The Legal Aspect of Globalization
Faculty
K. Ishiguro
Description
This lecture has the sub-title of “The International Viewpoint on The Telecommunications
& Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)”, and focuses on the legal, political,
economic and technological aspects of the telecommunications, including
the Internet, and IPRs.The reason why these two areas are chosen for the
topic of the legal aspect of globalization is to highlight, on one hand,
the antagonism, on both the global and the domestic level, between the supply-side
voices and the demand-side ones, and, on the other hand, to show up the
real features of the international problems, often in a “hidden” form as
seen in the so-called NTT problems which are seen by most Japanese people,
including specialists in economics, as only domestic ones.
That the technological, or innovation aspect is the most important one is
the very prerequisite of this lecture.As seen in the U.S.-Japan trade friction
on the NTT which occurred over and over again almost always just after the
remarkable innovation and/or (international) standardization activities
of the NTT like FTTH (Fiber To The Home), 3G Mobile Communications (IMT-2000),
and even the IPv6 itself (!), the lack of technological viewpoints is the
roots of grave misunderstandings, as seen in the normal analysis of the
so-called neo-classical approach to economics.
Indeed, the systematic criticism against the neo-classical economics is
the core of this lecture.The IT (Information and Communications Technology)-driven
society must be established for the betterment of all people and for all
nations, though there are strong supply-side voices which only stick to
one-sided (further) liberalization of trade and investment, as clearly seen
in the collapsed OECD activities on MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investment)
and the present WTO regime.We must fight against such one-sided trends of
our real world, always keeping in mind the very notion of human dignity
and the real welfare of our own world.The rise and fall of the INTELSAT
regime, once established on the firm belief, of J.F. Kennedy, in the equality
of all people and all nations, and Iowa’s ICN (Iowa Communications Network)
which is often called as “ Field of Fiber”, and other examples of our real
world will be treated in this regard, e coin of the New Zealand's Experiments..
With regard to IPRs also, we can see the fundamental antagonism as stated
above.One-sided voices for strengthening the level of exclusive rights are
not sustainable.Curiously enough, however, we can find the fundamental lack
of economic analyses which cope with the real features of the above-mentioned
recent (one-sided) trend.In this regard, fundamental problems of the “distorted”
notion of fair competition, regulatory reform and/or deregulation, etc.,
will be treated in this lecture, referring also to other areas like aviation
services, insurance.