title: Concepts of proportionality in investment protection of patents and access to health resources

authors: Aydin, Dilara

subjects: patent

abstract: This thesis seeks to demonstrate why investment protection of patented health resources is disproportionate and how the disproportionate power can be mitigated. The argument asserts that the protection of patented health resources under international investment agreements (“IIAs”) goes beyond the intended purpose of intellectual property (“IP”) law and can hinder access to health resources. While IP rights are significant components of IIAs, their inclusion within the scope of investment allows investors to challenge measures against their IP rights through the investor-state dispute mechanism (“ISDS”). A measure can be subject to a review of arbitral tribunals even though such measure serves the public interest.

The ISDS system imposes an additional legal layer for states. Such layer can hinder the rights to have a healthy life, rights to life and living a life with dignity, conflicting states’ human rights obligations. Therefore, this thesis argues that investment protection disproportionately benefits the patent holders. Consequently, this thesis scrutinises how this disproportionate benefit can be mitigated. To this end, this thesis investigates case law in investment arbitration where arbitral tribunals have applied (ii)judicial proportionality to determine if judicial proportionality can mitigate the disproportionate protection of patented health resources as an investment. This thesis further reveals midlevel proportionality in newly concluded IIAs where the purpose is to restore disproportionate investment protection of patented health resources. This thesis presents the first comprehensive analysis on proportionality principle in the context of patent and international investment law.

text: Concepts of proportionality in investment protection of patents and access to health resources This thesis seeks to demonstrate why investment protection of patented health resources is disproportionate and how the disproportionate power can be mitigated. The argument asserts that the protection of patented health resources under international investment agreements (“IIAs”) goes beyond the intended purpose of intellectual property (“IP”) law and can hinder access to health resources. While IP rights are significant components of IIAs, their inclusion within the scope of investment allows investors to challenge measures against their IP rights through the investor-state dispute mechanism (“ISDS”). A measure can be subject to a review of arbitral tribunals even though such measure serves the public interest.

The ISDS system imposes an additional legal layer for states. Such layer can hinder the rights to have a healthy life, rights to life and living a life with dignity, conflicting states’ human rights obligations. Therefore, this thesis argues that investment protection disproportionately benefits the patent holders. Consequently, this thesis scrutinises how this disproportionate benefit can be mitigated. To this end, this thesis investigates case law in investment arbitration where arbitral tribunals have applied (ii)judicial proportionality to determine if judicial proportionality can mitigate the disproportionate protection of patented health resources as an investment. This thesis further reveals midlevel proportionality in newly concluded IIAs where the purpose is to restore disproportionate investment protection of patented health resources. This thesis presents the first comprehensive analysis on proportionality principle in the context of patent and international investment law.

year: 2024

title: "It was kind of awkward and kind of special all at once": Lesbians' experiences of conception, maternity and family spaces

authors: Melville, Lisa

subjects: Lesbian families

abstract: This thesis examines the decision making and experiences of lesbians creating families in and through spaces and places where heterosexual relationships are predominant. I explore the conception spaces of homes and fertility clinics, the maternity spaces of ante-natal classes and hospital wards, and the educational, legal and discursive spaces of family in Aotearoa New Zealand. I address how heteronormative understandings of family influence the ways in which lesbians create family and how lesbians disrupt heteronormative assumptions about family. 

This research responds to calls for more scholarship on: a broader range of mothers; lesbian mothering; queer family in Aotearoa New Zealand; conception practices; and the normalisation of sexual practices outside of heterosexuality. I draw on feminist and queer geographies to examine how meanings of spaces and bodies are fluid, mutually constituted, and contradictory. Qualitative methods were used to collect empirical evidence. I conducted semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 38 lesbians and developed online surveys to which 240 women responded. I used the concept of hegemonic heteronormativity to examine how normative understandings are expected and performed within conception, maternity, and family spaces. Many aspects of this research were awkward: conversations about insemination; talking with lesbians about sperm; the stories participants told about feeling awkward; and the unease in hearing these stories. The synergistic ways in which conception, maternity and family spaces and lesbian bodies create feelings of awkwardness is analysed through concepts of ‘space invaders’ (bodies being in the wrong place), the abject (a disgust of something which is considered neither one nor the other), and the act of queering (disturbing normative assumptions of bodies and spaces). 

There are three research findings based on the themes of: conception; pregnancy and birth; and being a lesbian mother. The first finding is that spaces of conception - such as homes and fertility clinics - are heteronormative, but these spaces also disturb procreational norms and binary understandings of ‘homely’ and ‘clinical’. Lesbians seeking pregnancy queer assumptions around fertility, conception and gender performance, creating awkward spaces where understandings can be renegotiated. Second, maternal bodies and places are also heteronormative, and there is a strong connection between pregnancy, heterosexuality, and mothering. Expectant lesbian mothers who are not pregnant often feel they do not fit in maternity spaces, as they are not regarded as a mother nor a father. The third finding shows discursive understandings of family consistently exclude lesbian mothers and their children. Deciding whether to come out or not is a normative everyday aspect of parenting, as is the awkwardness that is provoked through exposing heteronormative assumptions. Awkwardness also creates a space of possibility, where understandings of lesbian, mother, and family are expanded, and where laughter can encourage change.

text: "It was kind of awkward and kind of special all at once": Lesbians' experiences of conception, maternity and family spaces This thesis examines the decision making and experiences of lesbians creating families in and through spaces and places where heterosexual relationships are predominant. I explore the conception spaces of homes and fertility clinics, the maternity spaces of ante-natal classes and hospital wards, and the educational, legal and discursive spaces of family in Aotearoa New Zealand. I address how heteronormative understandings of family influence the ways in which lesbians create family and how lesbians disrupt heteronormative assumptions about family. 

This research responds to calls for more scholarship on: a broader range of mothers; lesbian mothering; queer family in Aotearoa New Zealand; conception practices; and the normalisation of sexual practices outside of heterosexuality. I draw on feminist and queer geographies to examine how meanings of spaces and bodies are fluid, mutually constituted, and contradictory. Qualitative methods were used to collect empirical evidence. I conducted semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 38 lesbians and developed online surveys to which 240 women responded. I used the concept of hegemonic heteronormativity to examine how normative understandings are expected and performed within conception, maternity, and family spaces. Many aspects of this research were awkward: conversations about insemination; talking with lesbians about sperm; the stories participants told about feeling awkward; and the unease in hearing these stories. The synergistic ways in which conception, maternity and family spaces and lesbian bodies create feelings of awkwardness is analysed through concepts of ‘space invaders’ (bodies being in the wrong place), the abject (a disgust of something which is considered neither one nor the other), and the act of queering (disturbing normative assumptions of bodies and spaces). 

There are three research findings based on the themes of: conception; pregnancy and birth; and being a lesbian mother. The first finding is that spaces of conception - such as homes and fertility clinics - are heteronormative, but these spaces also disturb procreational norms and binary understandings of ‘homely’ and ‘clinical’. Lesbians seeking pregnancy queer assumptions around fertility, conception and gender performance, creating awkward spaces where understandings can be renegotiated. Second, maternal bodies and places are also heteronormative, and there is a strong connection between pregnancy, heterosexuality, and mothering. Expectant lesbian mothers who are not pregnant often feel they do not fit in maternity spaces, as they are not regarded as a mother nor a father. The third finding shows discursive understandings of family consistently exclude lesbian mothers and their children. Deciding whether to come out or not is a normative everyday aspect of parenting, as is the awkwardness that is provoked through exposing heteronormative assumptions. Awkwardness also creates a space of possibility, where understandings of lesbian, mother, and family are expanded, and where laughter can encourage change.

year: 2021

title: Maumahara Papahou: A mobile augmented reality memory treasure box based on Māori mnemonic aids

authors: Taia, Ivy

subjects: computer science

abstract: He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.
What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a worldwide “silent epidemic” causing a variety of memory issues for those affected. Although several software approaches aim to aid memory recollection, they are inadequate for many TBI survivors and none address aspects of cultural awareness in New Zealand. We explored design concepts of traditional Mäori cultural artefacts and techniques and how they helped Mäori people recall past information. This paper describes our research and development of Maumahara Papahou, a mobile app that uses augmented reality features to create a digital memory treasure box based on the concepts of Mäori mnemonic aids.

text: Maumahara Papahou: A mobile augmented reality memory treasure box based on Māori mnemonic aids He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.
What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a worldwide “silent epidemic” causing a variety of memory issues for those affected. Although several software approaches aim to aid memory recollection, they are inadequate for many TBI survivors and none address aspects of cultural awareness in New Zealand. We explored design concepts of traditional Mäori cultural artefacts and techniques and how they helped Mäori people recall past information. This paper describes our research and development of Maumahara Papahou, a mobile app that uses augmented reality features to create a digital memory treasure box based on the concepts of Mäori mnemonic aids.

year: 2019