Beyond natural and (im)material. Interpreting the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture from Legal, Post-human, and Relational Perspectives.

Walckiers, Pierre
(2024) ESIL 2024 |Technological Change and International Law Agora 3. International Law, Technology and the Posthuman/More-than-human — Location: Vilnius (5.September.2024)

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In the context of technological revolutions in the bioeconomy and agri-food systems, scientific and industrial practices are increasingly utilizing genetic resources in their “dematerialized” forms, commonly referred to as Digital Sequence Information (DSI). This dematerialization impacts all international instruments governing access to genetic resources and the sharing of benefits. Analyzing the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), and while some states consider that plant genetic resources should only include material and tangible elements, this article will advocate for a positivist interpretation of the Treaty that includes DSI. This interpretation will be justified by complementarily mobilizing the methods of the Vienna Convention (analysis of the text, context, and the object and purpose of the Treaty), and will be supported by a post-human and relational approach to international law, recognizing the interconnected social, cultural, and informational dimensions of seeds.
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Walckiers, P. (2024). Beyond natural and (im)material. Interpreting the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture from Legal, Post-human, and Relational Perspectives. ESIL 2024 |Technological Change and International Law Agora 3. International Law, Technology and the Posthuman/More-than-human, Vilnius. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/233482