%0 Journal Article
%T Re-imagining Economic Alterity: A Feminist Critique of the Juridical Expansion of Bioproperty in the Monsanto Decision at the Supreme Court
%A Sean Robertson
%J University of Ottawa Law and Technology Journal
%D 2005
%I 
%X : In May 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its decision on Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser. Higher life forms, such as plants, are not patentable in Canada. However, this decision comforted the agricultural-biotechnology industry by providing protection for the use of patented genes and cells in higher life forms. Here, a farmer was found to have infringed Monsanto¡¯s property rights by sowing Monsanto seeds which voluntarily blew onto his farm. I pursue a discourse analysis of the sources of authority for this decision and related caselaw. Following the work of economic geographers Katherine Gibson and Julie Graham, I trace a feminist critique of globalization as a particular set of representations which have performative force: they not only describe globalization, but are also constitutive of it. By interrogating these narratives, I argue that the transnationalization of patent rights in the Monsanto decision is a particular instance where the global juridical order becomes palpable. In the affording of a de facto property interest in a higher organism, we may observe not simply another step in the commodification of farming, but also the lineaments of biopolitical sovereignty. = = = = R¨¦sum¨¦: En mai 2004, la Cour supr¨ºme du Canada rendait sa d¨¦cision dans l¡¯affaire Monsanto Canada Inc. c. Schmeiser. Les formes de vie sup¨¦rieure, telles que les plantes, ne sont pas brevetables au Canada. Cette d¨¦cision a toutefois rassur¨¦ l¡¯industrie de la biotechnologie agricole en pr¨¦voyant une protection relativement ¨¤ l¡¯utilisation des g¨¨nes et des cellules brevet¨¦s dans des formes de vie sup¨¦rieure. En l¡¯esp¨¨ce, la Cour a d¨¦clar¨¦ qu¡¯un agriculteur avait port¨¦ atteinte aux droits de propri¨¦t¨¦ de Monsanto en semant les graines Monsanto volontairement dispers¨¦es sur sa ferme. Je fais l¡¯analyse du discours v¨¦hicul¨¦ par les sources qui fondent cette d¨¦cision et la jurisprudence connexe. En m¡¯inspirant des travaux des g¨¦ographes ¨¦conomiques Katherine Gibson et Julie Graham, je trace une critique f¨¦ministe qui ¨¦nonce une s¨¦rie d¡¯observations de force performative sur la mondialisation, lesquelles non seulement d¨¦crivent la mondialisation, mais aussi ses ¨¦l¨¦ments constitutifs. Partant de ces propos, j¡¯argumente que la transnationalisation des droits de brevet dans l¡¯affaire Monsanto est un cas particulier o¨´ l¡¯ordre juridique mondial devient palpable. En reconnaissant un droit de propri¨¦t¨¦ de facto dans un organisme sup¨¦rieur, nous pouvons observer non seulement un nouveau pas vers la r¨¦ification de l¡¯agriculture, mais aussi les lin¨¦aments de la sou
%U http://www.uoltj.ca/articles/vol2.2/2005.2.2.uoltj.Robertson.227-253.pdf