Transparency Soup: The ACTA Negotiating Process and ‘Black Box’ Lawmaking
American University International Law Review, 2011
Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP) Research Paper Series
27 Pages Posted: 21 Feb 2011 Last revised: 5 May 2012
Date Written: February 8, 2011
Abstract
The negotiations of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) have been marred by a level of attempted secrecy heretofore unseen in international intellectual property lawmaking. Simultaneously, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has been used in several significant national contexts to prevent the disclosure of data and information in ways that call into question its efficacy as an effective regulation of governmental knowledge. This paper seeks to tie together these two recent developments in order to (a) prevent future international intellectual property law negotiations from being unduly secret and (b) encourage Congress to consider reforming FOIA in light of current public expectations and technological capabilities for transparency and accountability.
Keywords: ACTA, BP, Corexit, TARP, Transparency, Accountability
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