Tony Bennett, Differing diversities - Council of Europe

Reasearch position paper 5confronting these countries in modernising their societies. 1 In particular, theopportunities offered by potential membership in an enlarged European Union andeconomic participation in the WTO, have provided strong incentives for thesecountries to revise their legal regimes, with a view to meeting the regulatoryrequirements of these organisations. Both the European Union and the WTOrequire the adoption of intellectual property standards and practices which complywith their basic standards as a prerequisite to greater participation and economicexchange between West and East. As a result, many of the ex-socialist countries ofeastern Europe have sought the assistance of western experts to bring their intellectualproperty regimes into compliance with EU and WTO standards. 2The process of legal reform in eastern Europe has seen the modernisation ofsocialist intellectual property regimes which were often antiquated. However,the reform effort has arguably been dominated by commercial concerns at theexpense of cultural interests. A particular focus of reform has been on the problemof bringing eastern European societies, which appear to be quite resistant tointellectual property enforcement, into compliance with international standards. 3In this process, cultural concerns appear to be largely neglected. Most strikingly,reformers do not appear to consider the special difficulties confronting culture inthe post-socialist period, with its unprecedented economic and social adjustments,or the potential impact of westernised intellectual property standards onthe diverse cultures of eastern Europe, whether majority or minority. Legalreform has also failed to confront the fundamental problem of establishing anappropriate regulatory environment for cultural development – a pressing issuefor eastern European countries – which copyright law may be instrumental inachieving.While extensive, intellectual property scholarship in eastern European countriessuffers from the narrowness of focus which is characteristic of the reform effort atlarge, an important concern of scholarship should be to redress this imbalance ineastern European law reform affecting intellectual property. Scholars shouldaddress the special cultural concerns of eastern European countries and their culturalminorities, and examine the potential impact of the ongoing process of intellectualproperty reforms on these interests. They should also attempt to determinewhether the tools of copyright law can assist these countries with their culturalchallenges, and offer specific suggestions as to how the framework of westerncopyright law may be integrated into these diverse cultures. Finally, scholarsshould examine the developing opportunities for cultural exchange between easternEurope and other parts of the world, from which it has been politically isolatedfor decades, with a view to determining how intellectual property regulation mayfacilitate cultural exchange.__________1. See Lewinski, 1997; Dietz, 1996.2. For example, Lisle (1999: 226-237) examines American involvement in post-Communist law reformin Russia.3. See Broadbent and McMillian, 1998: 533-550, who discuss these problems particularly in relation toRussia.147