPIL scholarship, and (3) the emergence of tremendous public participation IPIL policy debates. The goal of this symposium is to discuss these topics in relation to various recent developments, some of which will surely proliferate between now and the day of the symposium.
PANEL I: CRITICAL LEGAL THEORY IN IP & INFO LAW SCHOLARSHIP, 2:15 PM
Barton Beebe, Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
Peter Goodrich, Professor of Law and Director of Law and Humanities, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Sonia Katyal, Joseph M. McLaughlin Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law
Rebecca Tushnet, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
PANEL II: CRITICAL LEGAL ACTIVISM & NETROOTS MOVEMENTS, 3:30 PM
Victoria Ekstrand, Assistant Professor, UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Brett Frischmann, Professor of Law and Director of the Intellectual Property and Information Law Program, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
John Tehranian, Irwin R. Buchalter Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School
Siva Vaidhyanathan, Robertson Professor in Media Studies and Chair of the Department of Media Studies, University of Virginia
PANEL III: POLITICS & THE PUBLIC IN IP AND INFO LAW POLICYMAKING, 4:45 PM<
Michael Burstein, Assistant Professor, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Derek Khanna, Visiting Fellow, Information Society Project at Yale Law School
Jessica Litman, John F. Nickoll Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
Sherwin Siy, Vice President of Legal Affairs, Public Knowledge
Rick Whitt, Vice President and Global Head of Public Policy and Government Relations, Motorola Mobility, Inc.