Acquis Communautaire+: The Copyright Aspects of the EU’s Free Trade Agreements

Abstract

The paper aims to introduce the types of and the trends related to the latest new generation free trade agreements (FTAs) of the European Union (EU). The paper introduces how the EU has constantly broadened the scope of the copyright chapters of the FTAs it signed with its global partners. The paper further argues that the main purpose of such regulations was to build a TRIPS+ or acquis communautaire+ copyright system within the frames of the FTAs. The paper also shows that the new generation trade agreements of the EU are contingently and adaptively refined, and they are asymmetric.

Keywords: European Union, New Generation FTAs, Copyright Law, TRIPS+, Acquis Communautaire+, Contingent and Adaptive Refining, Asymmetry

JEL Classification: L00, K11, K19, K33, K39, O34