Interesting Reading: 19th Century’s Conference Culture and Belgium’s Soft Power
(This post continues a series where I share readings that I’ve found useful or, at the very least, intellectually stimulating. See here and here.) Salam/Namaskar The nineteenth century was somewhat a moment for international law. It was marked by a distinctive, I’d say, thought style in which organising international congresses to address perceived “social problems”…
New Paper: Indian Copyright Law in the Age of GenAI: Knowledge/Power, Patchwork, and Peril
Bonjour, Happy New Year! Hope you had a nice beginning of the year! I recently published an article in the Indian Journal of Law and Technology, co-authored with my good friend Luca Schirru. Apart from being a brilliant human being and an exceptionally kind soul (!), Luca is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Brazilian Institute…
A very Interesting 1992 piece called “Critical Perspectives on the History and Philosophy of Copyright” by RONALD V. BETTIG
I recently came across a fascinating work on the history and theory of copyright law titled Critical Perspectives on the History and Philosophy of Copyright by Ronald V. Bettig, published in 1992. It references some compelling historical studies related to copyright law and, more broadly, knowledge production. I will be discussing some of these in…
Epistemic Privilege: Handle With Care (Side Effects May Include Overthinking) (?)
This post is co-authored with Aditya Gupta, an enterprising IP scholar and a dear friend! Aditya is studying LLM at the American University Washington College of Law and is a recipient of the Arcadia Fellowship for 2025-26. He completed his law degree from NUSRL, Ranchi, in 2020. Salam Readers, We have recently been working on…
Oh, Time, Whither You?
A few months—or perhaps years—ago, I heard a story of a monk, perhaps in one of Osho’s talks, who had recently returned to my mind, making me wonder once again what time truly is, and how deeply it shapes our legal imagination. So the story goes like that: A Zen monk was working in the…
Mr PATAILLE’s Response to Victor Hugo’s “Domaine public payant” at the 1878 Paris Congress
Salam, In the previous posts, I shared the three speeches delivered by Victor Hugo at the 1878 Paris Conference. (See here: Speech one, two and three) However, there was also a cogent counterpoint to Hugo by Mr Pataille, an author and member of the Société des gens de lettres and its judicial council. As the…
Speech three: Victor Hugo’s Speech of June 25 1878 at Paris Congress
This is the third and final speech where Hugo advocates for the “paying public domain”. Speech no. 1 is here, and speech no.2 is here. Two points are particularly interesting in this speech. One, Hugo interestingly mentions two kinds of heirs to an author—one heir to blood, meaning the author’s immediate family, and the other…
Speech two: Victor Hugo’s Speech of 21 June 1878 at Paris Congess
This is the second speech delivered on 21st June 1878, in which Hugo explains his case for a system that focuses more on society and less on the heirs of authors. Though he finds the interest of heirs just as respectable and worth keeping in mind. Disclaimer – The following text is an English translation…
Speech One: Victor Hugo’s on 17 June 1878 at the Paris Conference
Bonjour, So, I was poring over the minutes of the 1878 Paris conference—the one that set the stage for the Berne Convention of 1886. And I chanced upon Victor Hugo’s first speech on 17th June 1878. He gave three speeches in total, contrary to what some believe to be two. Although I have seen some…
My reading of Locke and the Lockean Desert Theory of the Right to Exclude
In my reading of the Second Treatise’s property chapter, I do not find desert absent – that would overreach. Rather, I find desert claims functioning as morally appealing packaging for arguments with instrumental aims. These aims operate at two levels: (i) individual self-preservation in an emerging market society where social relations of production are driven…
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