Regime Interaction Between the WIPO and WTO TRIPS Agreement: Beyond the Debate of Institutional Fragmentation in International Law

Abstract

Regime interaction is still a legal black hole that has not been fully filled in international legal studies, while criticisms about its hegemonic and technical nature are also emerging. This paper examines the regime interaction between the WIPO and WTO TRIPS Agreement along with the debate of institutional fragmentation to illuminate their connotations. Through an interactional account on the evolution of and interaction between the WIPO and WTO TRIPS Agreement, the “law of universal gravitation” and the “structure of tensional integrity” are found among international regimes with respect to regime interaction and network. Regime interaction and institutional fragmentation are the ontological ethos of international law in this decentralized world society in response to diverse national interests of states in the making of international law and establishment of international regimes, and the WIPO and WTO TRIPS Agreement are good precedents for the interaction and evolution of international IP regimes. Moreover, regime interaction and institutional fragmentation are not merely about conflicts and managerial techniques in global governance, the ontological ethos of international law in this world society, but also the structural biases in international law and some fields of the international legal scholarship that is resultant of the exclusive and expansive Eurocentrism.