Traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and cannabis: an Indigenous rights-based access and benefit-sharing framework

Marcus Goffe

Chapter 12 in Intellectual Property and Cannabis, 2025, pp 232-269 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter examines the legal relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPs & LCs), traditional knowledge (TK), and cannabis, particularly in light of global cannabis decriminalisation. Indigenous communities, including the Rastafari, have long faced harm under prohibition, from persecution to environmental destruction. Decriminalisation and legalisation now offer opportunities for these communities to assert greater political, economic, and cultural self-determination. The chapter emphasises the need for legal frameworks that protect IPs & LCs’ rights over cannabis-related genetic resources (GRs), TK, and traditional cultural expressions (TCEs). Through the Rastafari case study, it explores the intersection of cannabis-related TK and TCEs with intellectual property (IP) law – trademarks, copyright, geographical indications (GIs), and plant breeders’ rights (PBRs). It advocates for a decolonial, reparative justice approach to redress historical harms. The chapter concludes by underscoring the necessity for sui generis GRs-TK-TCEs laws to prevent misappropriation and ensure fair benefit-sharing, and calls for international legal instruments, such as the 2024 WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, to be expanded. Only through these measures, within an access and benefit-sharing (ABS) framework, can Indigenous cannabis-related GRs, TK, and TCEs be properly protected and empowered.

Keywords: Traditional knowledge (TK); Traditional cultural expressions (TCE); Indigenous rights; Rastafari; Access and benefit-sharing (ABS) framework (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035329380
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035329397.00025 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:23166_13

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().