An Islamic Vision of Intellectual Property

For over a century, intellectual property (IP) regimes have been justified using Western philosophical theories rooted in the idea that IP must reward talent and maximize global stocks of knowledge and cultural products. Reframing IP in a context of legal pluralism, Ezieddin Elmahjub brings an Islamic and comparative narrative to the appropriate design and scope of IP rights, and in doing so criticizes the dominance of Western influence on a global regime that impacts the ability of people to access medicine, to read, to imagine, and to reshape popular culture. The Islamic vision of IP, which is based on a broad theory of social justice, maintains that IP cannot simply be seen as a reward for effort or tool to maximize economic efficiency but as one legal right within a complicated distributive scheme affecting fundamental human rights, equal opportunities, and human capabilities.

• Proposes a new comparative theory of intellectual property (IP) that will attract the attention of readers who are uncomfortable with singular Western vision of IP
• Demonstrates how the Islamic vision of IP is fundamentally anchored in social justice and overlaps with comparative Western theories of social justice
• Provides enormous support to human development framework of IP, which will appeal to those critical of IP expansion and concerned about IP's impact on human development measures