William R. Cornish

The Origins and Structure of the TRIPS Agreement

The essays in this volume focus upon the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Agreement, which is an important element in the constitution and practice of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Known to all as the TRIPS Agreement, it reached its twentieth anniversary in operative effect on January 1, 2015. It is unlikely that the text of the TRIPS Agreement will be substantially amended by the Member states of the WTO for at least another decade or two. Our contributors therefore take its current terms as a continuing authority in international law for its immediate future. They do so, however, questioning how far the Agreement was adequate for its own time and how far it remains so in a world that has been changing so extraordinarily during the intervening 20 years and doubtless will continue to do so for the twenty to follow.