The Global Political Economy of Intellectual Property Rights ─ The New Enclosures

The first edition established itself as one of the leading books to situate the issue of intellectual property within the discipline of International Political Economy (IPE). Since its publication, intellectual property has continued to rise up the global agenda, reflecting expanding interest in the area among policy-makers and advocacy groups, linked to the increasingly fraught politics of the global governance of IPRs.

Significantly revised and updated to take account of developments within the World Trade Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization, this edition incorporates the author’s recent research on IPRs. It retains the theoretical and analytical elements of the first edition, whilst offering students and researchers a detailed analysis of how intellectual property is politically constructed, and how it is linked to the economics of knowledge and information in the contemporary global political economy. Rapidly-developing issues addressed in the work include:



arguments around the implementation of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of IPRs (TRIPs)

the WIPO Development agenda and the ‘resistance’ to socialization programmes

the AIDS crisis and the pharmaceutical industry


Digital Rights Management


This book will be of interest to students and researchers of international political economy, international relations and intellectual property law.

Introduction 1. On Institutions and (Intellectual) Property 2. Developing Intellectual Property 3. The TRIPs Agreement and Beyond 4. Intellectual Property in the New Millennium 5. The Challenge of Openness? Conclusion: Reification, Hypocrisy and Political Economy