Book Review: The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties: Authorship Appropriation and the Law
| DOI | 10.1177/096466390000900312 |
| Published date | 01 September 2000 |
| Author | Penny English |
| Date | 01 September 2000 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
intercourse without consent. We may cite cases like Malone (1998) Crim LR 834 in
which the Court of Appeal held that absence of consent need not be demonstrated to
establish the actus reus of rape and that there was no need for the prosecution to show
that the complainant had either said no or put up some form of physical resistance.
There is also the decision in Olugboja (1981) Cr App R 344 which has been acclaimed
by at least one scholar for leaving the issue of consent to be determined by the jury
on the facts. But are we really so much better off? By failing to provide a clear indi-
cation of what is meant by lack of consent, sexual acts obtained by abuse of trust or
coercion other than violence may well go unpunished.
Schulhofer discusses at length the extent to which the idea of sexual autonomy
should be protected by criminal law. He argues that American law has been most con-
cerned to promote the sexual autonomy of men by allowing them maximum freedom
to pursue sexual encounters without let or hindrance. Examining criminal laws in other
areas, he compares the extensive protection that is given to property rights which goes
far beyond the prohibition of forceful appropriations. He argues for the criminal law
to be used to deal with coercion and exploitation in a variety of situations in the sexual
sphere and that these should be spelt out in legislation. A model statute is provided. It
is hard to disagree with many of his proposals. One of these is that it should be a crime
for a foster parent, guardian or other person with supervisory or disciplinary authority
to have sexual intercourse with a person who is over 16 and under 18. Similar abuse of
trust provisions have been included in the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill of 1998
and are warmly to be welcomed. This is, in short, a thoughtful book which does not
flinch from a detailed discussion of the issues involved in moving rape law reform in
America and elsewhere into the next phase. It is a pity that it contains no bibliography
and that the referencing is not always adequate.
JENNIFER TEMKIN
School of Legal Studies, University of Sussex
ROSEMARY J. COOMBE, The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties: Authorship,
Appropriation and the Law. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1998, 456
pp., £13.50 (pbk)
The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties in its opening chapter plunges the reader
headfirst into the richly symbolic life of a street in Toronto, vibrant with culturally
significant images. Then, no sooner than the reader has acclimatised, the focus is
pulled sharply outwards and upwards from sidewalk reality to broad and global com-
plexities. The scene is set for an exciting, intellectually wide-ranging ‘venture in
largely unmapped territory’.
Coombe, in guiding the reader on a rollercoaster journey into the unknown, goes
a long way towards, if not drawing that map, to charting a route through some very
dense thickets of intellectual territory. Able to combine expertise as both intellectual
property lawyer and cultural anthropologist, Coombe makes the link between the sig-
nificance of signs and images in the contestation and creation of culture and the role
the law plays in this process through the legal ‘ownership’ of such signs as subjects of
intellectual property law. This combination makes for a potent mix.
This power sends the reader hurling rapidly through narrow gorges of finely
observed cases and examples, then out into the wide plains of political discourse
encompassing cultural texts, identity, community, democracy, nationality and differ-
ence. From Jell-O and the characters in Star Trek to the dialogics of postmodern poli-
tics, switching from the near to the global demands, energises and at the same time
462 SOCIAL & LEGAL STUDIES 9(3)
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