THE KNOWLEDGE TRUST: APPLYING THE PUBLIC TRUST DOCTRINE TO GLOBAL SCIENTIFIC AND HISTORICAL ARCHIVES FOR INTERGENERATIONA L EQUITY

Abstract

ABSTRACT:

The development of the Public Trust Doctrine is a major change in the world of legal philosophy as it moves from protecting physical natural resources to safeguarding a Knowledge Commons. Going back to the Roman law idea of res communes, this doctrine has generally claimed that some resources e.g. air, water, and sea are essential for human life so their preservation for public use must be a function of the state, and they cannot be privatized. However nowadays there is a new type of enclosure. The human mind and the overall scientific record are being locked up more and more, so the idea for a knowledge Trust emerges. This is based on the understanding that the international scientific and historical knowledge pool is a kind of res that the state, from both legal and ethical points of view, has to safeguard.

Intergenerational equity really lies at the core of the Knowledge Trust. According to this concept, the present generation is the trustee of what one may call the intellectual alphabet of humanity, having a responsibility to ensure that the basis for scientific advancement and the cultural identity should still be available to the coming generations. The Public Trust Doctrine, when extended to world-level archives, signifies a step towards legally acknowledging knowledge as a fixed resource that is indispensable for human life and development. The present paper claims that without such a legally protective environment, the privatization of human intellect will result in an irreversible depletion of the global commons, thereby damaging the very foundation of human progress and fairness.

KEYWORDS: Public Trust Doctrine, Knowledge Commons, Intergenerational Equity.