Seattle University Law and the Seattle Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild are hosting a one day conference dedicated to the commons! This is an unique event as it bring together both the commons movement in the copyright realm and the commons movement in the environmental realm to discuss the history and future of the commons and a legal systems that can protect or harms the commons.
In 2008, nations worldwide plundered their common wealth in an effort to bail out the prevailing economic order. It is a stark reminder that there could be other ways of doing things. It is an opportune time to reexamine the concept of the commons, perhaps as a parallel, if not an alternative to private property oriented social, political and legal systems:
The modern notion of the commons is fractured. It ranges from movements concerned with the private ownership of life, water, access to land and sea, to organic farming versus industrial agriculture, to economic and political localism to the legal enclosures of intellectual creativity. The various commons movements seem superficially to have little in common, but beneath the surface there are multiple and recurring points of intersection.
This seminar stitches together many different threads of the commons: the historical perspective in a contemporary context, creative and artistic commons, software and “intellectual property” including patenting of life forms, personal and political commons, natural resources, media and telecommunications commons. The seminar beckons to lawyers, professors and judges whose legal training is framed by property rights and human rights, computer geeks and “techies,” humanists, political activists, food activists, and creative communities of various stripes.
Law of the Commons Conference
Seattle University School of Law
1191 E. Columbia
Sullivan Hall, Corner of 12th at E. Columbia
Seattle, WA 98122-1090
Read more at the Commons Web Site
Click to download full Law of the Commons brochure (PDF)
Steve Reisler’s article “Teaching the Commons” in the Sping 2009 issue of Guild Practitioner. (Large PDF)
