Dualist vs. Monist Approaches to Copyright within the European Union - an Obstacle to the Harmonization of Moral Rights?

Abstract

Copyright law is very much harmonized within the EU. One notable exception are moral rights. So far, these rights have not explicitly been regulated by the European Union. Up until today, the European Commission's public stance is that no harmonization is needed. In this paper, I will show that the Commission's position is not convincing and that the European Union is, in fact, regulating moral rights through the back door. I will argue that, in the long run, the EU will have to openly tackle this issue, and will delineate possible avenues for doing so.

Keywords: copyright, moral rights, harmonization, dualist theory, monist theory, European Union

JEL Classification: K29, K39