Materialities, Ontologies, and Science-Based Lawmaking? Revisiting the Interpretation of International Law on Plant Genetic Resources in Light of Legal, Posthuman, and Relational Perspectives

Walckiers, Pierre
(2025) BNJRIL General Assembly - Symposium — Location: VUB, Brussels (13.May.2025)

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This paper examines how scientific arguments are used in Public International law. Focusing on the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and current debates on Digital Sequence Information (DSI), it revisits the definitions of “genetic material” and “plant genetic resources” through the interpretative framework of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VC). The analysis shows how Western scientific reasoning has been instrumental in shaping a materialist and physicalist understanding of seeds—reducing them to biological matter or data objects—thereby excluding alternative epistemologies, such as Indigenous Knowledge Systems.
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Walckiers, P. (2025). Materialities, Ontologies, and Science-Based Lawmaking? Revisiting the Interpretation of International Law on Plant Genetic Resources in Light of Legal, Posthuman, and Relational Perspectives. BNJRIL General Assembly - Symposium, VUB, Brussels. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/260254