Copyright, Doctrine and Evidence-Based Reform
van Gompel
Stef
Copyright lawmaking is conventionally embedded in a doctrinal tradition that gives much consideration to coherence and formal consistency with legal-theoretical foundations. This contrasts discernibly with the recent trend to base copyright policies and their elaboration into effective legal norms on empirical evidence. Recognizing that both approaches have their relative strengths and weaknesses, this paper explores how evidence-based policy can be reconciled with the traditional doctrinal approach to copyright lawmaking. It suggests that unproven doctrinal constellations that unnecessarily focus the legislative intention unequally on protecting copyright holders should be removed, but that lawmakers at the same time should also not stare blindly on economic evidence if legitimate claims based on fairness rationales are put forward, which also have to be weighed in as evidence.
Copyright reform
doctrinal underpinnings
economic evidence
evidence-based policy
lawmaking approaches
340
periodical
academic journal
JIPITEC
8
4
2017
304
310
2190-3387
urn:nbn:de:0009-29-46384
http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0009-29-46384
van gompel2017