[photopress:mgbeoji.jpg,thumb,alignright]Osgoode Hall Law School

Assistant Professor of Law
Osgoode Hall Law School
Tel: 416-650-8171
Fax: 416-736-5736
E-mail: imgbeoji@osgoode.yorku.ca

Research Interests
Professor Mgbeoji’s research interests encompass public international law and intellectual property law, with particular reference to the use of force in international relations. In addition he conducts research in the fields of international environmental law with an emphasis on the conservation of biological diversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits of indigenous people’s cultural knowledge.
He is currently exploring the linkages between intellectual property regimes, indigenous peoples, sustainable development and democratic governance within the context of North-South relations.

Selected Publications
(a) Forthcoming and in progress publications:
1. “The Colonial Origins of Intellectual Property Regimes in Africa,” in Handbook of International Law, edited by David Armstrong (Routledge Publishers, London, forthcoming)
2. “On the Shoulders of the “Other’ed”: Intellectual Property Rights in Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Persistence of Indigenous Peoples’ Texts and Inter-Texts in a Contextual World” in Toshi Kono, ed, Intangible Cultural Heritage and Intellectual Property: Communities, Cultural Diversity and Sustainable Development, (United Nations University Press, Forthcoming)
3. “Is the Devil in the Details? The Convention on Biological Diversity and the Antinomy Between Global Governance and State Sovereignty Over Plant Resources” (South African Journal of Law and Policy (forthcoming).
4. “Making Space for Grandma: The Emancipation of Traditional Knowledge and the Dominance of Western-Style Intellectual Property Rights Regimes” in Balakrishna Pisupati & Suneetha Subramanian, eds, Sectoral Linkages to Traditional Knowledge, (UNU Press, forthcoming)
5. The Common Heritage Concept And Legal Status of Plants In International Law
6. Death By Chocolate: International Law and The Role of Certification Marks
In Redressing Child Labour in Sub-Saharan Africa
7. Too Many Cooks Spoil The Broth: The Dangers of Regime Multiplication And Treaty Proliferation For Environmental Holism And Sustainable Development
8. Beyond Merry-Making: The Normative Character of Ceremonies in Traditional Igbo Societies
9. Biopiracy, Intellectual Property, And The Epistemic Revolution: Decolonizing The Status of Indigenous Peoples Knowledge In International Law
10.The Protection of Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge at International Law
11.Common Humanity, Divided Peoples: World Order and the (re)Definition of the Concept of ‘Threat to Peace’ in International Law
12.Canadian Law of Patents

(b) Authored Books:
1. Global Biopiracy: Patents, Plants, and Indigenous Knowledge (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005) 336 pages.
2. Collective Insecurity: The Liberian Crisis, Unilateralism, & Global Order (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2003) 200 pages.
3. Environmental Law in Developing Countries: Selected Issues [with Isabel Martinez, Wang Xi & Nazrul Islam] (Cambridge: IUCN, 2001) 167 pages.

(c) Edited Books:
1. Intellectual Property Rights in the 21st Century: Promises, Perils and Challenges [with Ljiljana Biukovic] (Vancouver: UBC Press, forthcoming)

(d) Chapters in Books:
1. “The Civilized Self and the Barbaric Other: Imperial Delusions of Order and the Challenges of Human Security” in R. Falk, B. Rajagopal & J. Stevens, eds, International Law and the Third World (Routledge-Cavendish, London/New York, 2008) 151-166.
2. “An Overview of African Indigenous Knowledge Systems and the Patent Regime” in Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Sustainable Development: Relevance For Africa” (edited by Emmanuel Boon and Luc Hens) Kre Publishers, Delhi, India (2007)
3. “Patent First, Litigate Later! The Scramble for Speculative and Overly Broad Genetic Patents: Implications for Access to Health Care and Biomedical Research” in Veena, (ed.,) Biotech Patent Law (The ICFAI University Press, Hyderabad, India, 2007)
4. “TRIPS and TRIPS Plus Impacts in Africa” in Daniel Gervais, ed., Strategies to Optimize Economic Development in a TRIPS Plus Era (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) 259-296.
5. “The Origin and Development of the Patent System” in Akira Iriye & Pierre-Yves Saunier, eds., The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History (London: Palgrave Macmillan Limited, 2007)
6. “Lost in Translation? The Rhetoric of Protecting Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge in International Law and the Omnipresent Reality of Biopiracy” in Peter Phillips & Chika Onwuekwe, eds., Accessing and Sharing the Benefits of the Genomics Revolution (Dordrecht: Kluwer/Springer Publishers, 2007)
7. “Environmental Law in Post-Colonial Societies: Aspirations, Achievements and Limitations” (with B. Richardson & F. Botchway) in B. Richardson & S. Wood, eds., Environmental Law for Sustainability (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2006) 413-444.
8. “Patents and Plant Resources-Related Knowledge: Towards a Regime of Communal Patents for Plant Resources-Related Knowledge” in Wang
Xi, et al, eds., Environmental Law in Developing Countries: Selected Issues (Cambridge: IUCN Press, 2001) 79-116.

(e) Articles in Scholarly Journals
1. “Adventitious Presence of Patented GMO’s on Private Premises: Is Intent Necessary for Actions in Infringement Against the Property Owner’? (2007) 4 Bulletin of Science, Technology, and Society 314-321.
2. “Talking Past Each Other: Genetic Testing and Indigenous Populations”, [2007] (April) ActionBioscience 1-10.
3. “The Civilised Self and the Barbaric Other: Imperial Delusions of Order and the Challenges of Human Security,” (2006) Vol. 27 # 5 Third World Quarterly 855-869.
4. “Beyond Patents: The Cultural of Native Healing and the Limitations of the Patent System as a Protective Mechanism for Indigenous on the Medicinal Uses of Plants” (2006) 5 [1] Canadian Journal of Law and Technology 1-12.
5. “The Bearded Bandit, The Outlaw Cop, and the Naked Emperor: Towards a Third World (de)Construction of the Contexts of International Law’s (dis)Engagement With Terrorism” (2005) 41 [1-2] Osgoode Hall Law Journal 105-135.
6. “Reluctant Warrior, Enthusiastic Peacekeeper: Domestic Legal Regulation of Canadian Participation in Armed Conflicts” (2005) 14:2 Constitutional Review 7-17.
7. “The Terminator Patent and Its Discontents: Rethinking the Normative Deficit in Utility Test of Modern Patent Law” (2004) 17 [1] St. Thomas Law Review 95-122.
8. “(Under)Mining the Seabed? Between the International Seabed Authority Mining Code and Sustainable Bioprospecting of Hydrothermal Vent Ecosystems in the Seabed Area: Taking Precaution Seriously” (2004) 18 Ocean Yearbook 413-452.
9. “Beyond Rhetoric: State Sovereignty, Common Concern, and the Inapplicability of the Common Heritage Concept to Plant Genetic Resources” (2003) 16 [4] Leiden Journal of International Law 821-837.
10.“Patent First, Litigate Later! The Scramble for Speculative and Overly Broad Genetic Patents: Implications for Access to Health Care and Biomedical Research” (2003) 2 [2] Canadian Journal for Law and Technology 83-98.
11.“The Juridical Origins of the International Patent System: Towards a Historiography of the Role of Patents in Industrialization” (2003) 5 Journal of the History of International Law 403-422.
12.“Prophylactic Use of Force in International Law: The Illegitimacy of Canada’s Participation in ‘Coalitions of the Willing’ Without United Nations’ Authorization and Parliamentary Sanction” (2003) 8 [2] Constitutional Review Studies 169-202.
13.“Patents and Traditional Knowledge of the Uses of Plants: Is a Communal Patent Regime Part of the Solution to the Scourge of Biopiracy?” (2001) 9 [1] Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 163-186.

Biography
Professor Mgbeoji joined Osgoode’s faculty in 2003. Prior to coming to Osgoode, Professor Mgbeoji was on faculty at the Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia. Prior to this he practiced law as the Head of the Patents and Trademarks Department at a law firm in Nigeria. At Dalhousie University, he was awarded the Governor-General of Canada’s Gold Medal for Highest Academic Standing at the Graduate Level as well as Best Doctoral Dissertation.

Professor Mgbeoji is a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law and is co-author of the book Environmental Law in Developing Countries (Bonn: IUCN, 2001) and Reconfiguring Collective Security: International Law and the Liberian Civil War (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2003).

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