Human Rights and the WTO

• Introduction


• 1: Background of the Debate


• 2: Patent Law


• 3: Access to Medicine as a Human Right


• 4: Conflict Between Patents and Access to Medicine


• 5: Access to Medicine as a Human Right in the WTO Order


• Annex 1: Summary of Arguments


• Annex 2: States and their Membership in Relevant Organizations and Agreements


• Annex 3: WTO Disputes on the TRIPS Agreement

Dr. Hestermeyer graduated from Münster University Law School (Germany), received an LL.M. from the University of California at Berkeley (USA) and a doctorate from Hamburg University's School of Law (Germany). He worked as a junior researcher at Heidelberg's Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public and Public International Law, clerked in Hamburg and worked as a trainee solicitor for the German Foreign Office as well as law firms in Hamburg, Madrid and Alicante. He returned to Heidelberg's Max Planck Institute as a research fellow in 2006. Dr. Hestermeyer is admitted to the New York State Bar, he is a former Fulbright Fellow, German National Merit Foundation Fellow and German National Merit Foundation Doctoral Fellow.

A prize-winning legal study...not only readable but also insightful and thought-provoking in its treatment of the conflict between patent law and access to medicines The Royal Institute of International Affairs 84:4 Hestermeyer has written a very good book for legal scholars and for those seeking to master the intricacies of this important area of international law and organization. World Trade Review This book is an excellent analysis of the issues which arise in considering access to medicines at the interface of four areas of law (human rights, trade, intellectual property and international law). Such studies often suffer due to the fact that the author is evidently an expert in one of the areas of law but not in the others. Hestermeyer, ...shows no such weakness European Human Rights Law Review [T]his work succeeds in adding substantially to the existing body of academic literature...it is a magnificently conducted academic exercise...Based upon a meticulous examination of case law and literature on the topic, the author...provides us with a very well-structured, logically sound and hence very persuasive argument in favour of his position. This volume is a must-read for anyone working on TRIPS, and even beyond this core interest group, any academic or practitioner interested in the interaction between different fields of international law will find this book a rewarding read. Freya Baetens, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol. 58, Issue 3, July 2009 Human rights and patent rights have become increasingly intertwined in discussions surrounding access to pharmaceutical drugs by citizens of developing countries...in his excellent book...Hestermeyer has tackled this complex and contentious conflict, disentangled it into its essential constituent parts, including patent law, human rights, and international trade under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime and its side-agreeemnt on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Proeprty (TRIPS), and then

A prize-winning legal study...not only readable but also insightful and thought-provoking in its treatment of the conflict between patent law and access to medicines The Royal Institute of International Affairs 84:4