Winner 2015: Niels van Dijk
The winner of the VWR-dissertation award 2015 is Niels van Dijk. He received the award for his thesis “Grounds of the immaterial: A transversal approach of legal philosophy in intellectual rights”.
In his dissertation van Dijk explores an ethnographic conflict-based approach to the notions of “idea”, “concept”, “invention” and “immateriality” in the legal regime of intellectual rights. This is achieved by turning to the sites of legal practice where these notions are used as legal concepts. The approach follows the legal proceedings of matters of dispute in patent, copyright and trademark law as they circulate throughout law firms and courts. Throughout these trajectories it maps all the typical legal techniques and operations like qualification; authorization and proof; the medial and material dimension of law; the relations between law & technology; and the practical philosophies of origination and identity & difference. The resulting cartography sheds light on how matters of dispute become gradually transformed into matters of fact and immaterial objects of intellectual rights. It hereby demonstrates what enables legal practitioners to render seemingly abstract philosophical notions workable as concrete performative legal concepts with important consequences. The insights acquired into law in action are subsequently mobilized in the analysis of several legal theories. The use of figures, concepts and points of view from legal practices within the discourse of legal philosophy, leads to a shift in existing theoretical constellations. A conflict-based approach hereby also provides a different way of thinking about the nature of law. The jury called the way Van Dijk elaborated this topic very original. In addition, the jury praised the ‘refressing relevance’ of the thesis and the used material.
Deze post is ook beschikbaar in: Dutch
Comments on this entry are closed.